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Published: June 17th 2008
Turtle dive! Last night before we headed to bed, we asked our rep when she thought we would be heading out to turtle point to see the turtles and mantas. She thought today, and so told us to meet at 10am at the panorama jetty. Dutifully we were there, after a quick healthy breakfast of papaya and pineapple. We did grab a pasty as we left though, but really you need one those fatty things to give you good buoyancy in the water! That’s my excuse anyway. At the pier we discovered there were 14 others coming with us. What a shame! Particularly as there were a couple of yobs joining us.
The boat ride would take an hour, passing several deserted atolls and sandbars along the way but this time we didn’t have any dolphins keeping us company. With the loutish behaviour going on, we decided the yobs were suffering from ADD, as they were loud, rambunctious and very irritating. You could see the others were not impressed with their loutish behaviour either. If I was a travelling companion with one of them I’d have pushed them out of the boat ages ago and left them for shark bait!
An hour later we arrived off a resort island, and our dive site was not too far from their unimpressive over water bungalows. Once anchor was dropped we donned our masks and fins and made our way to the edge ready to jump in. Before we could jump in though, a couple were assisted to the jumping off point first as they were obviously rather nervous. I presume they were not strong swimmers and were frightened judging by the apparel the guy had on. It look like he had thieved one of the airlines life jackets complete with the mouth inflation pipe and had that tied up all around him like a straight jacket! Our diving guide was in the water waiting patiently for him as he very slowly and cautiously eased himself down onto the ledge and then into the water below. He managed not to cough and splutter and drink the ocean before we got in, but the wide eyed look betrayed his fear and panic. His wife made it in too but then looked to be having the beginnings of a panic attack so she was held onto by the instructor. They were back on the
boat before long which was a shame because there was lots to see, I hope they have the courage to try again.
Now that the way was clear I was next in line for exit and I just held onto my mask and jumped in. Grabbing the camera from one of the guys, off I went to wait for the rest. Gail was next off, and was caught on camera making her exit sitting down on the side as she plunged into the sea. Once everyone was in off we went on our 45 minute swim. This time our masks started off behaving well and we could see an abundance of fish all around us. The water visibility was great and the dive guide led us all along the drop off where most of the fish were swimming. He would frequently swim down and under the drop off ledge looking for turtles and twice he found some lurking under there. They swam gracefully away, posing for the camera before they disappeared into the big blue. The dive guide liked the look of our camera, and so he kept taking it from me to take pictures with it and in
the end I gave it to him for the remainder of the swim, and when he handed the camera back we found he had taken some amazing photos of the fish when he would dive down and up close to them. So most of the close ups are courtesy to our dive master as neither of us can submerge so deep and for so long, we are way too buoyant!
At some point our masks began to fill with water so it was a bit of a palaver sorting them out with the waves crashing over our heads, but as long as you’re floating facing the waves then it’s straightforward. Our dive guide eventually took Gail off again as he had taken a shine to her and so kept grabbing her to show her the fish and turtles! Talk about favouritism! Towards the end of the swim the plankton began to build up and we had to swim through it. As you do you can feel things nipping and biting at you which is apparently the plankton! Unfortunately the swim ended, but we were graced with seeing three turtles, three spotted eagle rays, the huge 6 foot long napoleon
fish, and a wealth of other beautiful fishes.
Once we arrived back we headed off for lunch and then took a respite indoors before heading back out to our beach to try floating on our loungers in the water. They make great canoes providing you can balance properly on them before falling back off which took a bit of precision balancing. After quite a few spills and thrills we eventually managed to float on them but this didn’t last too long as we both began to feel sea sick and so had to come onto dry land. Even lying on the lounger we still felt like we were going up and down on waves and I was feeling quite nauseous. Had to head back in and lie down and take a nap, but still awoke riding the waves again!
Reluctantly after a shower under the full moon in our open aired bathroom, I went to dinner. Both of us were hoping that food would take away nausea and the wave riding feeling, but it didn’t. Even the delights by our pastry chef couldn’t enthuse me tonight, although his coffee ice cream is simply delicious and tastes like a
Starbucks frap, although Gail thoroughly enjoyed his white chocolate pasty tart! Later when we arrived back the both of us were still having equilibrium problems and so decided to give snorkelling a miss tomorrow and wait until we were finely tuned once again!
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Pauline
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Hummmm! Liisa & Gail, yet another round of great pic's. I think you are enjoyin the Maldives better 2nd time around. Loving the sun loungers/surf boards, you both have natural agility not ;-). Gail & Liisa, I have to ask.... Is the sea water a new slimming aid? Cos you to look good! If it is I'm off to Brighty now for a couple of pints.(Brighton). Oh I've been told to tell you Gail that Halle Berry wants her Kini back asap, she's your blog and noticed that you were wearing the heck out of that Bikini, I told her that jealousy is terrible thing and that she needs to get over it........ Let's hope so, she is busy with the baby now. I'm off to Ascot on thursday, I'll be sending pic's via email so check em out. It's a real shame there is an age limit to Miss World....... I'm really glad that you are both having a splendiferous time, can't wait to catch up with you both! Love Pauline XxX :-)