Our final day in the Maldives

Day 7 – our last day diving in the Maldives

With only one morning dive planned for the day we took our chances and headed back to the Manta cleaning station. As we descended there were no signs of a manta. So we lined up on the sandy bottom and took some group photos and generally mucked about. Lee took his fins off and went for a sprint along the sand like Linford Christieho pants were on fire, melvin and Ian tried to build their own reef using rocks, Tiddles went to sleep and John did some loop the loops.

As we were running out of games to play a shadow appeared in the distance – yay MANTA, so we headed to the cleaning station for a birds eye view. The underwater paparazzi clicked away while the manta circled around us and showed off her moves. After 10 minutes it swam off in to the distance but everyone felt very content that we all had a close encounter. Then just as we’re giving up hope back it came right over our heads and glided around gracefully for another 10 minutes. Off it went again and 10 minutes later back it came swooping around us until our air was getting low. Back on the boat people were buzzing with everyone recalling how close they got and how humbled they were to be in the presence of such a graceful gentle giant (about a 12 foot wing span).

Once we got back to the mothership, Sea Queen, we were welcomed back by the ‘ladies that leisure’ who were now looking very bronzed courtesy of the hours spent on the sun deck. The rest of the day was spent admiring the view of the ‘paradise islands’ that house the luxury resorts, looking at the turquoise blue seas, listening to some tunes, catching some rays and sipping a few cold ones while we made our way back to Male. In the evening we were treated to a feast alfresco style at the front of the boat where we thanked all of the crew for such an amazing week. It was commented by many of our well-travelled divers that the food and service that we’d received this week was the best they’d ever experienced on a liveaboard.

Tomorrow we all head home (apart Ian, Fiona and Tiddles who are going to a resort for a few days of R&R) taking all of our amazing memories with us. I really can’t wait to find the time to edit the video and share it with anyone is prepared to watch.

I hope to share some photos on Facebook next week for anyone who is considering coming here in the future. The post holiday blues will be somewhat lessened by the other trips we have planned in the coming months – wrecks in the Red Sea, marsa alam, Mexico and in the distance the Galapagos.

Thanks for reading and hope you can make of our next trips!