When:  December 2015               Weather: Hot 30C

Leica M240,  GoPro Hero4 Silver

 

We flew back to Male after 4 nights in Velavaru and we were taken by speedboat to the Banyan Tree Resort at Vabinfaru in 25min.  We stayed in the beach villas which was a nice change to the in-ocean villas in Velavaru and we were literally 50m from the sea….the welcome was warm and we headed straight off to Ihuru island 15min away by boat where another Angsana property was to dive and snorkel…

At Ihuru, the children wanted to dive the wreck there but I chose to snorkel instead as the sea was a bit rough and visibility not great….from the dive centre it is literally just 10-20m to the reef and there is a channel leading to the far side of the reef and swimming clockwise brings you round to two other channels, either of which can be used to return to shore.  I was very glad that I chose to snorkel this section and take pictures using the GoPro….the sun was shining and the reef was shallow which allowed reasonable pix…

Ihuru island as seen from Vabinfaru….after the afternoon’s diving and snorkelling. The turtle pens can be seen in the foreground…

As in Velavaru, the moon at 4am was just spectacular

and as the sun came out behind me the moon still shone brightly on the azure sea..

And on Christmas afternoon, my son and I were accompanied by resident marine biologist Steve as we did a 2 hour snorkel adventure around half of vabinfaru island.  Accessing the outer reef via an access channel on the far side of the island, we swam towards the headland, buffeted by strong current and it was a bit of a challenge until we got round it and could see the pier that the current abated and we were able to drift with it…..then we started seeing more fish than can be imagined!  Numerous sharks…a magnificent flight of 15 eagle rays….etc etc.  We ended by swimming through the planted coral gardens to reach the larger turtle pens…

the conservation efforts of the Banyan tree group are aimed at hatching green turtle eggs, then growing the baby turtles till 30cm when they are released back to the ocean…

Banyan Tree Vabinfaru…another spectacular location

 

After a week in the Maldives and having both dived and snorkelled, I would say that I probably saw more and took better pictures whilst snorkelling than when diving….With snorkelling, I can probably see 80% of what a diver sees…but the light is better, you can get quite close to the coral reefs and it is much less technical, less stressful and with fewer restrictions!

As for the two resorts, I think the proximity and quality of the reef gardens in Vabin are probably some of the best snorkelling views I’ve had anywhere in the world!