Blog-update: My wish list

Diving

Publicerad: 2009-10-21

The house reef around Alila Villas is very special. Here is the rare common. Thus there are three things I hope and believe that I will see and experience...

Here, divers and snorkelling guests experience the rare stuff. Fish that would otherwise not occur so close to land are common visitors at the Alila Villas house reef. Yesterday we got the explanation. In this particular atoll, it is unusually deep around the islands. Usually there will be approximately 40-45 meters deep. Around the Alila Villas the average is 90 meter. And arge depth gives large fish.

The islands in the Maldives is surrounded by shallow water, approximately 0.5-2 meters with pure white sand and some corals. But when the shallow water gets deeper, it becomes deeply directly. It's called drop-off. When you swim out, you see the edge in front of you to deep water. Straight ahead all fade into the blue. But when you look down, you look down a formidable precipice. Often the drop-off is completely vertical. The entire edge is covered by various species of corals.

divers at house reef the maldives
The house reef plunges abruptly, sometimes almost vertically. These divers may have 80 meters of water beneath them.

There is a giddy feeling to slide over the edge at the surface and see 30-40 meters down. The water is crystal clear so that the distance actually feels shorter. The house reef is a fireworks display of fish in the most stunning colors, patterns and sizes. Here you will also see moray eels, octopus and turtles that in slow majesty swims along the reef.

muräna vid ett husrev i maldiverna
Giant morray eel thrive in cavities in the house reef.

Some islands in the Maldives has better house reefs than others. And then there Alila Villas Hadahaa. This very morning, we two dolphins came swimming along the reef, about 30 meters from the beach. Here it is normal that you get to swim with the curious leopard sharks, just a few feet away. Or for that matter; dolphins. Resort's marketing manager Eugene, told me that he had seen a blue marlin just off the house reef! A blue marlin can weigh several hundred pounds and is a fast hunter who keeps to the open sea. Normally it shouldn't be this close to an island. But this happens as stated above. So my wish list looks like this right now:

# 1 - Swim with dolphins

delfiner i maldiverna

In fierce competition with number two, wins swimming with these lovely creatures. And here it is possible. Staff here have actually swum along the reef in the company of dolphins.

# 2 - Swimming with leopard

leopard haj i maldiverna

The day before yesterday, a Japanese couple swum with a leopardshark, only a few hundred meters from our house. Can they, we can!

# 3 - encounter a grouper

grouper and diver in the maldives

Grouper is a collective name for a genus of fish in which the larger species can exceed one meter long and weigh over 100 kg. The largest grouper caught weighed nearly 200 kg and was 1.8 meters long. Normally you do not encounter them at a house reef. But so has Alila Villas an unusual reef where you actually have a chance to see these big boys.