The Maldives

PHOTOGRAPHS BY STUART PHILPOTT

Some 25 minutes after waving goodbye to Vilamendhoo, I was back at Malé seaplane terminal bound for Meeru Island. The popular four-star, 284-room resort is located in the North Malé atoll less than an hour’s boat ride from the international airport. At the jetty I was greeted by Euro-divers dive centre manager Antoine, regional manager Thorsten and dive instructor Jennifer, who had foolhardily agreed to be my diving muse for the next few days.

Compared to Vilamendhoo, the island has a totally different vibe. Meeru is pitched as a good all-rounder suitable for singles, couples and families. At 1,200 metres by 350 metres, it’s actually the third largest resort island in the Maldives. But being bigger does have some advantages, especially for the sporty minded. As well as having a nine-hole pitch and putt golf course, there are a number of tennis and badminton courts. I also noticed that the shaded pathway circling the whole island was perfect for joggers. Some of the giant-sized palm trees looked to be at least 30 metres tall and overall, the beach was much wider.

My jacuzzi beach villa sat at least 20 metres back from the water’s edge. The room turned out to be a nice size with sofa, air-con, fridge, four-poster bed and an eye-catching 1970’s-style neon wall light. At the rear there was an open-air bathroom and a decked area complete with jacuzzi, but I was so busy diving all day that I didn’t get the chance to test it out. I’m sure looking up at the stars with a glass of bubbly in hand would have been very romantic.

The villa was located at the north end of the island just a short walk from the adult’s only restaurant and bar. Going south there is another restaurant better suited for families. The only slight downside was the dive centre and boat jetty were also located south, roughly a ten-minute walk away. With the restaurant opening for breakfast at 8am and the boat departing at 8.30am, timings turned out to be a little tight for a leisurely morning feed. I had to swap my standard full-English for a quick yoghurt and gulp of fruit juice, which was far too healthy! The island does offer a complimentary golf buggy taxi service, which I used a couple of times on my return from the afternoon dive.

Beach villa

Turtle chilling on the reef

Over a coffee I made plans for the next few days with Antoine, Thorsten and Jennifer. I would be visiting all of the popular sites, including Aquarium and the Tuna Factory. Thorsten said they have five dive boats and offered 50 dive sites, including two manta cleaning stations. A full day ‘manta search’ expedition is scheduled in every week but unfortunately there was no time for me to check this out. Average boat journey times are around 45 minutes each way. Meeru doesn’t have any shore diving, and there is no house reef.

Just to make my pictures a little more interesting, Jennifer appeared with a white wetsuit complete with white mask, white fins and white regulator hoses. I had never seen so much white! The BCD was the only exception, but this still had white pockets and velcro straps. I got Jennifer to put hair her in pony tails and the perfect model image was complete! There was no ‘getting to know each other’ period with Jenny. She knew exactly where I wanted her to be in the composition, looked in the right direction and held her breath momentarily so I could get a ‘clean’ bubble-free picture. Regional Manager Thorsten, who was also a keen photographer, had obviously trained her well.

My first dive was at a site called Aquarium. I wonder how many dive sites around the world have been called this name? I wasn’t expecting to see much, but when we reached the bottom, I instantly caught sight of a green turtle. There was a reasonably strong current running, so the turtle was content to stay put on the seabed while Jennifer snuck up behind. I managed to fire off a few shots before it got fed up with me and swam off towards the surface. Straight after we found a huge map puffer, which looked to be very pregnant. It was extremely relaxed and let me to take some pictures even with Jennifer lingering close by. I was pleasantly surprised by the huge variety of fish on show. I passed by a number of barracuda, preferring to follow a shoal of sweetlips. I finished the dive taking more pictures of the same turtle I had started off with.

Dive 2 at Himafushi Corner was good for giant sea fans, soft corals and a nervous green turtle - obviously word had got around that a mad photographer was on the scene!

Yet again I settled down to a daily eat, sleep, dive regime. I booked on the two-tank morning boat, returned to the resort for lunch and then went out for a single tank dive in the afternoon. By the time I showered and had a quick look through my pictures, it was time for an early evening cocktail. I was slowly working my way through the drinks menu, so far the jam-jar mojito was the most appealing, but for sheer potency it has to be a long island iced tea! The restaurant never failed to serve up a good selection of dishes, including curries and European cuisine. I was even tempted by the vegetarian section. There was also an Asian Wok restaurant located at the southern tip of the island if guests wanted a change from buffet-style food.

Schooling bannerfish

We started day two at Nassimo Thila, which was probably my favourite Meeru dive site. Visibility wasn’t the best at around 10-15 metres, but there was so much fish life including shoals of squirrelfish, snapper, sweetlips and blue fusiliers. There were even passing tuna, reef sharks, giant sea fans and walls swathed in soft corals. I spent the whole dive passing from one photo subject to another. Jennifer’s white gear really did make a difference although I was starting to go snow blind!

As a dive site, the Tuna Factory, aka Fish Tank, is probably deemed a tad controversial. Jennifer said it was an actual working tuna fish processing plant. All the scraps including guts, gills, fins, etc, are just thrown off the jetty into the sea. This attracted a huge gathering of marine creatures eager for a free feed. At a maximum depth of 15m, we had plenty of time to watch the action unfold. Jennifer guided me over to a number of huge moray eels. I had never seen honeycomb morays so big. During the dive, a two-metre-long honeycomb moray went through my legs and up past my face, which was definitely an intimate moment! I noticed a shadow appear on the seabed and as I looked up a squadron of stingrays flew over my head. Shoals of bannerfish and triggerfish in their thousands patrolled the jetty wall. I watched a titan trigger munching the remains of a tuna tail. The marine life was so oblivious that divers can get extremely close.

While I was passing by the jetty wall, some fish scraps were thrown in from above. It was as if someone had flicked a switch. Fish, rays, jacks and morays instantly ramped up to a feeding frenzy. The slow, relaxed movements became extremely fast and erratic. Although I didn’t see any, I’m sure there must have been some sharks lurking in the background, who knows, maybe even a tiger. I guess the purists out there will say this is not a natural dive site. Thorsten actually described it more as a zoo. Admittedly, the marine life was only there for the food. But from a photographer’s perspective, it did give me a great opportunity for pictures and I didn’t hear any negative feedback from the other divers on the boat with me. In fact, they were more than happy to come back again.

After lunch we headed over to Moogiri Thila, where we encountered huge shoals of yellow snapper and a number of small hawksbill turtles. There was supposedly a resident frogfish but we couldn’t find it anywhere.

Euro-divers really do run a tight ship. Every day the boat crew assembled my dive kit and were quite offended when I wanted to do it myself. Guests are supposed to sit back and

The Euro-Divers Meeru team Sweetlips

admire the scenery. Nitrox is complimentary, so the most strenuous thing I had to do was analyse my gas and sign the register. After the dive there were plenty of helping hands to remove my kit and a cup of tea or coffee waiting.

We always left the jetty on time and returned before the restaurant opened for lunch. At the end of the day my kit was packed away in a box and then carted off to the dive centre for rinsing and storage. I couldn’t find any fault in the entire operation. On my last day the plan was to get some freediving promo shots at one of the local wreck sites, but the current was running hard so we decided to visit Helengeli Thila and Asdhoo Canyon instead. At Helengeli Thila I watched trevally sweeping through a shoal of glassfish. There were giant gorgonian sea fans everywhere. We stopped at a very nicelooking pink specimen. With virtually no current running at this dive site I could easily manoeuvre Jenny into the perfect pose. Jenny pointed out a number of nurse sharks lying on the seabed, but as we got closer they all swam off except for one particularly monster-sized four-metre shark.

Jenny went behind and edged closer while I attacked from the front. The shark didn’t seem at all bothered and I managed to get within touching distance. We followed the wall stopping to take more pictures of squirrelfish and sweetlips. I couldn’t have been more content at the end of the dive. At Asdhoo Canyon I spent the whole dive exploring overhangs and crevices. My picture subjects were mainly sea fans, squirrelfish and yellow snapper.

Sadly, my stay at Meeru Island Resort had come to an end. I had been worried that all the best dive sites were located further south near Vilamendhoo, but there was just as much marine life to see in the North Malé atoll. Euro-divers at Meeru offer the same high standard of service and Jenny’s white suit had been an absolute billy bonus. Having come from a smaller, more-intimate island took me a while to get used to, but the food, service, accommodation and diving couldn’t be faulted. My early morning speedboat departure was scheduled way before the restaurant opened, but when I checked out at reception they handed me a breakfast box, including orange juice, croissants and cakes. I thought this was a really nice gesture and totally unexpected. n

NB: Stuart’s final stop was Kagi, a brand new five-star boutique-style spa and wellness resort, that opened in November 2020. I was looking forward to rounding off my tour with some serious pampering – read all about it next issue!