Magic of the Maldives

Well I better just complete my Maldives writing before it becomes just a distant memory that is overwhelmed by work back it Doha. Steve has written some excellent newsletters and filled in the trip details. We did do some activities other than relaxing on the beach or lagoon.

I decided that I would like to do the resorts “Very Special Snorkeling Trip”. Steve said he would come on the boat but not snorkel. Well that was the scariest thing I have done. After a 40 minute boat ride out to a deep sided reef around a sand island we had to jump off the boat into the deep sea. That was my first, I managed that. There were about 12 of us, I was the oldest and two boat men. The deep reef was beautiful but the drop off disappeared into the depths of the ocean and the real down side was strong current which we were swimming against. Even with flippers it was hard to make headway. It was exhausting. No Myra they didn’t have me on a string but I needed to be. One of the boat men helped me to the island in the end and after a brief rest it was back into the current to get to the boat. It took all the enjoyment out of it I was too busy concentrating on swimming and keeping up to enjoy the underwater scene. I was a little pleased to have the two young Swiss girls tell me that they found it exhausting too. They were half my age, fit and much better swimmers. I wouldn’t do it again; I am cured of doing scary thing challenges! Nice shallow snorkeling around the house lagoon reef for me was the answer.

Other neat things that happened though were dolphins around our wharf and flying fish alongside our boat on one of our fishing trips. We did three fishing trips and I caught fish on the two of them. On the last trip I got five fish not very big ones but it was fun. We also saw some beautiful sunsets and sun rises on the fishing boat.

We went into Male one afternoon and did some tourist shopping. I needed a new sarong you can’t get them in Doha. I found some pretty ones as well as a few other little mementos. Male however is best avoided for any length of time it is just an overcrowded city.

Maldives however is a magic place and the island was so relaxing. I have one of Steve’s underwater photos as my desktop picture on my laptop so that I can remember and relax on stressful work days.