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Having
spent three weeks in the Maldives last August I was particularly
interested to read Mark Webster's account
in December's issue of IN FOCUS of his trip there earlier
in the year. Herewith another, and rather different, view.
We
too arrived at Villi Varu, though sadly with only our hand
baggage - but that's another story. Undeterred we went in
search of the Water Sports Centre only to find it closed.
We were advised that the diving leader was stuck in Male with
boat troubles but that his deputy on Bi-ya-Doo island half
a mile away would be over the next day to look after us. He
did come over three days later after some fairly strenuous
complaints to the hotel manager.
The
'deputy' recommended we should not use the centre's ABLJ bottles
as they were so rusty; we did eventually find a couple of
D.V.s that did not leak too badly. There were no wet suits
for hire. It's interesting that there are many more plants
and animals that sting and cause skin problems in the Maldives
than there ever are in the Red Sea. I would say that a wet
suit was pretty essential, particularly for photographers.
Unlike
Mark, we were lucky enough to be warned off the boat diving,
in our case though, because of the deputy's' almost total
incompetence, We found the house reefs around the island very
battered -and to think we used to grumble about Ras-um-Sid.
Perhaps
saddest of all was how disappointing the visibility was. Our
initial reaction was that this was because being close to
shore and over sand with a fair degree of tidal action, it
was to be expected. As Mark says the drop-offs were certainly
minis.
Our
second and third week were spent on Baros in the North Atoll.
Here we met Sepp Zedelmayer. What a contrast - thank goodness.
Sepp is highly competent and runs a tight ship. Whilst a proficient
photographer he was, unlike our friend the 'deputy', rarely
seen in the water with a camera when leading a dive. He also
went to a lot of trouble too, to help camera buffs often putting
them in first and leading them to particular spots. He was
also kind enough in view of my particular problems, to lend
his cameras and flashes.
Again
the home reefs were battered, with a noticeable lack of soft
corals. The only time we encountered the standard of visibility
one takes for granted in the Red Sea was when diving on the
edge of the main atoll at places like Vadu channel. Even on
boat dives, away from the island but within the atoll, the
water clarity was disappointing.
There
can be little doubt that it's essential to do most of one's
diving from the boats particularly if you want to be sure
of seeing sharks turtles and mantas. We found that this bought
the unit cost of our dives to over £12.00 as the hotel
want their cut for the use of the boats. |
