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CORALREPUBLIC
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View also Paul’s Video from this trip in Vimeo |
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Trip
dates: |
12 February – 27 February 2011 |
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Boat
/ resort: |
MV Orion – Anantara Veli,
arranged and booked by the Dutch travel operator Diving World |
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Dive
centre: |
Liveaboard and Aquafanatics at Veli. |
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Photo-friendly?: |
No specific facilities for photographers, but we managed on both
boat and hotel. The boat is to undergo refurbishing soon and they told us
they intend to transform the shop room into a camera room. |
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Number
of dives: |
16 while on the liveaboard and 8 from
the resort in Veligandu. |
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Diving
conditions: |
Wonderfully clear and calm seas. All measures of currents, from
light to ripping. Water temperature |
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Comments: |
This was originally a trip planned to Sudan, two weeks on board
the M/S Royal Evolution. Unfortunately, the riots and unrest in Fortunately, on the other hand, Diving World helped us out very
efficiently and found us very last minute berths on the Orion. We had been in
the Maldives just a few months before, but we thought this would be a chance
to visit in February, when conditions are best for diving and it’s the peak
tourist season. I had not been in Maldives during this season since before I
started taking pictures. We then booked an extra week stay at the Anantara
resort, complete our two weeks holiday. Before we flew out, the boat operators emailed to say that the
itinerary would be steaming down all the way to Laamu
atoll, and that we would fly back to Male from there. We thought this was a
lucky chance. We dove mainly channels in search of sharks and rays. However,
it was difficult for the dive crew, as they did not know the sites
necessarily that well, and I think they dropped us in the wrong spot a couple
of times. We enjoyed these dives enormously, but surely missed the sweet spot
where the action was more than once, possibly due to that. An important note for future travellers: avoid the junior suite
in this boat (lower deck – at the prow). It is located on top of the anchor
winch. Since Maldivian Liveaboards are not usually steaming at night, this is
not normally a problem. In this case, gong down
south meant crossing open seas between atolls at night. We had two nights in
a row being violently woken up by the anchor winch at 3.00 am. They stopped
moving the boat in the middle of the night when I protested about this, and I
fear that shook their plans a bit. But I felt the price of the trip and the
safety of the diving came first. In all other respects, the boat was fine. I
would not exaggerate the luxury note in their ads, however. It has a Jacuzzi,
yes, but it was used just once during the trip and not for long. The on-board
massage and shop services were off. The food was the standard fare on
Maldivian Liveaboards. At the Anantara Veli hotel, we enjoyed ourselves a lot, but it was
really a self-spoiling exercise. Very pricey place, including the diving. We
felt, though, the dive boats were very good and the dives themselves very
good as well. The watersports centre has 7 dive
instructors employed, but we were only 4 divers max on the boats. This is
clearly not a place where hard core divers come. As it is, I think it turned
to our advantage. |
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