Advertisement
Published: January 15th 2014
Edit Blog Post
Good evening from Maafushivaru... formerly known as the Twin Island and located in the South Ari Atoll, 90kms south of Male - the capital of the Maldives - slap bang in the middle of the Indian Ocean. I have been back in the Maldives for nearly two weeks and although wasn't sure if a second season was going to be the right thing to do, as soon as I landed and felt the sun on my face and the white sand between my toes - I knew I had made the right choice.
It was great to leave the chilly miserable weather back in the UK and head to the tropical paradise that is to be my home for the next 3 months - this island may be small but it's full of character and characters... and over the next few months I will be telling you all about them!
So, when I first landed I spent a couple of days in crazy Male catching up with the fab team out here before taking my first ever flight on a sea plane... As some of you who know me may know, me and flying are not usually a
good combination... It makes me nervous and at times can turn me into a snivelling wreck, imagine then how excited, actually no scrap that... imagine how terrified I was to find that my only means of reaching Maafushivaru was by sea plane - a tiny, 18 seater twin prop plane that takes off from and lands on the water! Scarybananas.com - Well, I never ever thought I would be saying this but I LOVED IT!!
I'll tell you how calm I was... I took photos - even the other passengers weren't doing that... Go me!
It is very bizarre though to have the pilot swing round in his seat and give the safety briefing... Which basically consists of 'Hi Guys, welcome aboard for your 25 minute flight to Maafushivaru, please keep your seat belts fastened, emergency exits are in the front here and in row two, there is also the door you came in by at the back. No smoking allowed and enjoy the ride! Oh, life jackets are under the seats!' It was amazing taking off on water and landing was so cool - best part though is when you step off the plane onto a floating
pontoon in the middle of the ocean and the pilot is stood next to you in his flip flops... too funny! Then a Dhoni boat comes to pick you up and take you to the island.
We are very lucky on Maafushivaru as we have a private uninhabited island a short boat trip away called Lonubo which can be visited any time to get a real Robinson Crusoe thing going on... Lovely beaches and great snorkelling - I am hoping my snorkelling efforts will improve dramatically from last year although 2 weeks in and I haven't even got my big toe wet... Although I have managed to make a bit of a mess of it by stubbing it getting on the boat in the dark a few days ago... you know how when a bit of you hurts... like really hurts so you grab it in a vice like grip - well I did this with my big toe - no problem, except once I let go the blood started oozing out, anyway it's still a bit tender and it is a bit yukky looking but it's still attached to my foot and it's not broken :-)
My room on the island is lovely and I was very pleased to discover I had acquired a pet... a little baby gecko who I named Gordon, he was sooooo cute less than 2" long - you'll notice the past tense of WAS so cute - he's disappeared - I think he's bailed on me already, I'm hoping he'll come back though.
The food on Maafushivaaru is fab too - not a chance of me losing any kilos - the breakfast pancakes with orange butter are just too good to be true and the hot chocolate pudding is out of this world - real melt in the mouth stuff - mmmmmm
A big difference I've noticed from last winter is that the mosquitoes are leaving me alone... I have only had a handful of bites compared to the vast amounts I had last year - this I am very pleased about and hope it continues! We have a few fruit bats on the island and they're great to watch but in this part of the Maldives it's all about the Manta Rays, the Whale Sharks and the turtles - I've seen one turtle already but apparently there
are a gang of four that reside on our islands' house reef - I definitely need to get my snorkelling confidence back and get in that beautiful clear blue lagoon than encircles Maafushivaru. We are also very lucky to have a resident marine biologist which is fantastic - I think I should ask him what the collective noun is for turtles as I'm sure it's not gang and gang tends to sound a bit thuggish... the information divulged by him really encourages everyone to be more eco-friendly and I am now educated in how to identify different turtles and Manta Rays - so I will return home in a few months a very educated and accomplished (I hope) snorkeler :-)
I have made friends with a couple of Italian chicks who also work on the island, Sara and Anna - from here on in they will be known as the Mafiose - which I understand from them is the correct terminology for more than one female mafiosa... Hmmm they could be teasing me, anyway we have a trade off, they help me with my Italian and I help them with their English, it's a win win situation - apparently later this week the Mafiose and myself are taking one of the pedalos over to Lonubo - it seems the regular, free boat service is for wimps - that should be interesting so watch out for details in the next blog...
So this is about all for now - hopefully by the time I write my next blog I will have at least been in the water and will have lots of sightings of marine life to tell you about... please don't forget to share the blog around and leave me a comment... In the meantime all you ski bunnies take care on the slopes and if you're sat in the cold damp UK check out the Maafushivaru web site for some winter sunshine :-)
Stay safe and happy travelling
Love Tallulah x
Advertisement
Tot: 0.141s; Tpl: 0.022s; cc: 9; qc: 50; dbt: 0.0708s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.1mb
ursula
non-member comment
So Jealous!!
hey chick.. I'm soooo jealous would love to get out of here.. what are u actually doing out there? xx