Well, Saturday here in the Maldives I was up bright and early for my morning, 2-tank diving adventure. I decided to rent a camera in the hopes of catching a whale shark on film. As you might have guessed based upon the title of this post, day 1 the elusive buggers stayed away. The diving here however is fantastic. Unfortunately, the tsunami of 2004 that struck the Indian Ocean damaged almost 100% of the coral reefs. The amazing thing, minus the broken coral that litters the sandy bottom of the ocean, it is hard to tell! So cool to see how nature can rebuild itself after such a catastrophic event. As I stated earlier, my diving was through a company called the Euro Divers. Here is a shot of the dive center:
So, this is where I started every dive. We got our gear and hopped on the boat for our ride to the first site:
So, my first dive was at a site called Huddu Thila. We had planned to go to a different site but the current was too strong. Every dive the dive masters check the currents before we jump in. Huddu Thila was considered a medium current and was still pretty strong. We eventually aborted our planned trip around the one side of the reef and went with the current towards the back side. It was still an amazing dive. Great corals along the reef or Thila as they call it here in the Maldives. I saw white tip reef sharks, sting rays and countless fish. I have my photos from the whole day awaiting my viewing on CD. So, all in all a great first dive, but no whale sharks to be seen. Traveling to the second site, I made friends with three chaps from France. They introduced me to a Hungarian dice game that they didn't even know the name of. Basically, it is like another version of Yahtzee with very different rules. Here's a pic of me playing with Jonathan, Vivian, and Fabrice:
You can see the scoring sheet on the left. It passed the time between dives brilliantly! On our way to the second site, we caught sight of a manta ray swimming near the surface. These pics don't do it justice but it was very cool to see. Luckily it wasn't my last encounter!
The first pic is a decent one where you can make out the "wings" that manta rays are so famous for. The second dive was at a place called Digurah Thila. As always, the second dive is shallower and provides the chance for more sunlight to allow you to see all the great sights. Very fun, easy dive as the current was almost non-existent and the reef was buzzing with life.
After coming back, I had a nice sandwich of local grouper fare and then headed back for my afternoon dive. Alas, no dice this ride as my French buddies skipped the afternoon dive. The second was at a place called Arches. Can you guess what Arches is famous for? A lot of arched coral formations many of which you can swim through. VERY cool dive. Once again, no whale sharks as we were closer into the atoll and at a shallower site. So that was day 1 of diving. Great stuff as we headed back to the resort:
Day 2 coming up, and thankfully my luck was about to change...
~ Rich
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