Sun Island, Maldives, 2005

by John Kirk

Must report on 2 glorious weeks of sun, sea and diving. We stayed at the Sun Island resort in the South Ari Atoll on the All inclusive basis. First the boring stuff - the island showed no signs of the Tsunami and was about half full (a lot of folk had cancelled). As you would expect, white coral sands, palm trees, hot weather and pure laziness. Well that was the wife, me, I get bored with all that so went diving !!!!

The dive centre is called the Little Mermaid dive centre and is run on a realistic basis. For experienced divers, they operate a loose buddy system (akin to "same ocean diver") which is good and cuts folk a little slack. Up to 5 dives a day can be had, ranging from early morning, mid morning, afternoon, night and safari dives. The great thing is that morning dives are 2-tank affairs so you can get 2 dives in and laze in the sun for the afternoon.

Water temperatures were 29 degrees and vis was a suprising 10 - 20m (I expected more). All divers MUST do a check out dive first so they can suss you out - sadly one german visiting instructer did not agree with this and was duly sent packing - serves her right, uppity b**ch!!

OK - the diving.

Housereef

Max depth 25m, a bit worn but some good life. Hard corals washed out, some soft corals but loads of life, snappers, parrotfish, morays, nudis etc etc


Dhiffushi Beru

500m long reef, very twee with loads of life, did my safety stop inside a huge shoal of barracuda

Dhidhoo Beru

nice drift over a reef, lots of fish life

Maddivaru


The one and only manta point. Wall to wall Mantas - fantastic, they were swimming around you about 2m away. The dive ends in what is like an underwater ampitheatre and all divers just hang on and wait. I witnessed the beauty and grace of 15 mantas on one dive, culminating in 4 of them putting on a show that was out of this world. If you ever go the the South Ari atoll you MUST do this dive.

Nalaguraidhoo thila

nice "fish tank" dive on a thila that is amassed with thriving hard corals. Saw nurse sharks, turtles etc etc

Kuda-kwon thila

another "fish tank" dive

Thinfushi thila

Nice deep dive to about 35m, hige coral formations, overhangs and plenty of current, sharks in the blue

Dhidhoo beru

Another "fish tank" dive with huge shoals and a couple of big napoleons

Dhigurah bodu thila

Aanother good deep dive with sharks, morays (one bit me!!)

Khudadu beru

Aanother fish tank dive and sadly the end of my diving - OOOUUUUUCHHHHHHHHHHH

Did 13 dives but had mucho trouble with ears and sinuses. Just when I thought I had sorted this I surfaced with mega toothache. Feeling daft, I went in for a second dive and the toothache went. Safety stop on next dive was OK but from 2m to the surface the toothache returned. When I say toothache, I really mean red hot needles being inserted into my lower jaw - never experienced this in my life - hell of a way to discover a cavity or 2.



So, diving over and a multitude of painkillers later, I had to sit for 4 days and listen to the whaleshark stories etc etc !!!!!

Diving wasn't cheap - $40 per dive plus $13 boat fee but it's the price you pay for diving in fishtanks.

Superb holiday, great diving.

Oh - forgot to mention, for the first time I got stuffed for excess baggage on the way out there - £108 !!! Serves us right, we did have 73kgs when out limit was 40. This dive and camera gear can certainly weigh a bit - or was it all of Mrs K`s clothes. One outfit only for her next time !!

Next stop dentist, then sort out a proper cold water dive


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