Our favourite dive sites in April and May
Already in April the upcoming “Manta Season” started to announce itself with sightings of their smaller cousin, the mobula rays. We saw 7 mobulas while visiting our favorite snorkel site Turtle Reef and some more when we went to visit the sandbank and snorkel at Angafaru, another UNESCO protected area here in the Baa Atoll. But also during several dives we encountered the mobula rays, it seemed like they were the same group circling our islands. During a PADI Open Water Diver course dive and another time during a Discover Scuba Dive at our house reef we had a group of 4 mobulas hanging around for nearly 10 minutes, so we could get a good look.
We still had to decide on a new favourite dive site for April, and chose the Blue Hole as we encountered another one of Baa Atoll’s highlights – a huge guitarshark. With a bit of luck we see them there on a fairly regular basis. The Blue Hole is about 20 min boat ride away from our resort and offers relaxed diving and the good visibility in April made it even more beautiful. The Blue Hole has 3 entries or exits at 6m, 12m and 18m. It is wider at the bottom and more narrow towards the top, so we have to swim through one behind the other. Inside the hole are some pretty soft corals, batfish hang around the entrance, lobsters hide in the little crevices and sometimes a nurse shark too.
May is typically a rainy month, due the arrival of the southwest monsoon. It doesn’t affect the diving, but it can be a bumpy boat ride, so we try not to go very far. Luckily, we have plenty of dive sites in a range of 5 to 15 min boat ride.
Therefore our favourite dive site in May was Dhonfanu Wall, less than 10 min away. The wall has small overhangs at different depths which are good hiding places for stingrays and turtles. Another highlight here, are the rather unique pink anemones with their proud clownfish who claimed them. We recommend to take along a torch to enjoy the colourful corals and to look for the macro life such as pipefish. Here we can also find the very funny looking Maldivian sponge snail, as well as many crabs and shrimps.
