Magical Maldives

Have you ever had the feeling, just before you set off, that your holiday is going to be an experience you'll never forget? This is the feeling I had, as we were about to embark on our trip to the Maldives. With the plane leaving at 7 p.m. in the evening, there was no chance of our oversleeping and missing the flight! We met up with everyone as scheduled, and check-in went without a hitch, even to the extent that we were able to check our bags all the way through to Mal? thus cutting down hassle considerably. The outward flights were uneventful and landed on time at Mal? A smooth transition by dhoni and we were aboard the Nasruali - our home for the next six days. We had been upgraded to her because of our large numbers and I for one was grateful. Our previous boat had been metal (an oven in the Maldives heat!), but this one was a beautiful wooden vessel, roomy and considerably cooler. She was also twice as fast, able to cruise at 14 knots, which greatly increased our range of sites. We were greeted by a smiling and friendly captain Ali and his crew, and were also introduced to our dive master, Hassan.

We made our first two dives that same day in South Mal?atoll, and boy, what a start we had to our diving. No more than ten minutes into our first dive, a pair of Mantas - the larger having a wingspan of about 4m - glided by. My buddy, Kathleen and I took off after them but soon had to give up the unequal struggle. Without even trying, they easily outpaced us and disappeared into the blue. By this time, the adrenaline was seriously pumping in everyone.

Then, miracle of miracles, the larger of the Mantas came back and swam close enough and long enough for some of us (including myself) to get some wonderful pictures! Then came the second dive. It started out as just a normal dive. The fish life was good but not particularly spectacular and then and boom! Towards the end of the dive, a huge shape materialised from the darkening sea. It turned out to be a 6' long, male Napoleon Wrasse. What an end to our first day!

Day Two started with an early (6:30 a.m.) dive, again in South Mal? On this dive, I managed to swim right into the middle of a school of Sharpfin Barracuda and was then sized up at very close range by 4 Chevrons who were swimming right in the centre. After surfacing due to running low on air, I found out that my buddy Kathleen and the dive master had found a shark cleaning station where they observed Grey Reef sharks hanging vertically in the water!

After the dive finished we weighed anchor and cruised off to Ari Atoll. Our first two dives in this atoll were uneventful, we saw plenty of reef fish on the first, and the second, on Halaveli Wreck, turned into a night dive. In fact, only my buddy Kathleen and I actually found the wreck as the current picked up extremely and ran too strongly for the others to locate it! Once there we saw Giant Trevally, 2 very large grouper and the largest parrotfish I have ever seen, sleeping in a crevice on the top of the wreck.

Day Three started off with a bang! As soon as we descended, we knew it was going to be good dive.

There were schools of Grunts, Jacks, two different types of tuna, and best of all, loads of Grey Reef sharks which came really close to us. Finally, on my safety stop, I saw and filmed my first octopus, inclusive of colour changes! The next dive saw me experiencing my very first strong current dive. Fighting hard against it, I managed to see some very large Garden Eels, a couple of White Tip Reef sharks and some Hawksbill Turtles. The third dive took us to Fish Head, another fantastic dive where I saw my first Eagle Ray, Grey Reef sharks that came even closer than before and a very friendly Napoleon Wrasse who, I understand, is used to being fed on boiled eggs by visiting divers! He actually rubbed himself up against my hand in a futile bid for food!

Day Four was another fantastic day's diving. We saw a group of 4 Eagle Rays performing a beautiful underwater ballet. On the same dive, I was quietly resting on a sandy sea bed trying to film some Bulldozer shrimps and their watchdog gobies, when I looked up and there coming straight at me, was a huge Bull Ray! I just managed to get my camera into position in time and consequently got some marvellous close-up footage. On the next dive, we encountered a solitary Great Barracuda, another Bull Ray, a White Tip Reef shark and a 4' Napoleon Wrasse.

Day Five brought us to our final day's diving. The first dive of the day saw us surrounded by literally thousands of Blue-lined Snapper, and swimming above them, a school of Blue Fin Trevally. The occasional Dogtooth Tuna buzzed us and I also caught sight of a Mantis Shrimp. The funniest sight of this holiday came when I saw a golden trumpetfish trying to imitate a remora and hitching a ride on the back of a grouper! Our final dive saw Calvin witnessing his first Whale Shark! An experience I was not fortunate enough to share, as I happened to be many metres ahead of him. In fact, only four of our group of 18 divers actually did see it. The rest of us are waiting for the photographic proof!

Our final day saw us cruising back to Mal?under beautiful clear blue skies. All of us were feeling relaxed, tanned and contented. The holiday had been perfect, except for a few minor mishaps, such as Nigel Dearden scratching himself on coral and getting stung by a Lionfish, and a storm blowing in one night that led to Calvin's razor getting swamped and my bikini and leggings disappearing overboard, never to be seen again!

The only hiccup we experienced was on the return journey. Air Lanka had over confirmed its bookings and there was no room for us! We had to fly back on the red eye Singapore Airlines flight. This was not really so much of a problem, as Singapore Airlines was much more comfortable than Air Lanka.

Throughout the trip, dive master Hassan, Captain Ali and his crew were always friendly, helpful and sunny. In fact, Hassan and Assud, one of the crewmembers, put themselves out for me on the very first day. After my first dive, I found out that the stabilising peg on the plate that my camera attached to had disappeared and as a consequence, the camera was swinging around inside the housing as I filmed. Hassan and Assud rummaged through their toolbox until they found a screw that was approximately the right diameter. They then set about cutting it down to the correct size and running some insulation tape around it so that it would fit snugly into the holes provided in the plate and camera. This took them quite some time to do. On another occasion, we dropped anchor at a picturesque desert island, and whilst we were out on our final dive of the day, Ali and his crew set about preparing a barbecue supper on the island. They went to great trouble to do this, even down to sculpting a whale shark into the sand to act as our table! I would recommend the boat, its crew and our dive master to anyone wishing to dive in the Maldives.

I am thinking of organising another trip to the Maldives next year, hopefully with the same boat and dive master.

Anyone interested?