Schlagwort-Archive: sharks

Maldives

Digital Nomad Stop #13 – Fuvahmulah, Maldives

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After our India adventures, it felt just a little too early to return to (cold, grey) Austria and as I was already in Asia, I decided to do a little stop on the way home. As I hadn’t been scuba diving for a few years, the Maldives sounded very appealing. I had done a liveaboard here in 2018, but this time I knew I had to work and therefore needed to stay on an island rather than on a boat where WiFi is not that reliable. A quick research got me set on the Southern island of Fuvahmulah, promising 100% guarantee on diving with tiger sharks. Tiger sharks, one of the main species of shark that was still missing in my ‚collection‘! So I booked myself a diving and accommodation package for a week’s stay, diving in the mornings and working in the afternoons and evenings. And of course, exploring some of the quite little island in between!

I was lucky to meet some really nice buddies to dive with and to explore the island with. Together, we did 6 tiger shark dives and 8 other dives along the reef. During the other dives, we were not as lucky and only faintly saw a thresher shark at one point. However, there were plenty of reef sharks, moray eels, turtles and just overall lots of beautiful schools of fish and healthy looking reefs!

The shark dives were the highlight of course. There is a feeding station where dive masters hide tuna heads underneath some rocks which the sharks will then smell and start circling around and search for them. Sometimes, they were then really digging into the rocks, picking them up and even accidentally swallowing some (and spitting them out again). In the end, they always found the tuna of course! Really cool to watch and we were able to get real close. My favourite dive was one of the shark dives where we followed the reef a bit afterwards and I went really deep with my buddy. Down there, we saw the sharks coming up from the bottom and at one point some were circling around us. Super cool!

Overall it was a great week and my dive/work schedule worked out pretty well. It’s definitely something I can imagine doing more often – although unfortunately all my bucket list diving destinations are liveaboard-based now. Guess I gotta wait for better WiFi on the boats! For now, here are some more photos.

French Polynesia, World Trip 2018-19

Fakarava – the best of the Tuamotus

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Seems like we saved the best for the end! Our last island in the Tuamotus was a pleasant surprise: white sand beaches and underwater sharks galore! Fakarava’s North and South Passes are known for being among the best dive sites in the world…But after the rather disappointing dives in Tikehau and Rangiroa, we weren’t sure what to expect. Luckily, Fakarava delivered! We first dived the South Pass, which was a very choppy 2.5h boat ride away from the main island. But – it was worth it! Both dives were amazing: We finally saw rather healthy coral, lots of fish aaand…hundreds of sharks!! I’m not exaggerating. There were walls of grey reef sharks waiting for us underwater where we stopped a couple of times at different depths to admire the action. The second dive had some crazy currents and a little less shark action, but was still really great. Happy diving times!

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Another day, we dove the North Pass, which was only a 20min boat ride away. Much easier! I loved our one dive there and wished we could have done more still: Loads of fish – big schools – everywhere, here and there some grey reef sharks, not quite as many as in the South Pass, but still plenty. And beautiful coral! We had some nice drift during our dive and could just glide along and watch things. Awesome!

The rest of our time in Fakarava was spent cycling around the island and stopping at various spots for snorkelling. I was sooo happy to see some nice coral again after all the grey dead coral of Tikehau and Rangiroa. And there were always some sharks around, wherever you jumped into the water! Usually blacktips, but in town and around the harbour there are also a couple of shy lemon sharks which we tried to approach sometimes.

Above water, Fakarava was beautiful as well! I liked the main village Rotoava, quiet and peaceful, and finally we had some nice sandy beaches again! Especially the stretch at PK9 (kilometer 9 up North past the airport) is pretty with white sands, turquoise waters and of course photogenic palm trees. It was quite a cycle up there, but we managed to go twice. I had heard before that there is good snorkelling too, but when we went into the water here, we only saw dead coral. Maybe we should have swam out farther? But there were quite some waves every time we were there, so not the best snorkelling conditions anyways. More time to enjoy the beauty above water then!

We ended up liking Fakarava best out of the three islands we visited in the Tuamotus and would have probably traded a day in Tikehau or Rangiroa for more time in Fakarava in hindsight. If I was to return to French Polynesia, I wouldn’t mind going to Fakarava again for some more diving and lagoon tours, which we didn’t manage to do this time.

Fiji, World Trip 2018-19

One week in Fiji – Viti Levu

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We were looking forward to Fiji to get a break from the rather difficult travelling in the Solomon Islands and Vanuatu. Finally there were cheap busses available, actual working Wi-Fi in the hostels and some good Indian food. Yummy!

The first night we stayed in Nadi after arriving late from Port Vila, but didn’t really get to see the city. We only stopped by a medical clinic the next day to get Mathijs‘ wound finally checked by a doctor. The clinic was rather simple – not as shocking as Nepal back then with my dad, but not very clean or modern. Somehow we had thought Fiji was more developed already. Anyways, all the equipment was sterile and new, so good enough!

We then hopped on a bus all the way to Suva, which took 4.5 h on a modern, air-con service. In Suva we treated ourselves to some delicious Indian food and then took yet another bus to get to the Colo-i-Suva Eco Lodge next to the rain forest park with the same name. It’s a nice lodge with a pretty setting for breakfast and you wake up to the sound of birds. The rain-forest park was a bit odd on the other hand. No-one had informed us that you had to walk about 2 km on a gravel road to get to the trails. Mathijs didn’t join in the end due to his foot. The trails were odd and not marked at all. I followed the main trail until it brought me back to the gravel road – but never really knew where I was headed. There are some pretty little waterfalls and pools you can swim in – with groups of locals jumping from high rocks. It was nice to follow the trail along the river for a bit – but I always felt like I was walking without a „purpose“ – like a point you want to reach. As I was by myself and didn’t know about the swimming options anyways, I didn’t stay too long. Well – when the trail was finished, I just walked back! There were some smaller trails along the way but they were quite overgrown, full of spider webs and without knowing where they would bring me, I didn’t feel in the mood to fight my way through the jungle. Lol. That being said, if you’re coming by car and want a nice dip in some pools, slide down a waterfall etc, then this park is for sure a nice stop along the way!

After we lost about 4 h of our day to Tongan travel planning (and still have to hope it all works out in the end), we made our way to Suva, had a small lunch snack and then walked around the city for a bit. Our verdict: Not much to see but it’s very green and so far the nicest city we’ve seen in the South Pacific!

Another 1.5 h bus ride brought us to Pacific Harbour where we spent lots of time relaxing and planning our time in Tonga and French Polynesia. Booking the air pass for French Polynesia took us about 6 h and cost us many nerves… but it’s done!! And that’s the most important.

French Polynesia planning!
Pacific Harbour
Pacific Harbour

The original reason to come to Pacific Harbour though, was to go shark diving! Unfortunately Mathijs couldn’t join due to his wound, so I did 2 dives by myself. What an experience!! I expected lots of sharks but thought that most would be smaller reef sharks. Nope! At times there were 10 massive bull sharks circling around the feeding station!! Plus some huge nurse sharks and the really cool lemon sharks. In addition there were the usual reef sharks of course, but these were so small in comparison that I didn’t even pay much attention to them. But seeing those bulls was freaking awesome!!! It was quite a show dive though of course. The sharks are being fed, and you have to kneel behind a wall of dead coral and just watch. It’s cool to have experienced it, but I don’t need to do it again. I prefer „real“ dives.

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We then made our way to the Beachouse accommodation at Coral Coast for a night. The location was beautiful!! Lots of palm trees, a white sand beach and clear water, looking very inviting. We had some good relaxing time here. Originally I had wanted to go snorkelling, but there was a cold wind for most of our time there, so we were in long sleeves and not really tempted to go for a swim. Ok, after all it is winter on Fiji!

From the Beachouse, we took a minibus back to Nadi, where we just spent one more (short) night before our flight to the next South Pacific nation: Tonga! Because our time in Fiji was so short, I won’t do the usual country summary – but here are some more pictures for those interested: Fiji Pictures