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the frequency of success others have enjoyed
at this site, lovely reef tropicals were all that
populated my image download. It was the same
story on our second dive at
Moofushi Rock
:
The visibility was marginal, and the manta
action was sparse.
That changed the next day at South Ari
Atoll on
Rangali Madivaru
(“madivaru”
means “ray” in the local language, appropriately
enough). We swam along a shallow sloping
reef that featured incredible manta activity —
in terms of both the number encountered and
the ease of proximity. Everyone in the water
had wonderful close encounters with the rays
and captured images with two or three in the
frame. As if to underscore how special this dive
was, our second dive on the site three hours
later featured a few encounters but nothing
at all like the rich rewards of the morning.
Whether the tide or the current or karma was
the differentiator, the lightning in the bottle on
that morning dive had escaped by noon.
Maldives reprised was a great success. We
hit our marks. We found the iconic mantas in
the south and enjoyed our time in the north as
the only liveaboard on the horizon. We didn’t
get a whale shark encounter, but on balance
that was fine with us. I doubt the whale sharks
missed us very much either.
AD
Clockwise from
above:
Batfish
are resident at
Danbu Thila. At
some point in
the cruise most
liveaboards put on
a beach barbecue,
complete with
sand sculptures.
The gray reef
sharks at Fish
Head benefit from
the location’s
protected status.
Giant squirrelfish
swim at
Himendhoo Rock.
Emperor angelfish
traverse the reef at
Horubadhoo Thila.