Maldives February / March 2017

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I think it's Tuesday but don't hold me to that as time seems to have no meaning on this trip (other than getting up early!)

We started our day with an early morning walk on Rinbudhu, a local island. Lovely to visit but I can't imagine living there.

sunrise
team
independence
cat
garden
garden
paint

school

School

preschool

Pre-School

political office

Local political party office

main street to sea

main street

There was one main street north to south and one east to west. Didn't take long to walk around. It's very clean but that's probably because the women were sweeping all the leaves up (in some cases while the men watched!)

window pattern

This was a window shield.

There were a few plants around but I don't expect much will grow in such sandy /salty conditions.

plants
plants
jc
seaview
boat
boat

Back on the boat and off we went.

On our journey we came across Spinner Dolphins, PanTropical Spotted Dolphins, Risso's Dolphins and Tuna.

spinner

Spinner Dolphin

spinner

Spinner Dolphin

spotties

PanTropical Spotted Dolphin

spinner or spotted

PanTropical Spotted Dolphin

spotties

PanTropical Spotted Dolphin

spotties

PanTropical Spotted Dolphin

spotted or spinners

PanTropical Spotted Dolphin

spotted and spinners

Spinner Dolphin

Tuna

Yellowfin Tuna trying to escape from the fishermen

spinner

Spinner Dolphin

spinner

Spinner Dolphin

spinner

Spinner Dolphin

risso

Risso's Dolphin

risso

Risso's Dolphin

We also saw a few marine birds before heading back to where we'd come from that morning because the crew were having a chat with the local people and learned that there'd been a Whale Shark around the island recently. We didn't want to miss the opportunity to see it if it was there so that's why we turned around.

It didn't make an appearance so we were pleased not to have stayed up and waited for it.

bird

bird
bird

Blacksided Hawkfish

Forsters or Blacksided Hawkfish

oriental sweetlips

Oriental Sweetlips

peacock grouper

Peacock Grouper

sunset

Spectacular sunset that evening. The snorkel is attached to me!

No early morning snorkel on the next day as we needed to make tracks, not having ended up where we expected the night before so a lie in (breakfast at 8 a.m.)

We saw a few Short-finned Pilot Whales and Common Bottlenose Dolphin along the way before I had a stroll round a "picnic" island and Jonathon went off snorkelling again.

sunrise

Sunrise from our cabin window

pilot

Pilot Whale spyhopping

pilot

Pilot Whale

pilot

Pilot Whale

bottlenose

Bottlenose Dolphin

bottlenose

Bottlenose Dolphin

bottlenose

Bottlenose Dolphin pretending to be a Spinner!

island

island

island

Emboodhoo, not a bad place to spend an hour strolling around.

hermit crab

Hermit Crab

There were a few Hermit Crabs around and some that appeared to be homeless. There were also a couple of Black Naped Tern that told me off quite loudly when I got to one end of the island and (obviously) closer to their nest than they were comfortable with (even though I paddled in the sea round that bit to try not to disturb them).

While I had my stroll, Jonathon was back in the water, camera in hand.

grouper

Slender Grouper

butterfly fish

Double Saddle Butterfly Fish

starfish

Cushion Starfish

butterflyfish

Threadfin Butterfly Fish and Powder Blue Surgeon Fish

Anchor for this evening was at Ari Atoll.

We both went snokelling on the Thursday in the hope of seeing Manta Rays. We did see some but they didn't come very close to us. Some of the others got a better view.

tuna

Kawakawa Tuna

parrotfish

Singapore Parrotfish

manta

Manta Ray

The highlight of the snorkelling for me was seeing a lovely Hawksbill Turtle.

turtle

Hawksbill Turtle

spinners

If you look really carefully, you can just about make out the mum and (very tiny) calf Spinner Dolphin in the photo. She was keeping her baby well hidden.

spinner

A Spinner Dolphin living up to its name

sunrise

 

We anchored at Finolhu (sandbank) near Bathala Island for the evening.

We skipped the final snorkel (I was definitely snorkelled out) and had a lie in instead, enjoying the sunrise.

Along the way (north back to Male) we came across a pod of Bottlenose Dolphin.

bnd

Bottlenose Dolphin

bnd

Bottlenose Dolphin

fellow travellers

flyingfish

Flying Fish

travellers
travellers
jc
airport
The views from the boat weren't quite as pretty when we woke up in Male Harbour.
male
harbour
harbour

Off to the airport we went, saying goodbye to our fellow travellers and wishing them well on their journey before finding the desk for the Sheraton and enjoying a super speedy transfer to the Full Moon Resort and Spa where we were delighted to learn that they'd given us an upgrade.

Having collected snorkelling gear, the first thing Jonathon did was get back in the water with his camera!

jc

There were some different fish that just had to be photographed.

It was so much easier getting into the water using our own private ladder from our own private deck rather than jumping of the dhoni, especially for me who doesn't like to jump in.

fish

Black-spot Emperor

goatfish

Dash Dot Goatfish

yellowmargin

Yellow Margin Triggerfish

goby

Striped Sleeper Goby

fruit bat

Fruit Bat

We didn't do much else on the Saturday - caught up with emails, had a wander around, batted a table tennis ball around (don't think we're good enough to call it playing TT), unpacked etc - not necessarily in that order.

We did see some creatures that weren't swimming!

heron

Grey Heron

Sunday morning arrived (our wedding anniversary) and my dilemma was - do I wake Jonathon up at 6 a.m. to let him know there are black-tipped reef sharks in our bit of the ocean. I did. So ... back into the sea we went to admire them. The weather looked a bit stormy to the north!

jc

shark

Black-tipped Reef Shark (this photo was taken on the Monday rather than the Sunday as the sharks decided to come closer to Jonathon that day!)

mullet

Fringelip Mullet

Yet another snorkel for Jonathon before lunch - the sea was too rough for me at that point.

This can only mean more fish!

convict

Convict Surgeonfish

lieutenant

Lieutenant Surgeonfish

grouper

Long-spined Grouper

picasso

Picasso Triggerfish

puffer

White spotted Pufferfish

We struggled to identify some of the fish without Sara and Chas to help us. The men at the dive shop helped us with those we got nowhere with.

Apologies if we've got any names wrong - please let us know and we can amend.

Moving away from fish (phew, I hear you say!), here are a couple of photos from around the island.

First of all our home for this week.

home

Our hut was a semi-detached wooden bungalow. It sat on stilts above the ocean and some of the fish above were photographed underneath it.

street

This was the bridge from the main street to our "street".

frontdoorview

This was the view from the front door - We decided we could put up with this for a week.

main street

This was the main street. Golf buggies pootle along here on a regular basis but the whole island is quite small so unless you have luggage or can't walk far it's very easy to get about.

view

Looking across to our street.

view

A general view from near the welcoming centre. We walked past here on the way back from the dive shop.

Monday morning and more snorkelling and I finally gave in and went to collect my fins and snorkelling gear after brunch (if you can't beat them). You'll be pleased to know I didn't have an underwater camera so that fact that I was snorkelling doesn't mean twice as many fish pictures!

 

yellowfin

Yellow Fin Surgeonfish

jackandtrigger

Bluefin Jack and Titan Triggerfish

moorish idol

Moorish Idol

humbug

Humbug Dascyllus

The ocean was too rough for me early afternoon (I stayed out) and probably too rough later as well (I played in the shallows that time). Jonathon joined me in the shallows and that meant we saw yet more different kinds of fish!

bennets

Bennet's Sharpnosed Pufferfish

humbug

Humbug Dascyllus and friends

sweetlips

Juvenile Oriental Sweetlips

grouper

Honeycomb Grouper

sandperch

Spot tailed Sandperch

grouper

Four-saddle Grouper

Sometimes the fish got a little bit too close for comfort. I thought he was eating coral (better than eating Jonathon) but Jonathon tells me he was trying to hide behind the coral.

raccoon

Raccoon Butterflyfish

threadfin

Threadfin Butterflyfish

damsel

Two spot Damselfish

longtail

Long-tailed Silver Biddy

unicorn

Blue-spine Unicornfish

moon wrasse

Moon Wrasse

heron

We had to watch out for low flying heron as they came back onto the island - they were far too close to our heads for comfort!

needlefish

Needlefish

needlefish

goby

Sixspot Sleeper Goby

seascape

The water was calm (Tuesday morning before breakfast) and the light was perfect. It was a real privilege to be able to snorkle somewhere so beautiful.

squid

squid

Bigfin Reef Squid

Amazing what you come across on the way to breakfast! These squid were just cruising around. The photos were taken from above rather than in the water with them.

ss

Just to prove I did go into the water now and again.

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