Kuredu, June 2005

Went to Kuredu for a couple of weeks diving and get Advanced Open Water Diver qualification.

Been to Kuredu before as a non-diver and knew it was a great island. Just hoped the diving was as good.

Booked into a Beach Bungalow. This is the 'lowest' for of accommodation on the island but is still much better than most holiday accommodation I've been in. You can upgrade to beach villas, jacuzzi beach villas or what I stayed in 2002 a water villa. However with the amount of diving planed a beach bungalow was fine.

The dive centre is run by Prodivers. It's a PADI 5 star IDC and runs every course from scuba diver to rebreathers. I did my AOWD and Nitorx I + II there.

The centre is a 5 minute walk to the end of the pier where you can jump in to the house reef.

Before you can dive you must do a check dive. It is done on the Kuredu House reef and is far from a chore! As you can go diving when you want there are several systems in place for safety. All these are explained along with a tour of the dive centre before you walk to the end of the pier. At the end of the pier is a small hut with benches. The hut contains your tanks all labelled up. All you do is the night before, write down on a sheet outside the dive centre when you want some tanks there the next day. Just specify AM or PM and they will be waiting for you. Nitrox is slightly different. The tanks are pre-filled at the centre so you analyse a tank, put a tag on it with your name and if you want it at the pier AM or PM and place it in a area just down from the other tanks. You can always just get a tank from the dive centre but you'll (might) have to carry it yourself. I say might because there's always a friendly Maldivian kicking about to who nothing is too much trouble.

I got 25 dives in two weeks. I've list below the majority of the sites visited below.

I've added some extra info from my log book for the sites I describe. Please note that max depth is MY maximum depth not necessarily the sites maximum depth. All water temperatures were as of June 2006. I wore a 5mm semi dry on the first boat dive, almost cooked and spent the rest of the holiday diving in T-shirt and shorts!

Kuredu House Reef

The house reef on Kuredu is amazing and has a nice wreck on it. A list of the usual suspects can be found there:- turtles, eagle rays, morays, HUGE napoleon (two sleep in the wreck at night), sweet lips, giant groupers, lion fish, the list is endless. I dived the Kuredu house reef 10 times in two weeks and didn't get bored!

Max depth - 21m, Water Temp in June - 26 to 28 degrees.

Kuredu Express

Kuredu Express is a ten minute boat ride from the jetty. It is a deep channel into the atoll. No prizes for guessing where the name Express comes from. The current thunders through here. Thankfully the sides gently slope and there are rocks and dead coral to hang on to. You'll need them, finning as hard as I could into the current I could just about stay stationary for few seconds. Of course like a no-win-no-fee claim, the current attracts one thing, the guys in grey suits!

OK there is more to Kuredu Express than MARVELLOUS shark action. The coral growth on the top of the channel is good and we say free swimming leopard morays, napoleon wrasse, zebra shark and dog-tooth tuna but the main attraction at this site is the metal current that propels you along like Superman and the grey reef sharks.

Max depth - 27m, Water Temp in June - 28 degrees.

Kuredu Caves

Kuredu Caves is to turtles, what Kuredu Express is to sharks. The caves are located at the back of the island but you need a boat to reach them. The caves are really a mis-description as they are overhangs although some are quite deep.

Every briefing the guide says this is the best site to see turtles but he/she cannot guarantee it. Every dive we saw at least 3 and up to 10.

Other life at the caves included napoleon wrasse, titan trigger fish, blue fin jacks and groupers.

Max depth - 24m, Water Temp in June - 24 to 28 degrees.

Nakolhu Giri

This is a large coral outcrop that you can swim around in one dive. The current was strong and vis was low, less than 5m for some reason which in the Maldives is unusual.

We saw a large marbled stingray but with the current and vis I didn't get any decent pics on this dive!

Max depth - 30m, Water Temp in June - 28 degrees.

Budi Giri

Another coral outcroping vaguely square in shape. This was my deep adventure dive so spent time doing the exercises at 29m.

There were a number of honeycomb morays and a very inquisitive napoleon wrasse that actually join the group in the middle and swam with us for a while!

Max depth - 30m, Water Temp in June - 28 degrees.

Shipyard

No, this isn't a real shipyard. It's a reef where a couple of large ships have sunk. It's the only place in the Maldives you can dive two big wrecks in one dive. Unfortunately the current wouldn't allow us to reach the further wreck so we had to stick to the one one the reef. This was my wreck adventure dive for the AOW qualification.

The wreck is big and a large portion breaks the surface so it's easy to find! It's 26m deep so plenty of ship underwater to investigate. It's covered in coral and various reef fish. Mainly small stuff but did see some big dog-tooth tuna in the blue.

Max depth - 26m, Water Temp in June - 28 degrees.

Felivaru Out-Reef

The outside of the atoll wall and a good wall dive with lots of overhangs and small reef fish. Not a lot of big stuff on this dive.

Max depth - 26m, Water Temp in June - 28 degrees.

The Peak, Huravahli

This is two dives in one. We started on a sheer wall with lots of overhangs. The wall starts to slope as you swim towards the island becoming a sandy bottomed reef. We saw giant morays, grey reef sharks, honeycomb morays, napoleon wrasse and some huge schools of bannerfish.

Max depth - 29m, Water Temp in June - 28 degrees.

Fishivaru Out-Reef

This is another inlet to the atoll but doesn't have anywhere near the current of Express. Tiger sharks have been spotted here before though!!!!

Closest I saw was a Leopard Shark laying next to a marbled stingray that had lost it's tail!

The wall was a sandy bottom at about 31m with small coral outcrops dotted about. These are full of life it's just a pity at that depth the colour is so bad. Lot of Surgeon Fish and saw a couple of turtles. One of the remoras (sucker fish) decided that the dive guide looked a better ride and spent 5 mins trying to stick onto him!

Max depth - 31m, Water Temp in June - 28 degrees.

Miaruviani Thila

This reef is almost like a stepped pyramid. It has distinct layers from 12m down to 30m. Huge shoals of glass fish inhabit the overhangs and swim-through. Really good site with lots to see in a small area. It's a case of start at the bottom and circle your way up like a reverse helter-skelter!

Max depth - 26m, Water Temp in June - 29 degrees.

Aquarium

This wall dive is chocked full of fish. Too many to list here but plenty of big shoals as well as a big diversity. There are lots of table corals providing shelter for a variety of fish and it's a great dive if you stay shallow and like fish life!

Max depth - 17m, Water Temp in June - 28 degrees.