Diving of the island

I get up early and head down for the breakfast at the downstairs restaurant. I guess I went down a bit early for the restaurant since they weren’t really open yet – but after a couple of minute they manage to take the breakfast order and I can get some coffee and bread before heading out.

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I walk the short way down to a boat down at the beach – it is my ride for the morning taking me out somewhere on the waters of Nosy Be to go and see what is below the surface of the sea. Supposedly the boat is leaving at 7.30 but the equipment isn’t on yet so we will get slightly delayed in the departure. Finally the crew gets all the tanks and other gear onboard and we are ready to go – though we have to head down along the coast to make a pick-up of a couple of more guest joining us from another hotel. Fortunately they are ready to go so they just jump onboard and we are ready to go out.

The boat is actually pretty fast but we got a pretty big distance to go before we reach the reef were we will be doing the first dive. Finally we arrive and we get ready to jump into the water. The weather is fairly calm so it will not be too difficult to exit and enter the boat.

We get down into the water and unfortunately the visibility isn’t the best – the local dive instructor claims it is pretty good visibility but I figure if this is good visibility Nosy Be just isn’t a top diving destination. Nosy Be is just a place people go for a beach holiday and then have a couple of dives. The place is ok – but nothing spectacular. So if you have done a lot of diving at good diving destinations there really isn’t any reason to go here.

There is some good corals (and a lot of dead corals as well) in the water to look at and there are some decent fish life – unfortunately we don’t spot any major creatures like shark, large rays or turtle or the seasonal whale shark which isn’t on season for the moment so it isn’t too surprising it isn’t here.

After the first dive we have a surface interval on the boat – which is a bit warm since the boat has no shade at all – not a very good feature for a diving boat in my opinion. After an hour wait we head down for a second dive which is kind of like the first. There aren’t many big things but we do see some tiny nudy branches – which are always colourful and cool to watch.

After the dive we really should just head right back to the coast but the crew decides to organize the stuff while we are backing under the sun – I really think they should organize their business a bit more and just head straight back since it is getting hot at midday. Finally they finish the cleanup and we go to the shore. It is time for lunch and a bit of relaxing in the afternoon.