Go Under The Waves, Stop Lounging On The Beach!
The world below the waves is a very different place. Excepting the possibility of catchy, irritating songs orchestrated by cartoon crabs, life under the sea is a remarkable experience, especially as it so ably inverts everything we know about a place when we’re above the waves. A classic example? The Maldives. Proud of its ‘desert island’ image and a successful holiday location for its ability to sell that notion. Ignoring the tourist interest, this is a place that can only boast somewhere between three hundred thousand and four hundred thousand human residents. Even the capital, Male, seems precariously balanced on a tiny island poking out of the sea. Under the waves however, Maldives diving and you see an inverted world of mountainous seabed and overpopulated coral. Science hasn’t even described the countless species of the Maldivian reefs, with hundreds of species to study.
Scuba Diving holidays are very much a gateway to an alien world comparatively on your doorstep, and many resorts are moving in to claim a stake in this burgeoning industry. The Maldives are truly among the world’s premier scuba diving destinations. Not only are there a plethora of diving spots and the infrastructure to support them, but the array of choices will suit people of any proficiency (and some hotels allow free diving for qualified scuba divers). Throughout the world’s tropical zones you will find diving spots new and old. The Great Barrier Reef and Grenada still remain a fantastic place to dive, but new and emerging markets are being formed in places like Mozambique and Bali.
It’s not all about the dramatic tropics though. If you want to dive somewhere dramatically different to normal, try Red Sea Diving on the South coast of Egypt (Sinai). Aside from the usual corals, the area boasts a large population of (not usually aggressive!) sharks. But most fascinatingly, the Red Sea gives us an altered perspective of the human world above with an extensive ship graveyard. The strategic significance of Suez and the later tourist industry has provided the seabed with many tragic wrecks over the centuries. One popular reef for scuba divers is infamous among sailors: The Sha’b Abu Nuhas has claimed 7 ships (maybe even more), first by sinking them and later by incorporating their hulls into its habitat.
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