Maldives Day 11 - We love Thulhagiri

August 5, 2021

After breakfast, we start our daily snorkeling round.

The visibility today is not as good as yesterday.

We enter the reef again at the buoy in front of our bungalow (which means here too: swim and paddle properly until you reach the reef through the lagoon).

Today there are a lot of schools of fish. We only see one shark, rays and mobulas are missing today.

However, it is also very cool to swim and snorkel with the huge schools of fish.

In the middle of our snorkeling round, we see a blue lobster peering out of its hiding place. Like the last lobster, it hides as soon as we get closer. So we only see its antennae and it looks like it's looking at us.

A little further on, we see two lobster skeletons at the edge of the reef. Oh, someone was hungry! Later, Dagmar from the water sports tells us that these were very likely squids that had enjoyed a feast.

While the husband swims directly to the beach after snorkeling today, I snorkel back with the daughter on the lagoon side of the reef. We hope to meet the turtle again.

Unfortunately, it seems to be elsewhere today. Instead, we see the giant triggerfish, a large blue mussel, and many colorful fish.

When we are outside, I convince my son to snorkel at least in the front part of the lagoon. There are plenty of fish swimming around the concrete walls in the sea, which act as breakwaters towards bungalows 120-130 - and he doesn't have to snorkel far for that. The way to the edge of the reef is quite far and exhausting against the current.

He gives up and joins me in the water. We snorkel a few meters into the lagoon to the concrete stones. There are several openings, I swim ahead and .....

...I look directly into the eyes of a shark!!!

Ohhhhhaaaaaaa.... Sharks so close to the beach in the lagoon???? Now I know why there were none outside the reef. Fortunately, my son did not see the shark, which swims past me immediately. Otherwise, he would have turned around on his heels and would not have gone swimming that quickly. We snorkel around the wall inside and outside, see many colorful fish, and then return to the beach.

Now it's time to splash around!

After lunch - by the way, we are almost alone, because after the guest change, hardly anyone seems to be here who has booked "All Inclusive" - my son and husband play another round of table tennis.

I go to the beach with my daughter to relax. Oh yes, vacation is really exhausting 😉

My son watches the hermit crabs and the rest of the family spends the day playing and relaxing in the water. Vacation can be so beautiful!

We have our evening sundowner again at the beach bar around 4:30. Today, a dark cloud tower is building up in the sky, indicating something bad, but again we are lucky: the possible storm passes by!

While we enjoy our sundowner, my son has fun on the beach.

At some point, he is not fast enough and gets caught by a wave. After his pants and T-shirt are wet, we walk the few meters back to the bungalow (I LOVE this small island with extremely short distances!). My son takes off his clothes and goes for a swim in the sunset while we watch from the beach chairs. Oh, how beautiful vacation is!