MALDIVES

We all need to get away and HENLEY SPIERS has managed it. He explains why the Maldives remains hard to beat…

Juvenile angelfish.

The scene at Kandooma Thila;

Spotted eagle ray; 

FROM THE AIR it looks heavenly: sandy circles engulfing turquoise water, surrounded in turn by a deep blue sea.

Millions of years ago, I would have been looking down at a chain of volcanoes, rising from the depths. Today, the ocean has swallowed those volcanoes, with only their fringing reefs left behind.

The island atolls that form the Maldives are among Nature’s greatest views, and rousing yourself to a window as the plane makes its approach is an essential start to the experience.

Only 40 minutes after leaving the airport, our private boat-taxi docks at the Holiday Inn Kandooma Resort Maldives.

This will be home for the next 10 days, and my excitement is quickly washing away the jet lag.

Kandooma Thila is rightfully regarded as one of the premier dive-sites in both South Malé Atoll and the Maldives as a whole.

Here, it’s effectively our house-reef, fewer than five minutes away. The water is 28°C and, although I packed a wetsuit, my dives will be spent in a rash-vest and board-shorts, soaking up this first dose of tropical waters in a long time.

Kandooma Thila (thila means underwater seamount) sits in a channel where currents wash over it at speed. The water-movement patterns of the Maldives are so particular that dive-guides here discuss them with the same regularity and concern as the British do weather.

The most important question is whether the tide is incoming or outgoing, followed by its strength. These patterns are not dictated by the moon in the way that we are familiar with back home, so it’s a constant process of evaluation.

We drop in upcurrent, descending fast into the blue, trusting the instincts of our guide as we fin after him and the trail of bubbles.

Soon after, the edge of the seamount comes into view and we become more aware of the speed of the water.