Liquidstate

Yet another dive on the Nelivaru Thila.   This time we saw a great display of white finned sharks.  They were cleaning in/around the reef at about 30 meters, right at the start of our dive. We stayed there at 30 metres for about 20 minutes, putting us into mandatory decompression. There was quite a stong current, so it was tricky to cling to the reef.  The first good argument I’ve seen for reef hooks.  We followed the reef up to 15m and sat there to watch the sharks for the rest of our air. Finally, we did our deco stops in about 6m of water. I managed to clock up 4 minutes. Jen managed to clock 7mins!

The Maddoo Giri was absolutely fantastic.  Its a strangle old reef being 25m-30m at its deepest, and 3m on top. There’s an absolutely breathtaking swim through / hole on the northern side of the reef.  We dropped on the western side into 28m, and swam around to the north to investigate some of the reef.  About half way along the length, we turned around and headed back to the openning for the swim through.

The openning of the swim through is in 25-30m, and then ascends up to the top of the reef at 3m. Its like a big hole, dug at a 45 degree angle from top to bottom.  Inside, its beautiful. Lots of wildlife, and a great view upwards.  A great dive to take your time over!

On this occassion we were honoured to see an absolutely fantastic Manta Ray display on the eastern side of the Thila towards the end of the dive. We all slumped down onto the reef at about 15m and watched these fantastic animals fly above the reef while the cleaner fish peck out any bacteria and other nasties. We had two Mantas, one male, one female. The female being the larger, darker colour.  We stayed a bit longer than we planned to watch this display, so surfaced on about 30 bar!  Thankfully, we were in a big group, fairly shallow, and the boat new where to find us. In total, we had about 30-40 minutes with the Mantas.

Dhonfanu is an oval shaped reef starting at a depth of 7 to 14 meters. One side of the Thila forms a beautiful swim-through beginning at 18 meters and ending around 25 meters. There is a canyon on the other side of the Thila between the main reef and a large block that stands slightly with astonishing corals and aquatic life. When the conditions are right, Grey reef sharks, Eagle rays, Barracudas and big schools of Jack fish can be seen.

We originally went hunting for Mantas, but it didn’t quite go according to plan. Instead though, while Jen and I were off exploring by ourselves, we managed to find ourselves a friendly turtle who was feeding off the coral.  We were originally doing our 6-9m safety, but the turtle at 16m was just too good to miss!  Can’t wait to see the photos!

This was another dive on the Horubadhoo Thila, or Dhigali Haa, as its also known.  However, this time it was a night dive!  We had a nice drift with a gentle current, and about 4m visibility.