Arrived in paradise again

Blue-faced Angelfish Pomocanthus xanthometopon

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Wednesday 2 November

The price we pay for visiting exotic places is the discomfort of the journey. I imagine the well-heeled travellers of old used to look forward to weeks of comfortable cruising on the high seas. When I was at school families used to take a £10 trip to Australia, a journey which last six weeks and took in the sights of Egypt as the ship passed through the Suez Canal. How I wished I could have been on board one of those ships heading for the land of my dreams.

My journey to the Maldives started at 2:30pm and after an hour of easy driving I arrived at Gatwick. At an empty BA desk, my pre-printed boarding pass and passport were scanned and perused, my two checked bags weighed and deemed to be within limits. I then headed off to passport control (called Customs these days), where my trainers set off the metal detector and were separately x-rayed. I visited Boots and purchased the C cells and Insect repellent which I had forgotten to pack. Then to the Wetherspoon bar for a pint of Stella and a phone call to She I had promised to miss. We were delayed for an hour, but the flight was not full and I was able stretch across 3 seats for some of the ten hour trip.

Luggage showed up fast at Male and only three of us were due for the Bandos boat and I was in my room in record time. It is a Beach villa within the WIFI zone so I am well pleased. I met Adel and Abdulla for lunch and together with Chris, our German friend, Anthony and David, we did an afternoon dive on Lankan Reed and one manta showed up which was a bonus. I am not happy with the Canon G9 performance, but there was lots of plankton in the water. I will take the Canon SD850 tomorrow, it has always performed well (until I flooded the original one last year).

At dinner Bruce and Lavonna joined us for dinner so we caught up on news then we all retired exhausted from our travels. We will dive Emvoudhoo Express in the morning.

Manta Ray

Blue-faced Angelfish, Pomocanthus xanthometopon

File fish

Adel with his new camera!

Collared butterflyfish, Chaetodon collare

Chris and Collared butterflyfish

Manta and parrotfish