Living the Island fantasy in the Maldives
Image: www.Constancehotel.com
With 99% of the Maldives being water - and pure, pristine water at that - the best way to explore the archipelago of 26 atolls, with 1192 islands, is by boat. This ensures a variety of locations to swim, snorkel and scuba dive. Consider a liveaboard, where you sleep in a cabin, enjoy good meals including fresh fish, plus have well qualified, experienced dive masters. Languishing on a sun-lounger after each dive in these protected waters, is sheer bliss.
The Emperor Leo
Image: www.liveaboard.com
The marine life in the Maldives is abundant with a great diversity of species. Even from a Water Villa in a resort, you can gaze over your deck into the Indian Ocean, to see scores of trumpet fish, fusiliers, brightly coloured jellyfish, sting rays, reef shark nurseries and more. You may see spinner dolphins or Indo-Pacific bottlenose dolphins gambolling close to the island as you relax on an icing-sugar beach.
Image: Julien Bidet
Image: Constance Halaveli
With an abundance of dive sites having easy conditions, in calm, waters with a visibility of 25m, the Maldives is the perfect location to learn to dive. Youngsters can dive at 10-14 years of age, with parental consent. It’s never too late to learn, as the most strenuous part of tropical diving tends to be getting into your wetsuit! Water temperature is a pleasant 29C, so many divers wear a thin skin, like surfers use.
Image: blog.constancehotels.com
Paul Chabre Commons.wikimedia.org
Equipment is provided, or for hire from the dive centre at the resorts, or on the liveaboard Dhoni boat. I travel with my own mask, fins, 3mm wetsuit, dive computer and a torch with a strong beam. As I wear prescription spectacles, I have stick on glasses in my mask, to help me to enjoy the details of small creatures, like nudibranchs, shrimps and corals.
Image: Maldives-Magazine.com
Dive centres offer advanced and specialist courses, more easily achievable in these agreeable conditions than in many other dive locations in the world. My Nitrox course was fun, made clear for me by a skilful teacher. This has made diving much easier for me, especially when I do multiple dives a day.
For advanced divers, there are sensational sites, including current dives, shark dives and swimming with manta rays. A new experience for me was being hooked onto a rock - by my personal dive guide - with a strong current flowing over us. We observed big game fish, grey reef shark and white-tipped reef shark that were swimming deeper down, below the rocks. A Hawksbill turtle hovered close to me.
Image: blog.constancehotels.com
One of the most luxurious dive experiences that I have ever had was from Constance Halaveli, a resort set on secluded Halaveli island. Their flat-bottomed Dhoni boats - with Viking-style curved sides - are spacious, with state-of-art equipment, fresh fluffy towels and delectable post-dive snacks. The crew stopped just short of lowering me into the water, they were that kind and solicitous.
Highlights of diving the Maldives include close encounters with gentle whale sharks, night dives with nurse sharks and shallow dives with sunlight on iridescent shoals of reef fish.
In the Maldives, man and nature have joined forces to produce an environment of sublime beauty, with a sense of timelessness. Part of the sensuality of the tropics is spending time in the azure waters.
Image: Christian Jensen Commons.wikimedia.org
Text by Gillian Mclaren (@Jetset_Gillian)
For more information on dive sites in The Maldives, check out:
Visit Maldives
Getting there:
Air Seychelles:
Travelling from South Africa to the Maldives has never been easier, with the weekly commercial flights on Air Seychelles (The Indian Ocean’s leading airline) from Johannesburg to the Maldives, via the Seychelles.
The flight onboard an A320neo aircraft makes for a pleasant nine hour journey, especially considering the other long-haul routes offered by other carriers, and the best news is, these services have been confirmed in to 2022 by the airline.
After a flight with Air Seychelles to Malé, a Seaplane transfers you to your resort.
Please find latest updates on travel requirements to the Maldives:
For further details please refer to the circular attached:
a) Passengers entering to Maldives are NO LONGER required to present a PCR negative test result upon arrival if the individual(s) have completed the prescribed dose(s) of a Covid-19 vaccine that is being approved by the Maldives Food & Drug Authority or by the World Health Organization (WHO) Emergency Use Listing (EUL) and at least 14 (fourteen) days have passed since. (Booster dose(s) are not required to be eligible for this exemption).
b) Tourists who spend their holiday in tourist facilities in inhabited islands are NO LONGER required to do a PCR test when departing from respective inhabited islands.
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