Diving in the Maldives

The first impressions of Maldives are made from the flight while landing. A group of islands that are clearly visible as the plane descends. The tiny archipelago is sustained on tourism alone and most locals are courteous while things move quite fast. We had booked a ferry to Mathiveri about a couple of hours after scheduled landing but we were out in half an hour. The island of Malé has numerous constructions ongoing to house its dense population. All items need to be imported as the tiny islands are not capable of sustained industry. Main mode of commute across islands is ferries, and while ferries to the airport from Malé are frequent, the other trips would have to be planned in advance.

The boat service company (Atoll) had already gotten someone to receive us there and get us to the ferry. A long and bumpy boat ride later, we got to Mathiveri with the sun just setting. Mathiveri is a lazy island with one football ground where the action occurs. The scuba, snorkeling and other water sports are there as options but this is an island mostly to relax. Came across a couple of sharks, moray eels and turtles while diving but we spent most of our time lazing on the beaches watching sunrise and sunset.

 

Going to Thulsdoo required a ferry to Malé and then one to the island. We got there and realized, our rooms were booked on a nearby island and there were no ferries to take us there. So, we got another room in Thulsdoo found the pool at the terrace and the open ocean in front for a few swims. Cut short the ocean swim when I found a lionfish very close to the shore and probably almost stepped on a sea snake. The next morning as we waited for our ferry after breakfast, we saw a large school of dolphins pass by at just a few hundred meters from the shore.
 

The last stop on our trip was Mafushi. We were going to spend only an afternoon there, but the first dive was so much fun, that we decided to cut time in
Malé and postponed our boat by 12 hours to do two more dives and a snorkeling trip. The dives had multiple moray eels, turtles, black tip and white tip reef sharks, manta rays and eagle rays. While getting surface time between the dives, manage to snorkel with 3 mantas which kept circling me very closely. Unfortunately, dropped the camera out in the ocean as I climbed back after the second dive and lost all photos of the day. The afternoon snorkeling trip was much better with 7-8 turtles, a moray eel and some stormy seas to end the incredible trip. 

 

Below the seas - Around Havelock

Corals at Sebastian hill

MV Mars

 The main purpose of my trip was to learn scuba diving. After half a day of theory and a lot of shallow water practice, on the third day was my first dive. The boat trip to the dive site was a really long one. After taking some time to adjust on the first dive, I was finally getting comfortable handling the scuba gear. The first dive was to a wreck (Inket wreck) of an inter-island cargo vessel which struck the bottom and sank. Saw a stonefish, and groupers but the main attraction were the huge propellers.The second dive was nearby at whitehouse rock with loads of corals and fish life.

Jellyfish

The next 2 dives on the following day were again on the same lines at MV Mars (a smaller fishing boat wreck) and the wall (one of my favorite dive-sites). Both these places had abundant fish life and the wall has a lot of variety. I did dive again at the wall on my night dive a day later and saw things completely different. Interesting sights were batfish at the wreck and crocodilefish and schools of giant trevally at the wall. On my night dive at the wall was a different experience. We saw siltfaced and giant puffers, clearfin lionfish and of course the plankton glowing in the dark. The night dive is a totally different experience following a small torchlight 18m undersea in complete darkness. Would like to do that again.

The next 2 dives were the starting of my advanced open water at Dixon's pinnacle. Lots of jellyfish, barracuda, shrimps, snappers and even a lobster were seen on the dive. Part of the dive was looking at colors underwater. With the water absorbing colors, a tomato looked like a potato there. Also had some fun when someone broke an egg at 30m below sea level. The yolk can be safely juggled under water. The depth however does affect the visibility and things look quite different.

Kuhl's Stingray

Wrapped up my course with a couple of dives at Johnny's gorge. A rock outcrop surrounded by sand all around, it supports a lot of activity. With stronger currents, these were much more tiring but did manage to see a giant moray eel, barracudas, bannerfish and a sea turtle. Couple of other divers even saw a shark but it was gone by the time we got there. Again one of my favorite dive sites.

Octopus

The final 2 dives, based on everyone else's opinion was at South Button island and nearby Sebastian hill. Since it was a fun dive, there were no skills to practice and this gave me about an hour at 17m in both places. Saw atleast 6 octopuses on both dives and a Kuhl's stingray on the first dive. Other wildlife at Sebastian hill included some pipefish, shrimps, sweetlips ad snappers. Also saw a siltface puffer on the first dive. Now with 11 dives done I would like to add more soon. As a final icing on the cake, on the way back from South Button, while lazing on the boat, we also saw dolphins swimming around the boat.