Category Archives: Holidays

Maldives 2017

The excitement had been building for months, our trip to the Maldives was nearly here, well you can imagine how excited we all were when the day finally arrived.

For me it started really well, my friend and dive buddy for the holiday managed to get me into the lounge with her at the airport, now this is the way to start your holiday, no shops, no hustle and bustle… bliss

We were all off to Paradise, with the promise of Palm trees, white sandy beaches and sunshine.

Paradise yes, sunshine NO!

The day we arrived in Malé, the area was experiencing a Tropical storm, it seems we had bought the British weather with us, sideways rain and gusting winds met us at the airport, the boats were bouncing all over the place in the harbour to take their guests to their beautiful Island resorts.

This isn’t quite like the pictures in the guide books… well… maybe like a guide book to the UK 😉

We eagerly waited at the airport for our transfer to MV blue Voyager, which was to be our home for the next 12 days. We were picked up on Blue Shadow, the Dhoni for Voyager, the ‘Dhoni’ is essentially a smaller boat that all the dive gear is stored on, which takes you off to the dive sites, so we had two boats at our disposal for the holiday, now I’m feeling spoiled.

 

After introductions, boat briefings and of course lots of unpacking, we had a relaxed dinner and an early night to make up for the long journey, we were all looking forward to the first day of diving.

 

1st December 2017

Waking up at 6am was made easier by being handed a cup of tea whilst in bed, off for briefings and the first dive of the holiday, thorough briefings make the dives so much easier. We were still moored in North Malé Atoll, awaiting two more guests who had been delayed by the storm the previous day, so Back Faru was our first dive, this was an easy bimble for our check dive, with moray eels every few meters, a good start to the diving. Second dive of the trip was to be on Lanken Manta cleaning station, we were of course all hopeful for a glimpse of a Manta given the dive site name, we were not disappointed, the moment we dropped onto the station we had a Manta cruising around for us to watch, all mesmerized. There were a few shark shaped shadows at the edge of the reef, but they didn’t come in too close.

The grinning faces back on the Dhoni confirmed that everyone had thoroughly enjoyed their encounter with the first manta of the holiday.

Day one was topped off with the most sublime curry for dinner, I think we will be bringing the chef home, if we make it on the plane with our big bellies at the end of the holiday.

 

2nd December

A much better start to the day, the sky was a lot brighter. An early start again, time for briefings and dives. We had now moved down to South Malé Atoll.

First dive of the day was at Karumba, this lovely slow drift gave us lots of life to enjoy, we dropped in straight into a small shoal of Bat/Banner fish, early into the dive we were graced with an Eagle Ray gently drifting past us, closely followed by 2 or 3 black tip reef sharks, happily swimming around for our cameras, they weren’t shy either, coming in quite close. Also lots of the little critters too, octopus, Banded Shrimp, a lovely baby moray eel hiding in its little hole.

It felt like no time before we had to head for the surface, but hey, it was time for breakfast!

For our second dive of the day we were taken to Valassaru Caves, which are actually overhangs rather than caves, they provided plenty of places for the fish to hide. Our awesome guide Ali was trying to point something out to me in one of the deeper overhangs, I really thought he was shining the torch at a big rock… until it opened its mouth, I actually jumped underwater as I wasn’t expecting the ‘rock’ to move! What Ali had spotted was a huge Marbled Grouper.

Dive three was a bit faster, this is practice for what’s to come…. weeeeeeeeeeeeeee
If you blinked, you missed a lot, you have got to love fast drift dives, they are exciting.

We were then very happy when we were told that we could have a night dive today, a chance to catch some different fish out. Heart Tilha is a small pinnacle inside one of the island lagoons which meant there was no current, a nice easy bimble around a small pinnacle made for a relaxing end to the day, I don’t think I’ve ever seen so many feather stars, such beautiful colours and patterns.

The mango sauce at dinner seemed to be a winner all round, so a great day was finished off nicely.

 

3rd December

We stayed in South Malé Atoll for another day. Today was time for the practice run for the channel diving, we dropped down onto Cocoa Thila with a small current running, once down behind the pinnacles at the edge, it eased off to allow you to slowly make your way along the bottom to find a spot on the edge, once hooked on we could wait and watch. This dive we had just a couple of sharks cruising by, but it was a great taster of what was to come.

After breakfast, dive two was the same spot, the current had dropped a little, so it was easier to settle and watch, at least five Reef Sharks were cruising around, sadly it was all too soon before we had to come up off the ledge, and hook into a plateau further along the reef to watch all of the little fish going about their daily lives.

Todays diving was topped off to the max… Alimatha for our night dive.

This is where we witnessed a throng of nurse sharks and rays looking for their dinner in the sand, quite frankly they don’t care who they bump in their quest for food, it was all quite exciting, and non-stop.

There must have been about 8 sharks swimming around and maybe 4 or 5 rays. At one point though they all lined themselves up in the middle of the group, it was like they were having a mid-meal nap!

 

We had a few uninvited dinner guests as well, the appearance of a few Lion Fish at the edge of the group proved to be a pain, unfortunately literally for one of our guests, whilst in his quest to shoo one away with his torch to stop it from touching another diver, he got stung on the thumb. But all was ok the next day, he still had his thumb in-tact, just worse the wear for a very painful few hours.

 

4th December

So it seems we can’t escape the rain just yet, but it could be worse, it could be cold and rainy like home, but we are still at a balmy 28 degrees, so it’s all good.

We dropped onto the edge of the channel Miyaru Kandu, hopeful for the sharks, but unfortunately today was not the day, little to no current meant they weren’t out to play, so a very easy gentle reef wall dive, lots of little stuff to look at.

We then moved on to find another dive site to explore, always with the hope that some sharks or rays would glide past. The final dive of the day was at Fotteyo Muli, a site known for its amazing soft corals. Sheer walls with small indents and swim throughs with beautiful soft corals hanging from the ceiling of the overhangs made this a feast for the eyes. A fair amount of anemone and clown fish always provide entertainment.

Our itinerary is now being determined by the storm that has been going through the Maldives, the storm is heading North, so we are heading South, hoping for Mantas, more Sharks and if we are lucky some Whaleshark encounters… let’s see what the next 8 days offer up to us. We can’t control the weather, so we will be making the most of what we are offered.

 

5th December

We started the day at the same site as yesterdays last dive, time to see the beautiful soft corals in the morning light. Fotteyo proved to be a very pretty dive again, the soft corals in the morning light were lovely, lots of life buzzing around, we were lucky enough to see a free swimming moray, that then made its way into the hole of another moray, there was no aggression, so they must have been good buddies.

During the day we continued heading further south, we left South Malé Atoll, moving into Vaavu Atoll, which given the appearance of that lovely round yellow object in the sky is definitely the right way to be heading, we are leaving the storm behind us now and are seeing the results, blue water and bright skies, this is what the Maldives is meant to look like.

We were then in for a fun filled start to the second dive of the day, a steady current running along the side of the reef at Rakeedhoo gave us a great fly-by looking at lots of fish, once at the corner of the channel, the current eased right up to allow us to bimble along the reef to take in all the little critters making the sheer wall their home. We were graced with a huge Napoleon Wrasse at then end of the dive just before we had to come up.

Because of the weather affecting the visibility etc, our guide has tried not to put peoples expectation up too high, on our final dive of the day, this paid off.

We dropped in on Mulaku Kandu not expecting too much but were delighted to encounter Grey Reef sharks, White Tip Reef sharks, a Marbled Ray, schools of Barracuda, and the show was stolen by a very cute baby Eagle Ray, who was gracefully gliding above us.

 

 

6^th December

We had now progressed further south into Meemu Atoll. Dive one today was a fantastic dive. Dropping onto Gaahura Kandu, we started with a gentle swim down the side of the reef, this soon elevated into an exciting hook in on the corner of the channel to watch schooling barracuda, schooling jacks and of course a few sharks cruising around, flitting in and out of the schools of fish. As usual it was a disappointment when we had to unhook to go shallower, damn that NDL, we would have stayed all day if we could. However coming slowly up the reef wall at the very edge of this channel was a stunning array of coral heads, with nooks and crannies for hundreds of fish to hide in and go about their lives, giving us so much to look at whilst we hovered around on our safety stop, we even had a lovely Marbled Ray cruise past us at 5m, however due to having his head in a hole getting a picture, Dave completely missed it!

If we were going home today, we would all be very happy campers after dive two on Muli Corner. This goes down as one of the EPIC dives of the holiday, if you were in the right place that is… he hemmm

It started as all epic dives do, with no camera! We were expecting a strong current on a channel dive, no point having expensive kit bouncing around on the rocks when trying to hook in, however in true sods law style, we had… wait for it… Grey Reef sharks at about 25m right at the start, with the silhouettes of mantas high above us on the reef plateau, good vibes from the start. As we levelled up a bit we had a stunning shoal of Harlequin Sweetlips, with the grey reef sharks cruising along below us now, as we came up over the top of the gently sloping reef we had an array of exciting events waiting for us, lots of the usual little stuff buzzing around, shoal of Fusileers, a huge octopus in it’s hidey-hole, one that Ali the guide probably knows well to have found him in there. We were graced with a juvenile Black tip reef shark, all of 2 feet long, circling us, I felt like a helicopter above a coral head trying to keep track of it, such a lovely encounter. We then had an abundance of Turtles either sleeping under small coral head ledges, or swimming around joining in the fun, I’m sure I saw about 8 different individuals, we were then graced by two Mantas floating past and through us, it was a case of not knowing which way to look, Mantas in one direction, sharks in another, turtles over there, goodness we didn’t think it could get any better, until whilst watching one of the many turtles, we spied a mêlée off to one side, coming our way, should we be concerned that a large beigy-grey mêlée of sharks, quite large ones, on the hunt, having a bit of a tussle were heading towards us, I think Natasha and I had the same thought…  but we’re ok, they are just nurse sharks, the larger ones were in excess of 3m long, wow…. what a dive. With most of it pretty shallow, we all had plenty of air to last the full hour we were allowed, none of us wanted to come up, but all good things must end… for now.

Luckily, for the disbelievers among you reading this saying “no pictures no proof…” Nat and Annette captured most of it on GoPro, hurrah!

The last dive for the day was rapid, but uneventful by the standard set on dive 2… however little did we know the best was yet to come.

We moored up for dinner, whilst everyone else was happily scoffing their beautifully crafted desserts, that I couldn’t eat, our guide rushed through the door to announce that there was an exciting visitor at the back of the boat, I was able to go and get the first shots of our unexpected dinner guest… directly off the back of the boat, a Whaleshark had decided to come and have his dinner too.

Of course I was very quickly joined by 23 other very happy gleeful people taking in this amazing creature, it probably took all the restraint we could muster to not get straight in, but all being respectful of this stunning animal in front of us, we went up to the Sky Lounge for our briefing on the guidelines for this encounter, if we were to get into the water to snorkel, there were some rules, which I am very happy to see!!

There was a limited number of guests allowed in at a time, minimum distance to be kept etc etc.

The first group were allowed in to gently encounter this amazing animal. Quite amusingly, he pretty much ignored us whilst he ate his dinner. To say we were emotional is an understatement. To our surprise, he stayed at the back of our boat for several hours, I can only imagine the MV blue Voyagers lights attracted the best plankton. We were relieved and lucky to see that there were only 3 boats in the area, the animal was not swarmed, at one point there was a small set of red lights making its way to our boat, we amusing realised that one of the other boats was flying over a drone to see what was happening… we waved gleefully showing off our 5m long guest!

We can only hope that it might give us a swim by on one of our dives tomorrow. This sure did make up for the dodgy start we had due to the unforeseen weather at the beginning of the trip. Sweet dreams all round after this encounter I think!

 

7^th December

We are leaving the most southern stop of the trip today, sadly heading back up through the atolls back to Malé, which of course means the end of the trip is approaching, but there’s still a few days left yet!!

Our first dive was on Dhiha Magili corner, on this one it was lots of the smaller stuff, including a turtle here or there, you can see they are the master of disguise, for the few who stayed on the boat, they were treated to a pod of dolphins playing on the surface near the boat. Difushi Kandi, our second dive also provided lots of the little stuff, lots of time to practice my signature picture, the backside of clown fish as they disappear into their anemone, I’m getting really good at that shot now!

 

The whole day paled into insignificance during the third dive of the day, we were going to chance a Manta Cleaning Station, Kurali. The best time to do this dive is usually the morning, but it was worth a shot, if not a bimble along the reef would do us just fine. We dropped onto the main cleaning station and all was quiet, so off we went after a while thinking it was going to be a quiet one, a little bit further along the channel, we were told to drop down next to a much smaller rock, and were duly treated to a good 30-40 minutes of manta action, from my spot at the back of the rock, I could see it playing over the divers at the front of the rock, then gliding round the back, and the first time it came past, it swam right over me, what a treat! At one point I managed to get a shot of its belly blocking out the sun.

I watched with glee as one of them swam right over Gareths head, it came so close, that I’m sure it buzzed him. At one point I was filming a manta at the main rock, I looked over to Naserra and Glen to see Glen pointing behind me, I panned round with the camera to see another manta being sneaky hiding behind the main group, then what would you know a third one turned up, but as the main attraction was in front, most people didn’t know it was there, I’ll share the video so they can see what they missed, just like buses, 3 come along at once!

Before we knew it, we had to leave to do our safety stop, as we were gliding along, gently drifting upwards, another manta came into view below us making its way along the channel to the mini cleaning station, I had enough air to have stayed for another 20 minutes… why do these dives have to end after an hour??

We are now hoping that tomorrow morning will deliver a similar event. Fingers crossed!

 

8th December

After the dive yesterday afternoon, we were hopeful, but the mantas decided to elude us this morning, to amuse us we had the eel garden spread out in front of us.

People saw lots of different stuff on dive two, we had Mantas gliding past us at about 25m, pretty cool.

 

 

The last dive of the day was on a lovely wall at Vatterru, with the treat of a huge Anemone colony, there were clown fish everywhere! But they are masters at disappearing at the precise moment you press the camera button, either no fish, or their backside…. hmmmm my speciality again.

Nassera and Glen were treated to a rare sight of a Guitar Shark on the corner, quite a lucky find for the few who saw it, nice one!

 

9th December

Jumping in on Vatteru again this morning, a nice easy bimble along the wall with many overhangs to explore, with some Octopus action on our safety stop, we watched as a slightly larger octopus basically evicted a smaller one out of his little hidey-hole, I was fascinated with them, they move with such grace.

After several hours motoring back up to Vaavu Atoll, we were ready for dive 2 of the day, we were jumping in on Niyaru Kandu where grey reef sharks, white tip reef sharks, an eagle ray and a school of jack fish were on the list of sightings.

 

We had a bit of a fight against a current to get to the corner, once there we had a few reef sharks cruising around over the flat and out in the blue, but they soon disappeared when the ‘pro-photographers’ came along 10m off the reef to make sure they got the good shots of them, and as if by magic, poof, the sharks were gone, so we had nothing left to see. No other real big stuff turned up. There is always the next dive.

Dive 3 was much of the same, a battle across the channel mouth didn’t yield the results hoped for, just a lot of air used.

 

10th December

We are well on our way back now sadly. Back to South Malé Atoll, we re-visited a spot we dove on the way out a week ago, hoping for some more shark action.

Cocoa Thila did not disappoint. We dropped down onto the end of the Thila in the channel, at first we thought we were in for a quiet one, hooked in at the corner we didn’t see too much, just a ray going past, so we all un-hooked and drifted back a long the wall a short distance, as we reached the indentation in the side of the Thila, we were all in for a fantastic treat, as a shoal of sharks were cruising past. The large grey reef sharks were coming in pretty close, for me the baby black tips were the highlight, cute sharks!!!

Our second dive of the day was the Kudu Giri Wreck, this was definitely one for the smaller aquatic life, including Pipe fish, shoals of Glassfish, Trevally, Hawkfish, Scorpionfish and turtles.

 

 

 

 

The Kudu Giri was purposefully sunk as an artificial reef, next to a small pinnacle, it is a great little wreck, that can easily be covered end to end in one dive, still allowing time to explore the reef walls of the pinnacle.

 

 

 

 

The third dive of the day was a very odd one for me, it is called Fish Tank, it is known for the huge abundance of feeding aquatic life, because it is off the jetty of a tuna canning factory, there is always some leftovers for the local fish to get an easy meal.

It was pretty crowded down there, fish everywhere feeding on the carcasses of the tuna. The Moray Eel population is massive, as are the morays themselves, they look like they are on steroids they are so large, clearly they have an easy living there, the highlight for me was when Sophie came and took me away from the main spectacle to show me a baby yellow box fish she had found, cute doesn’t cover it!

That was one of only two bits I enjoyed on this dive, the second was finding two juvenile sweetlips, they are so cute as they appear very confused, swimming around fast and erratic like they’ve had about 20 cans of red bull!

 

11^th December

This is our last day of diving on the liveaboard, so of course we are all hoping for something special.

Being so close to Malé now, what could we expect?

Well we weren’t disappointed!
We were back at Lanken Manta cleaning station, sadly there were also several other boats around, so it was very busy with divers.

 

For most of the last week we have been the only ones on the dive sites… we had been spoilt! Until this dive we hadn’t realise how spoiled we had been, it was diver soup down there, it felt really crowded. But the show in front of us more than made up for it, and what a show we had.

We were all dropping in and before we could get settled we were treated to the ballet of the mantas, this went on for a good 45 minutes, at one point I counted 7 Mantas circling the small cleaning station, they seemed to be playing more than being cleaned, they were having fun, and so were we!

As usual, it was with a heavy heart that we had to leave the mantas and come up to the surface again.

What a way to end the trip!

 

 

We had one more dive allowable, so a small Thila was chosen for the final dive of the holiday, after the Mantas, it was very sedate, a nice easy bimble, the viz wasn’t as good as we had been used to, Gareth likened it to Wraysbury… steady on there… we could see at least 8-10 metres!

For me the highlight of this last dive was finding a long nose hawkfish hiding in the coral.

 

As an end of trip treat, our last night on the boat meant one more meal, and we had been promised the curry again… And it was Goooooooood, the chef makes the BEST Dhal!! full bellies all round, it was fantastic!!

We then finished the evening off with a game of Cards against Humanity, for me this was my first encounter with the game, I’ve of course heard of it, but never played it. What was even more weird, is that previous guests had put their own stamp on the game and made some changes to the answers… Hmmmm, well I can safely say I know a few of the guests sense of humour a bit more now, and I will be afraid… very afraid.

 

For some of our group, this was the end of the trip, airport in the morning, and off home. However there is 3 days of R&R at Bandos Resort booked in for six of our group, some snorkelling, massages and lazing by the pool coming up, with perhaps a few cocktails thrown in for good measure.

 

MANTAS    SHARKS    TURTLES    WHALESHARK
What more could you want!?!

 

How about white sandy beaches, palm trees and sunsets….

 

 

I believe by the end of the three days on Bandos Resort we had all had a great time!

Sue had managed to squeeze in as much snorkelling as possible, Gareth had managed to get some tranquil reading time in and enjoyed snorkelling off the beach right by the rooms, Nassera and I decided to get some Paddle Boarding lessons and had a good go at the watersports on offer, along with sampling the spa and cocktails.

We had regular sightings of the Crane, who was quite happy to fish with all the guests nearby, he’s obviously used to the attention.

Did I mention that we were thrilled on day one to see juvenile reef sharks in the shallows just off our beach, basically learning how to hunt in the shoals of fish lining the beach, being just half a meter away from them was amazing.

I won’t go into just how much food we all ate, all-inclusive means seconds and as many desserts as you can handle!

The last day finally arrived, it was with a heavy heart that I had to say goodbye to the sunshine and unlimited food.

Now just to decide what movies to watch on the plane!

We have all been counting down to this holiday of a lifetime for over 18 months and I don’t think I even read the full itinerary before handing over my deposit to secure my place.

The Galapagos….. Ocean Views biggest dive trip yet…. 12 days experiencing all the wonderful things mother nature has created both above and below the water.

A lot has changed since paying over my deposit – Brexit, Trump and most importantly the exchange rate between the dollar and the pound meaning the price going up a bit but hey, this is a trip of a lifetime, not to be repeated so it is a sound investment. There was no way this holiday was going to be dull or mundane!

The BBC seemed to know that we had this trip planned and screened an amazing three part documentary on this unique location with the last episode showing the day before we flew……. there was the chance of schooling hammerheads, sea lions, mola mola, whale sharks, manta rays, silky sharks, mobula rays, the kitchen sink……. it promised to be THE most amazing trip.

After a long flight, we finally touched down in Guayaquil (Ecuador) on Good Friday. Tired and excited we made our way to the hotel for a good night’s sleep ready for some sightseeing on Saturday before transferring to the Galapagos Sky live aboard on Easter Sunday.

Sightseeing around Guayaquil was interesting and we visited Iguana Square and then climbed the 444 steps to the highest point to take in the 360 degree views of the city. It was a hot day wandering around what is surprisingly a very clean, modern and pretty city. The definite highlight of the day being the ‘crocodiles’ at the Isla Santa Ecological Park.

Sunday, we completed the final leg of our travel to arrive on San Christobal Island where we were greeted with the sight and smell of sea lions and pelicans!

Finally on board we set about unpacking and assembling dive kit ready for our check out dive. Our dive guides for the week would be Solan and Max. Max used the tannoy system on the boat to provide information i.e. get up, eat, dive, and signed off by giving quite a convincing impression of a sea lion just to be sure we heard him.

We backward rolled in for the check dive around 5.00pm. Not the most thrilling dive, murky, cold and not much to see but it served its purpose and we successfully adjusted our weights and checked everything worked ready for the start of the real adventure tomorrow.

Monday 17th April

Today there would be three dives with the opportunity to see the sea lions in the water and Red Lipped Bat fish. Pinson Island was our first stop and we would be diving Dumb Rock. This would be the opportunity to see the Red Lipped Bat fish. The sea bed was quite baron apart from being covered in sea stars of all shapes and sizes. There were some Red Lipped Bat fish scuttling along the sea bed but as the dive groups seemed to be travelling in packs they were scared off before I had an opportunity to get a picture.

We then moved on to Santiago Island for two dives at Cousins Rock. The water temperature was cooler here, around 24 degrees, but as dive times are limited to 45 mins the cold wouldn’t present too much of an issue but I put my heated vest on just in case. You could clearly see and feel the thermoclines. It was another gentle drift dive where we were buzzed by a sea lion.

Later that day the crew took us through the procedure for boat evacuation and we all had to put on our life vests which caused much amusement. We were then issued with Nautilus LifeLine Marine Rescue GPS radios and Diver Alert signalling device so if we got washed away in the currents we could alert the boat easily and be picked up. This could really only mean one thing….. we were off to Wolf and Darwin!

I now had the feeling that the diving up to this point had been to check us out in the water and to gently ease us in to the diving conditions of the Galapagos.

Tuesday 18th April

Today was Wolf Island day, oh, and our dive team leader’s birthday!! Would we get the legendary schooling hammerhead show as a well-earned Birthday present?!

The guides gave a very comprehensive briefing explaining that the dives here would require a negative entry and a swim down to the rocks below. The guide would choose a spot and everyone would then select a rock, nook or cranny to wedge themselves into, get comfy and wait for the show. There was no coral life so touching, grabbing on to rocks was not going to be a problem. The ground was covered in huge boulders that were covered in razor sharp barnacles and moray eels. The Kevlar gloves would come in very handy as when the current is running, and the surge hits, you have to cling on so as not to be blown away!!

Our first dive was Shark Bay and we had a huge pod of Dolphins following the panga (rib). Exciting! Would they follow us in the water too?! When the BBC filmed here they had loads of sharks so expectations were high but the site only yielded sharks towards the end of the dive once some of us had started our ascent.

We then moved to Landslide and it was decided to do two dives here and the second one was AWESOME!! It has gone down in OV history just as ‘Dive 3!’

As we descended a hammerhead swam underneath us. We found a spot to settle behind some rocks and just waited. Rattle, rattle, rattle…. the dive guide furiously pointing in to the blue (murky grey)…. eventually you could see a Galapagos shark. Wow, they are huge! then another, then several hammerheads. Backwards and forwards they cruised along in front of us. I thought I could hear another divers strobes recycling behind me as they snapped away at the action. Nope. Dolphins. A whole pod of dolphins swimming right in front of us! Double Wow! This was awesome. This is what we had travelled all this way for.

In between the boulders were numerous moray eels, sleeping groupers and Hawk fish but taking photos was really tricky. My camera was now striped down to a shadow of its former self to try and make it easier but with one hand clinging to a rock, trying to hold and operate a camera single handed, with great big thick gloves on was a nightmare!! I am really glad I had my GoPro with a wide angled INON lens to capture the action as I wasn’t going to be getting many stills on this trip.

 

Air running low it was time to ascend. The dolphins gave us their final pass by playing at the surface so we could see them whilst on our safety stop.

As there was a sheltered bay where we were moored this was to be the location for the only night dive of the trip. Hopefully this would be my opportunity to get some pictures. Strobes charged and remounted I was ready to go.

Brrrrr the water was cold. As soon as I was in the water the heated vest was switched to maximum heat. The site was made up of lots of huge boulders. There was the usual collection of crabs, sea urchins, shrimps and lobsters to see. Some buddy pairs saw a sleeping turtle and a shark. My view and auto focus was mainly distracted by all the plankton in the water which is why these islands are so full of life and I am so lacking in pictures!

We all had a fantastic day which was capped off with a large cake for the birthday boy too.

Wednesday 19th April

The engines started at about 5.30 am and we made the cruise from Wolf to Darwin. The famous arch came into view

just after breakfast. It really is a magnificent sight, let’s just hope the diving lives up to what we have seen on the BBC!

We would have four dives here today, all in and around the base of Darwins Arch. This is the location for the famous schooling hammerhead pictures. Would we be lucky?

It was the same dive drill as we had followed at Wolf. There was lots of surge and you were rocked back and forth as you picked your way over the rocks down to the relative shelter of the reef wall. Dive one was a bit disappointing, not a huge amount to see but dive two we saw a few hammerheads and a couple of very large turtles. At one point it got eerily dark and as you looked up there was a massive ball of fish. It was an amazing sight seeing the ball of fish expand and contract in the sunlight.

The other dives yielded Galapagos sharks, hammer heads and mobula rays but all on the edge of visibility. A few close

encounters but nothing spectacular…. which was just as well as I was still struggling with my camera. Thank goodness for video!

All safely back on board the crew had lit the BBQ and were cooking huge slabs of meat and prawns for our sunset chill out party. The sunset was fabulous, reminiscent of the Japanese flag the way the sun rays radiated out across the sky. A beautiful ‘wish you were here’ style picture postcard sunset.

Thursday 20th April

Today was the last day at Darwin Arch. Due to the viz the crew were considering return to Wolf Island a little earlier with the hope of better conditions. It was frustrating. The sharks were definitely there but right on the edge of visibility and depending where you settled you could either see them or not.

We did the first dive at Darwin and then moved back to Wolf Island for the last two. The water temperature had dropped and that combined with being stationary for a lot of the dive, it was cold. The heated vest was turned up to full power again!! The current had also picked up just to add to the excitement. Even being wedged in behind a rock I still found myself clinging on for dear life as the surge tried to lift me and send me backwards somersaulting over the rocks. I was definitely getting my money’s worth from the Kevlar gloves!!

Due to the cold and the current on the last dive I blew my air fairly quickly so my buddy and I headed off to the blue for our safety stop. As we hung in the water you could see the sharks all around which was nice although a little unnerving! We surfaced and couldn’t see our usual friendly panga driver, Christian, waiting to help us back aboard.

Normally he would follow our bubbles to be ready as we surfaced. Very odd. I launched the SMB and we waited. And we waited. And we waited a bit more. The pangas were a long way away so we decided to use the audible signalling device (Diver Alert) we had been issued with during our first briefing. Wow….. it is loud!! and immediately got our taxi drivers attention! phew! safely retrieved from the water we were amazed how far we had drifted from the rest of the group as was Christian!!. Deep respect for mother nature!

Friday 21st April

Our last full day of diving! It has all gone so quickly. Today was Mola Mola and Iguana day………. so exciting!!!

Our first dive at Cape Douglas would be the last chance to see the Red Lipped Bat Fish as well as other species like Galapagos sea lions, bull head sharks and the illusive sea horse.

We backward rolled out of the panga…… gee whizz…… the water was cold…. a good 7 degrees cooler than Wolf and Darwin. The clue should have been when our dive guides had ditched their semi dry’s for full dry suits. I borrowed an additional hooded top which was surprisingly close fitting and by rights should have prevented any water ingress. It was a chilly 21 degrees at the surface dropping to 19 at depth and after 30 mins I reluctantly signalled to my buddy that I was cold and in a short while I would need to ascend. The dive was largely uneventful which was actually quite nice after the last few days of challenging diving and all the colours of the soft corals a complete contrast.

Dive two was for Marine Iguanas…… we needed to be ready so didn’t really de-kit. All eyes were on the Iguanas basking on the rocks, warming themselves ready to dive in the water and feed. I must admit after the last dive I felt just like an Iguana, lying on the sun bed in my wetsuit trying to warm up ready for the next dive!

AWESOME!! is the only word to describe this dive. Max depth of about 3 metres, swaying back and forth in the surge looking for these prehistoric looking creatures. These chaps had attitude written all over their faces. They seemed to tolerate your presence for a while but eventually they seemed to flick you a look to say ‘Really. Are you still here. Seriously, just f*** off.’ My buddy and I snapped away while admiring these most amazingly out of place creatures. They were so cool. You could hear them munching on the algae and then after a while they would ascend for a breath. Everyone was buzzing and agreed that this had to be one of the best dives ever – apart from ‘dive 3’ of course!

The next dive would be the hunt for Mola Mola at Punta Vicente Roca. Our guides wanted us to wait at a cleaning station for about 15 mins to see if any Mola Mola would come along. It was cold and being still really didn’t help.

Perched on a corner the surge buffeted us up and down and periodically blew me around the corner of the reef much to my buddy’s shock! Eventually the signal to move came and we started to retrace out fin kicks back along the wall. My buddy and I started to ascend a little seeking an extra degree of warmth and then in the distance we saw a Mola Mola!!!! We screamed through our regs to try and get our dive leaders attention as he was engrossed in his camera. Eventually he spun around and saw the unmistakable outline of this enormous fish. AMAZING!

On surfacing most of the divers were cold and because they had seen the Mola Mola decided to skip the last dive of the day in favour of warmth and a panga ride around the bay looking at the wildlife. It was brilliant and our dive guide explained all about the different animals. There were literally piles of sleeping Marine Iguanas, Sally Lightfoot crabs, Noddy Terns, Blue Footed Boobies, sea lions and turtles. Lots of snapping and I even managed to get some Go Pro footage of a seal playing with a puffer fish!

What a great last full day.

Saturday 22nd April

Today was the day to leave the boat which was sad but it did signal the second part of our adventure and the land tours.

We started the day with a land tour of St Bartolome Island. There was a long walk up many steps to reach a view point that opened up the most spectacular views across the islands. As we wandered Max gave lots of information about the animals, birds and the island formation. It was hot but worth the walk.

Our final dive was at La Punta. It was a lovely dive, warmer than yesterday, and a very gentle drift over the reef formed by the volcano and lava flows. We saw turtles, sharks and a few mobula rays. A very pleasant, easy dive to finish our week.

Once back on board it was the usual drill of breaking down kit, washing and drying. The crew was very helpful with washing out BCDs and wet suits but there would only be a couple of hours to try and dry stuff before departing from the boat to journey to the hotel.

We said our farewells and disembarked for the Red Mangrove Hotel on Santa Cruz Island via the Giant Tortoises farm and “Los Gemelos” (The Twin Craters) which are two enormous collapsed lava chambers.

The Tortoise Farm was really interesting and a great opportunity for pictures. It is a 600-acre private reserve where differing size Tortoises roam around freely munching on plants and poisoned apples giving the occasional grunt if you got too close!

We arrived at the Red Mangrove late afternoon. The decked area outside the bar was covered in basking marine iguanas and sea lions hogging the sun beds. I got the impression that the sun beds hadn’t been used by hotel guests for some time! Pelicans bathed in the shallows and crabs scurried around the rocks… this was a great location to be staying with so many photo opportunities without straying outside the hotel bar!!

Sunday 23rd April

In the morning we would go kayaking and snorkelling on Santa Cruz Island. The kayaking would give the opportunity to get close to the rocky cliff face where numerous birds were nesting. Unfortunately it was quite a wet experience which was cooling but meant not suitable for cameras. We were quite uncoordinated paddlers in our two person kayak but we enjoyed ourselves and mostly saw lots of different bird life unless fellow paddlers scared them off first!!

Once dried off we wandered along the path past the salt lakes to an inlet which the locals seem to be enjoying. I was convinced to take a dip by my buddies already in the water. I jumped off the end of the jetty…… Whooooo……Cold/’refreshing’!! I immediately swam to the side and climbed out. That was too cold for me without my heated vest!

Our guide collected us again from the hotel after lunch for a trip to Tortuga Bay. It was a longish walk along a path that cut through the Candelabra Cactus forest but gave opportunities to look for more wildlife. We eventually reached the white sand of the beach and there was a surfing competition in progress. This meant the red flags were up so no swimming allowed. We wandered along a little further to a more sheltered cove and we all dived in the water to cool off. We tried to snorkel but the viz was unfortunately worse than our favourite local inland dive lake so that idea was abandoned in favour of just splashing and lounging about.

Monday 24th April

There was a muddle up with the excursions in the morning so we took the opportunity to wander around Santa Cruz

which is a very clean, pretty town. The fish market was especially funny with Pelicans sat on the work tops and sealions sat in between the fishmongers preparing the fish. Every now and then the scraps would be thrown to the animals and pandemonium ensued. We collected a few souvenirs from the many shops that lined the coast road and headed back to the hotel for lunch.

The afternoon tour was the Charles Darwin Research Center which was only a short walk from our hotel. Our guide explained all about Lonesome George and the breading program for the giant tortoises. It was very interesting and a nice stroll around the mangrove setting seeing many different birds and lizards along the way.

Tuesday 25th April

Our last day of touring and we had saved the best until last! Plaza Island….. our last opportunity to get pictures of the sea lions, iguanas and varied bird life.

We left the hotel at 8.20 to take the coach to the other side of the island to meet our boat the Sea Finch.

The trip included a short snorkel around a beautiful turquoise bay and then a sixty minute sail to the Island. As we arrived on the island we were immediately greeted by baby sea lions playing on the jetty and in the shallows. We all took lots of pictures of sea lions and crabs while our guide tried to explain about the island and usher us along. It was hot and there was no real shelter. It was mostly low growing plants with the odd prickly pear. There were loads of lizards and iguanas crawling around and the guide explained that they were struggling for food so either starving to death or eating birds. He then showed us dried up remains of both!

There was loads of bird life too – Frigates, Blue-footed Booby, Swallow Tailed gulls one with a chick, Brown Noddy Terns, Red-Tailed Tropic birds. It was amazing to see all this life and it made us realise that we had only just scratched the surface of what was here in the Galapagos.

90 minutes and 668 photos later we left the island for lunch and the journey back to the hotel.

Wednesday 26th April

A sad day. The holiday was over and we would start the epic journey back to the UK at 10am Santa Cruz time.

We were all sad to be leaving as we all had the most fantastic time seeing some amazing things. There was already talk of return visits, another live aboard, more land tours. I have to say I am very tempted as there is so much to see, experience and photograph!

Maybe this IS a trip I will be repeating!! We will have to wait and see!

A HUGE thanks to Ocean View for arranging yet another stunning adventure.

 

Red Sea Liveaboard – November 2016

by Jen Elfverson

“DON’T go to Egypt!” they said… “It’s Scary over there!” They said….

Well, I don’t know who “They” are, but “They” are wrong.

Hurghada, November 5^th My Blue Horizon: Lets go DIVING!!!!

What a trip. We arrived all bright eyed and bushy tailed (well some more bushier than others!) to the beautiful Blue O2 boat My Blue Horizon. Welcomed on board with a lovely juice and the friendly faces of the Crew who could not do enough for us all week. Luke and Hanna our fantastic guides gave us the rundown and safety briefing, got us all excited for what lay ahead and introduced us to crew.

Once all the kit was together and all the paperwork signed sealed and sorted we were off! We motored north to our first dive site Poseidon’s reef for our check dive. Warm clear water, about 26 degrees a lovely easy one to get us started and get a few new divers wet!

As this was the first trip to Egypt for a few of us there were huge smile and eyes the size of dinner plates. Us old timers laughed knowing that this was just the tip of the iceberg compared to what was yet to come.

The next site was Emperor Frazer which was a beautiful reef with loads of life, stunning coral gardens and of course huge moray eels.

Day 2 brought us to the national park Ras Mohammed and Shaab Mammoud which was a spectacully colourful dive. Everyone was up Bright and early for a 6:20 am dive where we saw our first Turtle! John Ashton’s smile getting bigger by the second. Then we were on to Jackfish alley, a very popular breading ground full of fish and anthiaers.  Mr Dave Brown, surrounded by a harem of pink fins (Lauren, his daughter and Annette) chose to do twin set for the trip and seemed to lose the ability to tell the time…. Dive time that is.

By midway through day 2 Jim Mckenna began his “no Current – Drift Diver Specialty” and went off in the zodiac to “check the conditions at Shark and Yolanda. A notoriously strong current site between 2 pinnacles … and a flag… which was no longer a flag but a pole!

Status report back – Conditions “Great! Current :….Zero”( Oh well Jim , next time)  Off we all jumped again for huge fan coral, beautiful fish species and hundreds of Toilets… the SS Yolanda went down carrying bathroom supplies in 1985 scattering sinks, baths and toilets across the sea bed.

Mike and Linda Witchell joining us for their first Ocean View trip along with Gus, Jim, Sten and Mare-Ann who all seemed to melt into the group as though they had always been with us!

Linda being the only Non-Diver (but avid snorkeler) of the group decided to get herself a job and become the surface cover paper work checker. Counting us divers in and out, checking our times and depths and making sure all were on board before she would let the crew leave… Thanks Linda!

Before Lunch we crossed to arguably the most famous site of the red sea the “SS Thistlegorm” where we were to stay for the next three dives and Gareth Walsh to mark his 100^th dive mile stone (and yes- he got the t-shirt)!

Bikes, boots and bombs this wreck has it all. Carrying vital supplies to the troops during the war it was bombed by the Third Reich bombers on October 6^th, 1941 and she now lays in her watery grave on the sea bed full of places to explore.  This use to be the busiest dive site as well but it was a fantastic surprise to only have 3 other boats on the site which made it much easier to get “that shot” without someone else in it!!! (Possibly the most noticeable change occurring from the recent political issues).

Continuing the Wreck theme we headed to Abu Nuhas an area of treachery where 4 ships all were lost (accidently? On purpose? It’s anyone’s guess). Our captain managed to get us right on the door step of both the Carnatic and the Ghiannis D (Yay no Zodiacs). 1, just a skeleton, the other modern and hugely intact both these dives were beautiful in their contrast and offerings.

The Carnatic sank more than 150 years ago (one of the oldest wrecks of the area) also known as the “Wreck of wine” for its cargo of hundreds of bottles of port wine. In contrast to the modern wreck of the Ghiannis D which hit the reef April 19^th 1983 and went down within just 15 minutes. Its huge engine room and shards of light penetrating throughout this spectacular site gave us all a chance to take some amazing classic photos while exploring the various decks.

With all that rusty metal out of our systems it was time for a long crossing and to head south to the Brothers. Diving the Big brother, Aida and Numidia first.

SHARKS!!! Sharks and Sharks!!! We had a little wait, and then there they were, hanging around under the boat along with many divers just waiting and watching. I did the 20 minute swim against the current to get to the other boats anchor line to get a better view, only for Lynzi to point out we were still under our boat!!… We found your current, Jim!!!

Small Brother wasn’t a disappointment either, so much colour and fish in abundance, nice to see that the reef is getting the chance to regenerate.

Our trip wasn’t over yet, our crossing back towards Hurghada was met with a full on Roast Turkey dinner with all the trimmings. Question is who had the Turkey in their cabin then?!! And how did it fit in that tiny oven?  It still amazes me how the Chef and his team turn out the most incredible food all week.

Our final dives were some of the prettiest wall and reefs I’ve ever been to.  Small Giffun and Gota abu romada the wall which were AWESOME …and definitely not the Mine sweeper!!!

All in all an amazing trip, with a great bunch divers and some new friends made.  Thanks everyone.

 

 

Saturday 20th – Saturday 27th August 2016

Who’s up for a bit of awesome diving this summer?

For only £1195 you will enjoy Seven nights, full-board basis in twin-share cabins. This is a classic itinerary in the Northern Red Sea with up to 21 dives over the week. All marine park fees, 12lt tank and weights are included in your package. All trips are fully guided with 2 expert guides. Flights from Gatwick and transfers are included.

 

About Whirlwind

The award winning Whirlwind is a 5 star superior liveaboard, she will be your home-from-home for the week. Dive, relax, dive some more… enjoy!

 

With a well deserved reputation for the quality of finish on board, her long standing crew are the definition of attentive.

The boat has ample space for our guests. The 10 twin cabins are all en-suite, with air-conditioning and safe. There are 4 cabins on the main deck and 6 in the lower deck.

The huge spacious dive deck has room to kit up without that crowded feeling, no tripping up over each other, with plenty of space for all of your dive kit.

 

For the photographers you have 2 rinse tanks, charging stations (2 pin European plugs), camera table on dive deck with 2 air guns.

Between dives, there is plenty of space on the 2 sundecks to soak up the rays or get lost in a good book, along wth a jacuzzi to relax in. The saloon is kitted out with a modern entertainment system and a well stocked bar for the evening.

On the Wrecks and Reefs itinerary you can experience some of the most impressive dive sites the Northern Red Sea has to offer. Ras Mohammed and Tiran are two of the best known areas for the abundance of coral gardens, dramatic drop offs, and impressive deep walls. Expect to see a mixture of aquatic life, Blue spotted sting rays, eagle rays and mantas, perhaps if you are lucky you could see Hammerheads, Black Tips, and Leopard sharks. You could be diving on some of the best known wrecks in the Northern Red Sea. The Thistlegorm is always an awesome experience, day or night, then perhaps take in the The Kingston, Dunraven, Giannis D or the Carnatic.

• 15ltr cylinders £35 for the week
• Nitrox £60 for the week

• 20kg + 5 kg  scuba allowance + 5 kg hand baggage
• An additional hold bag can be bought at a cost of £60

If you would like to make a booking we will require a £250 deposit per person to secure the booking and full balance due 90 days prior to departure.

This will be Ocean View’s biggest trip to date, it will be a 2 week trip with 7 days aboard the highest spec liveaboard in the Galapagos followed by 4 days at the Red Mangrove resort for an all inclusive stay. It is not cheap as the liveaboard alone is over £4000 (without flights), if you are interested please read on, we only have 16 spaces.

We have managed to negotiate the whole package including flights, all of our diving including diving permit, and all of the Galapagos tours for £6000, I told you it wasn’t cheap, but if you want to go on a trip like this, then this is what you have to pay. We have recently been quoted £7500 for this same trip!!

The trip will be leaving on 14th April 2017.

So what is in store?

Gently swept by the waters of three major oceanic currents, the Galapagos Islands provide a stunning range of extraordinary encounters for live-aboard divers.

Schooling hammerheads, giant whale sharks, rays of all shapes and colours, turtles, huge schools of fish, Galapagos fur seals, and astounding marine life diversity are just some of the riveting attractions of Galapagos liveaboard diving – a destination many divers feel is “the best in the world”.

This is where your adventure begins!

Sunday (Embarkation day):
• Isla Lobos – Check out dive
When you arrive at the airport at San Cristobal on Sunday the crew of the Galapagos Sky will personally meet you, collect your luggage, and escort you to the Galapagos Sky. Your luggage will be delivered to the dive deck for you. After everyone is on board, you will be introduced to the boat and do the mandatory safety briefings and drill.

Then, you will cruise to the area of Los Lobos for your check-out dive.
This will be your first underwater introduction to Galapagos sea lions and fur seals! Watch them zoom in and out and dance playfully for you!
Even on the first day of your live-aboard cruise – you begin to see the myriad and diverse land formations which comprise the Galapagos Islands topside. It is then you realize you will see nothing like it in your lifetime.
Monday
• Bartolome Land walk
• Cousins 2 dives
Bartolome is a lovely area where you enjoy a favourite land tour where you can climb to the top of the hill to see breath taking views abound. Conditions permitting, snorkeling with penguins will be allowed.
Cousins Rocks- this dive is an itinerary favourite and is done along a beautiful wall and allows for great viewing opportunities for corals, frog fish, sea horses, scorpion fish and octopus. It is also a great dive for large schools of barracuda and also hammerhead shark sightings. Sea lions will be your companions upon entry and on the safety stops.
By definition, the entire Galapagos Archipelago is geographically remote, after this day of your live-aboard cruise you head toward the most isolated, northernmost part of the Galapagos Islands – the uninhabited, untouched, twin cathedrals of world class diving – Wolf and Darwin Islands.

You will spend the next three days diving (up to four dives per day plus a night dive) the legendary islands of Wolf & Darwin.
• Tues-4 Dives at Wolf plus a night dive
• Wed- 4 dives at Darwin
• Thurs-3 Dives total, 2 at Darwin and 1 afternoon dive at Wolf before the transit back to central islands.
Diving Wolf and Darwin
Most experienced divers will agree, Wolf and Darwin can provide some of the best diving encounters in the world!
Darwin Island: Considered by many divers as the very best dive site in the world, The Arch at Darwin island honours its reputation. It is warmer by a few degrees than the central islands. In one single dive you can find hammerhead sharks, individuals, or small groups, or in large schools, Galapagos sharks, large pods of dolphins, thick schools of skipjack and yellow fin tuna, big eye jacks, mobula rays, and silky sharks. The presence of occasional tiger sharks, black and blue marlin, and killer whales adds on to this amazing diving experience. If you still have time to look for smaller stuff, you’ll find octopus, flounders, and an enormous variety and abundance of tropical fish. Darwin Island is the biggest jewel in the Galapagos Crown.
Wolf Island: One of those magical islands, with several dive sites to choose from. If you want to see sharks, you are at the right spot. This is the place for schooling hammerhead sharks, large aggregations of Galapagos sharks, and occasionally whale sharks. Seeing dolphins, large schools of tuna, spotted eagle rays, barracudas, sea lions and sea turtles is common. The bottom is an abundance of hundreds of moray eels, many of them free swimming. Being several degrees warmer than the central islands, you can look for many representatives of the Indo-Pacific underwater fauna. On a night dive here you will also enjoy spotting and watching the red lipped bat fish walk along the bottom of the sea!

Once you see Wolf and Darwin you will immediately understand why there are no shore excursions on this part of the trip – there is no way up the vertical cliffs!

Friday
• Cabo Douglas 1 dive – Marine iguana dive
• Punta Vicente Roca up to 2 dives.
At Cape (Cabo) Douglas, on the western side of Fernandina Island, we will do 1 dive Friday morning. Here you can expect to see Galapagos penguins, marine iguanas, flightless cormorants, sea lions, seahorse, sea turtles, horn sharks, red lipped batfish, and occasional hammerhead sharks and white tip sharks. Also keep an eye out for chevron barracuda, snappers, yellow fin tuna, rainbow runners, and wahoo. There are also a lot of smaller fish like creole fish, parrot fish, scrawled filefish, pacific box fish, and tiger snake eels.
This day we also visit Punta Vincente Roca for up to 2 dives. Our coolest rapidly increasing favourite dive – steep, deep vertical wall covered in soft coral, sponges, and endemic black coral. Regular sightings of mola mola (oceanic sun fish,) sea horses, bullhead sharks, red lipped bat fish, various shrimp and many other marine invertebrates. Keep your eyes open for underwater “fly-bys” from the flightless Galapagos cormorants, penguins and maybe even a marine iguana. If time permits, our after-dive panga ride offers great topside photo ops for penguins, flightless cormorants, marine iguanas, sea lions, blue footed & nazca booby birds, magnificent frigates and noddy terns. The diving here is chilly, particularly below the thermocline – but not to be missed!
Saturday
• Northeast tip of Isla Pinzon/Islote Dumb- 1 dive
• Puerto Ayora/Highlands tour
Isla Pinzon –  While diving Isla Pinzon you will be provided with opportunities for encounters with a variety of species of sharks, sea lions, mantas, eagle rays, and moray eels. Many species of fish can be encountered including yellow tailed surgeonfish, king angelfish, moorish idols, steel pompanos, snappers, grunts, creole fish, and barracuda.

 

The Red Mangrove Resort
We will then disembark the Galapagos Sky for our shore based part of the trip to The Red Mangrove Resort.

Your Galapagos All-Inclusive Adventure continues at this amazing resort. Red Mangrove will take care of everything  including your excursions, accommodation, and all of your meals.

 

 

What Your Galapagos All-Inclusive Adventure Includes

You will be served three meals a day, breakfast, lunch and evening meal, from either a fixed menu, buffet, or à la carte. Soft drinks are included with your meals.
On this part of our Galapagos adventure, we will be choosing from activities that are subject to the daily scheduled tours of Red Mangrove:

Santa Cruz Island Activities
Santa Cruz Highlands  |  Tortuga Bay  |  Kayak and Snorkeling
Garrapatero Beach  |  Charles Darwin Research Center

Isabela Island Activities
Sierra Negra Volcano  |  Tintoreras  |  Los Tuneles  |  Wetlands
Shorter activities: Flamingo Lagoon,  snorkeling at Concha Perla,
and Galapagos National Park Isabela breeding station.

Excursions are scheduled by the Red Mangrove staff and are subject to availability.

During a daily excursion, you will combine visits to two of the activities listed below. On Isabela Island, the main activities take longer than a half day, for which reason they are combined with a shorter activity (see details below). Please remember that on arrival / departure days and on days you travel between islands you will not be able to do two activities.

Below are the details for each of the above activities:

Santa Cruz Highlands
(Santa Cruz Island)
This adventure starts with a trip to “Los Gemelos” (The Twin Craters). These are two enormous collapsed lava chambers, a wonderful introduction to the majestic power of the forces of nature and the great biodiversity in the highlands of Santa Cruz. A short, easy hike will take you to Los Gemelos. They are surrounded by endemic flora and fauna (including a Scalesia Forest) where you might spot some Darwin finches or perhaps the short eared owl.

Later you will take a short ride to a 600-acre private reserve where the giant Galapagos tortoises freely roam, graze, and sleep. Sometimes it is a bit muddy here, so make sure you wear good shoes. Rubber boots are provided.

After visiting these prehistoric creatures in their natural habitat, you will enter an illuminated lava tunnel where you will have the incredible opportunity to observe lava formations; lava stalagmites, stalactites, sulfur and mineral-colored walls.

Tortuga Bay (Santa Cruz Island)
Our escorted tour to Tortuga Bay includes a walk to Tortuga Bay through a path that merges with a giant Opuntia and Candelabra cactus forest. These are home to numerous Darwin finches, mockingbirds, yellow warblers, lava lizards and many more of the Galapagos endemic and native species.

As you enter this white sandy beach, you will have a chance to observe different marine species, like sting rays and baby reef sharks in the shallow waters of the mangroves.

After some swimming you take a very short hike to the marine iguana nesting site. The walk back is through a prickly pear forest carpeted in crimson sesuvium with black lava outcroppings home to more marine iguana colonies. A short boat ride brings you back to your lodge.

Kayak and Snorkelling
(Santa Cruz Island)
Before the start of your kayak adventure you will receive instructions on the basic techniques, a certified kayak specialist will join the tour to guarantee an outstanding and safe activity.

Even if you have never been in a kayak before, you will be paddling through the azure blue waters in no time. It is amazing to observe marine iguanas, sea lions and shorebirds from the water and to be able to look at them closely.

After kayaking you will have time to go snorkeling, with high chances to see sea lions, green sea turtles and countless schools of tropical fish!

Garrapatero Beach
(Santa Cruz Island)
During this escorted tour, you first leave for a 40 minute bus ride. Garrapatero Beach is located east of the small village of Bellavista in a natural, uninhabited area. The bus will take you to the spot from where an easy trail will lead you to the beautiful Garrapatero Beach in around 15 minutes.

This 3 kilometer white sandy beach is known as the best place to relax and enjoy the wonderful surroundings. It is common to find finches here, migratory birds and occasionally marine iguanas.

Charles Darwin Research Center
(Santa Cruz Island)
During our escorted tour to the famous Charles Darwin Research Center you learn more about the theories of Darwin and the evolution of the animals to be found on the islands. You will visit the interpretation center and the Fausto Llerena giant tortoise breeding center, which is well-known because of Lonesome George, who was the oldest and last giant tortoise of La Pinta Island.

 

Sierra Negra Volcano (Isabela Island)
You will depart in the morning after an early breakfast. Through the humid highlands of Isabela you are taken to the slopes of the Sierra Negra, considered the oldest volcano on Isabela Island. The hike to the caldera (crater) will take about an hour. If weather allows, you will enjoy breathtaking views.

The crater is the second largest in the world (after Ngorongoro in Tanzania) and measures over 10 km from one side to the other. In 2005 the volcano erupted on the north-east side of the crater, an eruption that lasted a week. The lava flows covered much of the interior of the crater and in some places rose over two meters. After hiking the border of the caldera for approximately 5 kilometers, you get to rest and have a snack under a Jaboncillo tree.

For the hardiest of the group, there is the option to continue hiking to Volcan Chico. This is located north-west of the Sierra Negra crater, where fumarole activity is abundant, and again, views are spectacular. This is not an easy hike however, as you will walk mostly over sloping lava fields. Good shoes are necessary. Remember: when walking down the lava field, you will need to return the same way back up!

Tintoreras (Isabela Island)
The Tintoreras tour can take place in the morning or in the afternoon. You are taken to the main dock to board a small boat, which will take you to the Tintoreras visitors site. On the way, you slow down to see blue-footed boobies and Galapagos penguins, sharing the same rocky sunbathing spaces.

An intriguing walk through a jagged lava field, passing abundant colonies of nesting marine iguanas and sea lions, will bring you to a canal with shallow water, where the Tintoreras (or white-tipped reef sharks) are resting. The views from here are something you will take with you for the rest of your life!

The black lava fields, the emerald green sea, the green mangroves, and the cloud-capped volcanoes of Isabela, create an afternoon backdrop you will never forget.

At the end of the walk, you can snorkel in the shallow bay, surrounded by mangroves, where you might see the white-tipped reef sharks, but also sea lions, sea turtles, and the mystery of the mangroves below the surface.

Los Tuneles (Isabela Island)
You depart for a 45 minute boatride to Los Tuneles (or tunnels) in the morning. Along the ride you will enjoy seeing beautiful Galapagos wildlife, including giant mantas rays and sea turtles.

You will make a short stop at Roca Union where you will be able to see masked boobies, blue footed boobies, marine iguanas, sea lions and occasionally fur seals.

Los Tuneles is a breathtaking site formed by lava arches on the water like labyrinths.

Enjoy a panga ride along this site and experience close encounters with many species of fish, rays, sea turtles and perhaps the Galapagos penguins whilst snorkelling. You will continue to discover this labyrinth of lava arches during a second snorkel experience.

Only here in Galapagos, will you have the chance to snorkel with penguins and sea lions in the same spot!

(This activity and time schedule may change according to sea conditions).

Wetlands (Isabela Island)
You are taken on a ride to the town of Puerto Villamil to enjoy the simplicity of this traditional island. During the visit to the Galapagos National Park Isabela breeding station, you will be able to get to know the different specifies of Galapagos tortoises and see the growing process from newborns up to centenary individuals, before leaving on a walk of around 45 minutes along a beautiful boardwalk.

Here in the Isabela Wetlands you have great opportunities to see flamingos and other stunning seabirds. Before returning to your lodge you will visit the well-known Playa del Amor (Beach of Love) and enjoy the magical feeling of this sand beach surrounded by mangroves.

Ready to get started? Reserve your place on this amazing Galapagos all-inclusive adventure now!

A deposit of £500 will be required to reserve your space, then in June 2016 we will need to pay for the flights so a further payment of £1000 will be needed with the final balance required by December 1st 2016.

Please email info@oceanviewdiving.co.uk to reserve your space, remember there are only 16 spaces available!