Maldives on liveaboard Rani

by Jeanette Shurrock and Mike Sheldon

My lasting memory of the whole trip is being surrounded by miles and miles of still clear blue sea, with the occasional sandy atoll and palm tree islands on the horizon. Actually (according to the lonely planet guide) the Maldives is made up of nearly 2000 islands. But for me, for 6 days a few deserted, idyllic islands surrounded our live-aboard the 'Rani'.
The diving was superb, just what I had expected. We had all known there had been a coral bleaching incident in 1998 and I was dead curious to see the actual impact. In fact the diving was best described as with technicoloured fish (100's and 1000's of them) on a monochrome background. The hard coral was all dead (and may take up to 20 years to fully recover) but there were patches which had started to recover (Brain coral in particular) which was encouraging. The soft coral was not affected and particularly in caves and underhangs their colours were spectacular. But the real high light of the trip was the sharks, manta rays and my personal favourite, the turtles.

This was the first time I had dived with sharks and they are amazing. The white tips (up to 1.5m) just cruised along the reef edge ignoring us. The grey sharks (up to 2.5m) were much more territorial and gave us a thorough examination. On one dive we all sat in a small cove whilst the 2 or 3 sharks circled in front of us. Each subsequent time I saw sharks I was more awe-struck and intrigued.
There were two main species of turtle that we saw (green and hawksbill), although other species are found in the Maldives. On my last dive (and my 200th) I spent several minutes (and 1 could have spent the whole dive) watching this green turtle swim, glide, settle and munch its way through the coral, it was one of my most memorable moments.
After each dive there were several of us who would try and identify all the fish that we had seen, we soon got nicknamed the 'anoraks'. On the Rani we had quickly settled, the cabins were sufficient if a little hot, but most of our time was spent on the deck. As well as the main boat there was a smaller boat or dhoni which was used for diving from, all our dive kit was stored here as well as the compressors. When we arrived back off the dhoni our next meal would be ready waiting for us. The food on the whole was good, although not always plentiful (mind you John R, Len and Mike were aboard!). The fresh fish was delicious and formed many of our meals, usually accompanied by large quantities of chilli sauce. In fact the boat made an unscheduled port stop to stock up on more chilli sauce!

Generally we did 3 dives a day. We travelled around North Male Atoll and Ari Atoll, the latter being more deserted and with less industry. In particular around Male, the capital, there were a lot of tankers which somewhat destroyed our vision of deserted islands.
One day we had an island stop at Dhangethi. The island had one main street totally geared to tourism. There were plenty of sarongs, t-shirts and other tourist paraphernalia, but also some local products including utensils made from Coconut and model dhonis. Although the Maidives is statistically one of the poorest countries in the world, this was not that obvious as there were no beggars or 'urban poverty'.
The local women were playing a bizarre game called 'bashi'. This involved on woman batting a ball backwards over the net, everyone else on the other side tried to catch the ball, very weird. We had to be off the island by dusk so that the residents could enjoy some privacy and evening pray.

Whilst on the boat a couple of people went snorkelling in the evening, the night dives were certainly impressive but Jacqui, whilst snorkelling, commented 'look I can talk with anything in my mouth' which was classic moment which was not forgotten and could not remain unwritten either!
After our night dive the crew had organised a traditional BBQ on a deserted island (except for the shore crabs). They had cooked fresh fish, including a large Red Snapper that Christian had caught. It was very kind of the crew and the food and setting was delicious.

The last day on the Rani was my birthday. Everyone had kindly brought me presents, although I am not sure how Jemil and John got my size right for the sexy underwear they gave me (I don't think I want to know either). I was dead chuffed and surprised. At lunch the crew had even baked me a chocolate cake. I felt thoroughly spoilt and I think this was the best place I have ever had my birthday.

Later that day we arrived at our island resort of Lohifushi, as we waited for the dhoni to transfer us to shore there was a shoal of dolphins cavorting in the seas. There were palm thatched chalets for 2 people, the chalets were cute even with the outdoor shower. During the 4 days on this island we went snorkelling, diving, sailing and coconut hunting as well as the odd hour or two sunbathing and cocktail drinking (blue sharks of course), the Tiger beer was not bad either.

Our last experience was the transfer back to the airport by speedboat, with twin 200 hp engines; it did not take long!
The holiday was superb and I could write about it forever, but I had better leave some room for the editors' comments!, but seriously our holiday was all thanks to John and it was very much appreciated. Thanks John.
ED:
It was a fantastic trip wasn't it! The group gelled well on the live-aboard for what was a week's concentrated Diving - some mornings we were up at 4.30am for a sunrise dive! I thought the night dives were brill. And what about that Barbecue!
So many things stick in the mind, beautiful Islands, cutting open fresh coconuts to drink the pure, clear milk inside. The fresh fish, and the things that made us laugh, like Jacqui and Paul (aka Mr & Mrs!), rumour has it that Paul is chucking his career in and going to open a hairdressers, after spending so much time crimping Jacqui's hair in the evenings! Don't worry there were a few laughs at my expense too!, I managed to hit my head on things about a dozen times throughout the holiday..... Then there was Jemil!, he always surfaced saying he'd seen giant Manta or Hammerheads!.....

Kingston & Elmbridge Branch www.kingstonbsac.co.uk