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CORALREPUBLIC
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View
also Paul’s Manta Video from this
trip in Vimeo |
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Trip
dates: |
27
July – 4 August 2008 |
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Boat
/ resort: |
Coco Palm Dhuni Kolhu, in Baa Atoll, holiday booked with Kuoni |
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Dive
centre: |
Ocean Pro Maldives. They no longer operate the dive centre on Coco Palm, it is now
Dive Ocean. |
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Photo-friendly?: |
No. I had to deal with my camera – including rinsing and
charging – in my room, which was not really close to the jetty. Hard work
(mostly for Paul, who of course offered to carry the kit for me). I had to
rush rush rush to change lenses between dives and on one of these, of course
I made a mistake and flooded it. Dead. Fortunately, it was the last day and I
did not lose much, but had to replace the camera and thoroughly repair the
hugyfot housing. Not cheap. Fortunately, at that time Hugy came out with the
hugycheck system and I’m confident there will be no more floodings! |
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Number
of dives: |
13, over a 7-night stay. |
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Diving
conditions: |
Windy and choppy, lousy visibility. Water temperature |
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Comments: |
I had been hesitating about going back to the Maldives. Until
1998 (when the bleaching happened) I was going there almost every year, some
years twice. Then, I saw it happening in May 98 and that broke my heart. I
gave it a try a couple of years later in a liveaboard (I was not taking
pictures yet) and saw there was little if no recovery of the corals. Then, in
2008 I felt like going to check out the place again. Maldives have changed a lot, not just because of the coral
bleaching, but also in terms of how tourism is run. Clearly, there is a lot
more money on honeymooning and luxury, celebrity style. These are now the
target buyers of holidays there, not really divers. Diving seems to be now
just one of the things to do, possibly second to spa pampering. Coco Palm is
a superb resort, but they do not care much about hard core divers and their
requirements, even less for UW photographers. But OK, I’m used to non-photographer situations. The problem was
with the diving organisation. We had only one boat going out, full of very
respectable but novice divers. If there were currents in the pass, we could
not dive there, with young teenagers just certified in the group. We ended up
most of the time diving lagoon sites, in silty waters and lots of dead coral.
It was hard to find good subjects. We were there for the Mantas, though, and
those dives were very good indeed. We dove a couple of other sites, thilas with good, relatively
healthy coral coverage. Those were colourful. Too bad the weather was so
windy and so much particles in the water. Of course we knew this was not the
right season, with the monsoon in full-blow. Even so, we had often good sunny
spells. Even if mixed with violent downpours, we enjoyed the drama. I think it’s better to stay in an island more focused on the diving,
even if less beautiful or luxurious. |
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