Sri Lanka local Guides started the underwater mapping initiative a few years ago and were able to map so many dive locations around our beautiful country Sri Lanka. However, we couldn’t take our underwater
mapping to the international level.
This is the story of our first-ever underwater mapping expedition outside Sri Lanka.
The Maldives
The Maldives is a country consisting of thousands of little islands. In Sri Lankan terms we called it “Mala Divayina”( Necklace Islands). The Maldives lies southwest of Sri Lanka and India, about 750 km (470 miles; 400 nautical miles) from the Asian continent’s mainland. The Maldives is a chain of 26 atolls(a group of islands) that stretches across the equator from the northmost “Ihavandhippolhu” Atoll to the southmost Addu Atoll.
Interesting facts : The Maldives land area of all the islands comprises 298 square kms(115 sq mi)
Maldives is one of the world’s most geographically dispersed sovereign states and the smallest Asian country.
We arrived at Maldives international airport( it’s a required island) between Male City and Hulumale Islands. We arrived there late at night, hence we stayed at a hotel in Hulumalee. The next day we did some exploring in the Male City and around mid day we headed for our first island Thulusdhoo .
Thulusdhoo is about 27kms(14nmi) away from Male City island. It’s was a 35min ride in the speed boat.
We arrived at Thulusdoo boat jetty in the evening and went to our accommodation place directly.(Surf Deck Guest House). I’ll give a separate detailed post about Maldive Island life as this is dedicated for underwater mapping.
We used Feena Diving center as our Dive guides for the mapping expedition.
We explored four dive sites in Thulusdoo. 3 of them were near Thuludhoo island. But for one site we had to go almost all the way back to Hulumalee. The sites were
- Diffusi Sand Bank - pending
- Zig Zag Reef - pending
- Foah Male Shark and Ray Point - https://goo.gl/maps/XyLYwrXew2gVLcYN8
- Fish Tank(Aquarium) - https://goo.gl/maps/1UbQZkrSRN1tcRRm7
It was an amazing experience. Our first dive adventures outside our country. Maldives’ aquatic life is a totally novel world for us. We are simply lost in the beautiful underwater world near Thulusdhoo. We saw a lot of beautiful fish and other aquatic creatures. Met many Turtle friends and Nurse Sharks at Thulusdhoo.
The shark point feeding site is not that beautiful but it was the most existing dive because of the Tiger Sharks, and Bull Sharks are known to hang around there a lot.
We finished our Thulusdhoo expedition in 4 days. The next destination is Rashdhoo… tune in for more existing stuff
#LGSealTeam
The video is still under processing. @kasunaaa @indahnuria my #LGSealTeam buddies hope you like this. @KashifMisidia until you go underwater wih us please enjoy the video.
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? Where is the details about Rashdhooo?
. I too enjoy snorkeling a lot