Maldives Chapter 1

Our organised Maldives liveaboard trip, April 2012. This trip report is split into several chapters, mainly to get as many photos in as possible.

Sunday April 22, the London marathon was going to start at 9:45. I have run the London marathon five times in the past but the marathon we were starting, just as the main group of runners would be finishing, would be a first. Our marathon journey was starting by leaving Cornwall around 1pm, we wouldn't reach our destination until 3pm on April 23. Although the Maldives isn't that far by comparison to other places we have been, it takes a while to get there. Our flight would be stopping at Dubai before continuing to Male, a two hour stop on the way out but around 6 hours on the way back. We weren't looking forward to the travelling but we were looking forward to a weeks diving from MV Sting Ray.

After two flights with Emirates, the first on a very nice A380 airbus, we landed on the Maldives. 30 degrees C, a tad warmer than the 9 degrees of home. We waited for the Dhoni to arrive, it was refuelling, we were hot. After a short sit it the airport the Dhoni arrived, our luggage was put onboard and were taken to Sting Ray. The Dhoni was quite large, bigger than most of the dive boats we have been on in the UK. All our diving would be from the Dhoni, not Sting Ray.

After a welcome on board, we put our kit into crates that were transferred back to the Dhoni.

Dinner was served around 7:30, we then went to bed after, we missed a lot of sleep  the previous night while flying.