The Maldives - April 2008
A group of 16 WSAC members and associates headed to the Maldives in April 2008. The trip consisted of a 7d cruise on the Rainbow Runner followed by 5d on Asdu Sun Island, North Male Atoll. As Mike's bag was left in Manchester the cruise itinerary was delayed by a day, and strong winds meant that the trip was amended, we cruised N and S Male and Felidhe Atolls instead of N and S Ari Atoll. The Rainbow Runner is spacious with ensuite cabins, a large lounge and plenty of sun and shade deck areas, although it could do with a bit of a refresh. All the dive kit was kept on the diving Dohni which followed the boat throughout the trip.
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Diving commenced off N Male Atoll at Velassaru, with great views of a couple of eagle rays, cruising past. This was a good start to a holiday full of close ups of amazing marine life. Regarding the "big stuff" on most dives we were lucky enough to see sharks, mainly white tip reef sharks but also grey and black tips. We were woken at 5 am for the into the blue hammerhead dive. Some of us were lucky enough to see the single hammerhead cruising close to the reef. On other dives mantas and sting rays were spotted. The smaller marine life was amazing with many types of fish, invertebrates and varieties of coral, which kept the marine life book group happy for many hours. The water temperatures were balmy with the majority opting for no wetsuits. Channel dives were often the norm with quite strong currents in places and couple of night dives were carried out, on one of which our lights were swarmed by krill.
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The boat crew and chef were great, and really went out of their way to make us welcome. They planned a torch lit island BBQ with whale shark design in the sand, and on the last night a flower decorated dinner on the boat. We were sad to say goodbye.
After 7d on the boat we headed to Asdu Sun Island for a 5 d stay. This is one of the few "underdeveloped" islands left in the Maldives with simple rooms with no air conditioning and just an open bar and dining room. It is small, you can kayak around it in about 25 minutes, and has a very relaxed vibe, with mainly Italian guests. There is a small dive centre on the island with boat dives available morning and afternoon but also a good house reef with a lot of marine life. The sandy shores of the island also made a perfect nursery for a lot of juvenilles, one area had six young sharks regularly visiting and juvenille batfish, lionfish and others were also spotted.
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We ended the holiday with a mixture of boat and shore diving and saw lots more sensational underwater scenes such as two dancing octopus and two turtles arguing. The nudibranchs were pretty amazing as well. Thanks to Mike for organising another fantastic trip, before we left we were already discussing when to go back.
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