Maldives 2004

Cold, wet and windy with diving blown out. Hot, sunny, 26 degrees, 25 metre viz. Same time of year. Brixham …. Maldives, Brixham ……. Maldives, Brixham …. Maldives. Tough choice!!

The group started their journey on Sunday 31 October. After receiving a phone call from the travel agent to advise that due to British Summer Time to Greenwich Mean Time the flight was brought forward, the holiday started sooner. Off to the airport - only to be delayed by two hours!

Ten and a half hours later, the ten of us arrive at Male, the main island in the Maldives in the Indian Ocean (just south of India). Interestingly, the airport is not on Male but a neighbouring island - just consisting of the airport. Male was a 10 minute boat trip away. We picked up our cases, through customs and deposited our cases with a boat courier (taking 5 hours to get to our destination in a Northern atoll). Onward to the other side of the tiny island to wait for the seaplane transfer (which would be a 35 minutes). Booked in and waited. And waited. And waited through a torrential down pour - nothing like it in the UK.

Four hours later, and after the rain had eased up, we boarded an 18 seater seaplane. First time for most of us, and an interesting experience! The Canadian Captain announced 'exits front and back, and you'll find the safety card in the back of the seat in front of you - we're off now'. Bit different from the video and air stewards hand gesticulations on the main flight! Ear plugs in, and we taxied out of the island and soon airborne. So easy, so smooth.

Flying, at not such a great altitude, we flew over many islands in the different atolls. Loads and loads of islands of differing sizes and shapes, some inhabited, many uninhabited. I subsequently found out that there are around 1,250 islands, 199 inhabited, 47 specifically for tourists. For an island to get the 'inhabited' status it must have a water supply (desalination plant), power and rubbish recycling.

After the droning of the engines for half an hour, we descended and landed on the sea ….. in the middle of nowhere … or rather by small wooden pontoon on a choppy sea (about a force 3). After 5 minutes we were asked to get out, just as a Dhoni (Indian boat) pulled up by the pontoon. Curious! On the boat, we all thought that was the last bit of the trip ……. But no. Another Dhoni moors up alongside us and we then changed boats. Curious 2! Then a 5 minute boat ride up to an island's jetty - here at last? We were greeted by a banner - Welcome to Komandoo', drums and a fruit cocktail - nice touch BUT ……….WRONG ISLAND!!

We were escorted to the bar (good move) - 'have a drink' said the representative. ' We need to get you to your island soon, but it was too rough for the seaplane to land at your island, so that's why you're here. A boat is coming to pick you up.' A few of the girlies headed straight out to paddle in the picturesque turquoise warm sea crossing the white powder sand, while the rest of the group slouched into the bamboo patio style chairs.

Sure enough, about an hour later, we were summoned out of the bar/sea and out to the jetty for yet another Dhoni boat ride. This was turning out to be quite an adventure. Onto the boat and off we set.

Another half hour later, and a bit of déjà vu - arrive at another island jetty, walking up to another welcoming banner 'Welcome to Kuredu', drums and a fruit cocktail. Right island - 23 hours from home - I did think that Australia was nearer!

The sun was out, it was hot, we were tired. Quick welcome from the island representative, allocated our Beach Villas and off to touch base camp, shower, (couldn't change - no case) and to dinner.
 

Nice villa - decking veranda, four walls with palm leaf roof. Inside bed, built-in wardrobes, table and chairs, kettle, air con and a ceiling paddle fan, and a CD player. Out the back of the villa - three foot depth tiled strip, the width of the villa, housing a WHB, WC and shower. Beyond the tiling was sand up to a boundary 6 foot wall. A corrugated roof covering the tiled area. The rest was open. So having a shower or going to the loo was 'al-fresco' looking up at the trees and stars!

Off to dinner, dressed in tee shirt and shorts - it was circa 20 degrees C - bliss in November! The one thing that was amazing was that very few people were wearing shoes. The are no paved or concreted or tarmac roads or paths. The bars had sandy floors as did the restaurant. These areas were literally a giant roof on thick poles with everything underneath. There were no walls as such (apart from a small 2 foot dwarf wall acting as the boundary of the places.

Our waiter, Ali, soon pushed a number of tables together for our party of 10 - and then scurried off to get our drinks. We went up to the area where the food was being served - self -service. The range and quantity was wide and catered for all needs (including vegetarians). Well impressed.
 

After a 3 course meal, wine, Brandy and coffee - to bed - fully stuffed and absolutely exhausted - what a long, but adventurous day!

Back at the Beach Villa, and about to get in bed …… and our cases arrive. Just in time - to get out the toothbrush and PJs.

After breakfast - again what a choice (cereal, bread/toast, croissants, bacon, grilled tomatoes, omelette, pancakes, curry!, beans, fruit) - we explored the island. You must realise that this didn't take long. The island is 1.5 km long (less than a mile) and 325 m at the widest point. The island isn't inhabited as such and purely geared up for tourism. The stsff live on site, but go home to their island or mainland periodically.
 

On the island, there was a small gift shop, water sports area, tiny jewellers, small gym and dance room, photographic shop (disposable cameras, film, film developing and transferring digital pictures to CD), a small dive retail shop, a large dive centre, (covering at least three times the area of all the other sites, mentioned) and a spa. In the centre of the island, there were 3 bars (beach, pool and restaurant) with 2 further bars at either end of the island (by mini golf course and by the water villas).

Around the island, there are essentially 4 types of accommodation - all villas - the older style at the back of the island (already described), newer style at the front of the island (more modern, double glazing - to keep the cold in, 4 poster bed), the new style with a jacuzzi, and new style on stilts at the back of the island incorporating one larger unit - the Honeymoon suite. About 300 villas in all.

Apart from diving, and visiting the spa (great massages!), there is a 6 hole golf course with your own caddy who'll put a bit of astro-turf under you ball to protect the grass! There is also windsurfing, kayaking, tennis, volleyball, a small games area for darts and table tennis by the bar. For non-divers, plenty of snorkelling. For other - the bars are open all day!

After we sorted out bearings out, we all met at the dive centre to register and sort out diving - afterall, that's what we came here for! We completed all the paperwork and were allocated hanging areas for our gear for the fortnight. Our first dive would be in the afternoon - a 'check-out' dive on the house reef with Rosa, a Spanish PADI Dive Master who spoke fluent English and was 'assigned' to us for the two weeks. It was emphasised that Maldavian law dictated that dives were for a maximum of 30m and for no more than 60 minutes. We ought to carry a delayed SMB (no reel) so if we drifted away from the boat, they would see an inflated SMB when we were back on the surface.

The first dive was okay. We wore our shorties and BC from the dive centre, walking up to a meeting covered area at the top of the jetty. Our tanks had been delivered there earlier. Put the tanks on, buddy check, jumped 6 feet into the clear warm (28 degrees) water and swam out on the surface to the marker buoy. We dropped down, then each of us had to do a mask clear. That done, off we went in our pairs.

The hard coral was bleached and broken up , quite sad really - remnants of El Nino 5 years ago which caused sea temperatures to rise by just 2 degrees, killing off the coral. However, there was an abundance of fish everywhere (made a striking difference from Cyprus last year) and soft corals were growing back.

After the dive, Rosa gave us the stamp of approval. She thought we were all fine especially our unqualified Ocean Diver. We were ready to book boat dives. So leaving the empty tank to be collected, set off to get change and start booking days for 2 tank boat diving.

So diving - well - a mixture of drop-offs and walls. Most were drift dives due to the currents around the islands in the atoll. The first week we were exposed to increasing currents for our drift dives - all leading up to the infamous Kuredo Express.

Our boat dives ranged from a dive at the back of the island (The Caves) when large Green Turtles hung out - the size of them - never seen anytime that big before 5 to 6 feet long, to an hour away where manta rays come to be cleaned - so graceful. The enthralling dive was the Kuredo Express.

The first time we dived this, the current wasn't exceptionally fierce, but it gave us the opportunity to see 8 to 10 reef sharks who circled us to check us out. These were around 2-3 metres long. Shortly after, a large Napoleon Wrasse swam by, followed by 9 others - fascinating - all in a line. However, the following week when we did this, the current was fierce and quite a challenge to keep straight. We just went with the flow - exhilarating! Got the tee shirt now to prove it!

The sea life was big and small - octopus, moray eels, lion fish, sweetlips, trigger (including the Titan trigger fish), shrimps, lobsters, groupers, angel fish, butterfly fish, anemone fish (we found Nemo and all his brothers and sisters too!) ………..

Some nice touches by Rosa - very chatty and helpful. Very interested in the diving and whetted our appetite. Tried to keep German divers away from us - so pushy and poor buoyancy. Put us on a boat of our own where possible, and in the final day left the dive location to us.

Back to dry land ……….. It was the festival of Ramadam, so our evening dinner was half our later to allow the islanders to eat (as it was dark by then) before us to make up for the fasting during daylight hours. One evening, we were treated to food sculptures made of hard butter, fat and chocolate. These were so realistic and authentic and the attention to detail was truly magnificent.

Ali, our waiter, was a Manchester United football fan - quite funny really. He knew who played that day/night, knew the scores and who scored. Home from home really. Ali also was good at remembering. Only after a few days he knew, without being prompted, who had what drink and served them up without us asking. One night, because he heard Dave and Janet talking about their anniversary, he prepared the table with a large table cloth and decorated it with flowers and 'happy anniversary' in berries on the table.

The holiday was 'all inclusive', so the only extras to pay for on the food and drinks front were named brands on spirits (free beer was either San Miguel or Tiger) or cocktails or water (if you wanted bottles to take away to your room, beach or on the boat). Biscuits and chocolate available in the shop, or snacks for during the day, although Jean and Nikki partook in ice cream or two. Towards the end of the holiday, we all indulged in cocktails - after all it was happy hour between 5.30 and 6.30pm with 2 for the price of 1.

Anything bought was 'purchased' by signing a docket and no one accepted money! It was all charged to your account to be settled at the end of the holiday - clever really, because you don't realise what you are spending.

Highlights? Well so many. We all got on exceptionally well, with the odd ups and downs, we all had a good laugh at ourselves and each other!

• Alan (he of 'brothers Grimm fame') known now as 'Arsy Alan' for mooning and getting a tad angry!

• Amanda treated her dirty washing with respect - after finding her special necklace in her smelly bits

• Susan known as 'motormouth' - someone shut her up please!

• Ian as Mr Grumpy - can't think why? What a pleasant chap!

•  Jean - just how many puddings can you fit on a plate

• Nikki - must have a choc fix, and 'hold it click got it, lets look at it now'

• Dave - 'hmmm, I'll let you know later Jan'

• Janet - 'how many weight watchers points is this' - 'I'll have another Brandy and diet coke'

• Mary - our PR buddy, talking to our foreign contingent " Rene - poor thing - had a terrible chest infection and couldn't dive the first week and a bit

Would we go back? Hmm, tricky! 26 degrees all year round, sunny, good diving, good viz even in plankton blooms, lots of marine life, relaxing, good food, 10% discount on diving next visit (and an extra 10% every subsequent year - so on visit 10, its free!), free nitrox, instructors get and additional 15% discount, nice chill relaxing holiday ……………………………….. got to think about it!

Starting to save now! Latest Hayes and Jarvis catalogue quoting same holiday in 2005 CHEAPER than this year!

Brixham …… Maldives, Brixham …… Maldives, Brixham ….. Maldives??????

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