Maldives Deep South route - Diving with mantas, whale & tiger sharks

There is one area in the Indian Ocean where you can dive with up to 10 species of sharks. When taking the Maldives Deep South route you can encounter tiger sharks, hammerheads, thresher sharks, whale sharks, silvertip, zebra, tawny nurse sharks, grey reef, white tip reef and black tip reef sharks.

In the southern atolls you can also spot different species of rays: reef and oceanic mantas, spotted eagle rays, marbled stingrays, and the rare guitarfish (often mistaken for a shark)!

You might see the infrequent oceanic sunfish (mola mola) around too!

The Maldives Deep South comprises of the 3 southernmost atolls – Addu, Fuvahmulah and Huvadhoo. Due of its relatively far location from Male, the capital, there are less resorts than in the central atolls and also less boats sailing, meaning it is not as crowded and there are less people diving respectively. As a result, the coral reefs are healthier and the fish life abundant.

This article is about my 7-day trip onboard the Blue Horizon liveaboard and the spectacular diving in the Deep South. I will take you on a virtual journey and give you a thorough description of all the top dive sites in the southern atolls.

Highlights of the voyage and what to expect from the Maldives Deep South route

Addu atoll has the only manta ray cleaning station in the Maldives where you can see reef mantas all year round. Many species of sharks can be seen too: thresher, hammerhead, silvertips, and even whale shark. On top of that, there lies the only World War wreck in the Maldives – British Loyalty from WWII.

Fuvahmulah is the atoll where more oceanic manta rays and tiger sharks sightings are recorded than anywhere else in the Maldives. Other species of sharks that can be seen here are the thresher, whale sharks, silvertip sharks and schooling hammerheads. It is also possible to spot an ocean sunfish there!

In Huvadhoo you can expect to encounter up to 300 grey reef sharks during the same dive in a few specific north east channels. This area is so unique, I can’t wait to tell you all about it!

My first liveaboard trip ever (after 4000+ dives)

Before you can make up your mind on the route, allow me to tell you a bit about myself and why you should take my advice on this. Read to the end and I bet the Maldives Deep South route will be your next diving trip.

I am Nico, 36 years old and I love being underwater more than anything else “on Earth” (I know, it is a paradox).

I am a scuba diving professional since 2010 and I spend as much time underwater as I can, bringing people below the surface and sharing my passion with them. This is what makes my day.

As a diver, I want to dive the best spots of the world and see the most amazing marine life, at least once in my life and to be honest I have a lot of expectations about this route.

I have roughly 4,000 dives (I can’t find my last logbook so I’ve rounded down) in great diving places like Thailand, Panama, Costa Rica, Honduras, Belize, Mexico, the Bahamas and Indonesia before I worked 3 years in the Maldives: 2 years in Kaafu atoll (north Male) and 1 year in Gaafu Dhaalu (west Huvadhoo). I can say I am familiar with the diving in the Maldives but not with this Deep South route, except a couple of dive sites in Addu atoll.

Can you see the common point of all these countries? They are all in tropical waters. The reason I stick to water temperatures above 27C (80,6F)? I don’t like wearing wetsuits so I choose to go diving only in bathing trunks in warm waters.

A little secret

I have a confession to make. I’ve been diving for almost 10 years of my life and never done a single liveaboard. What? Yes, hard to believe. But now I have a big announcement for you, I am not a virgin anymore and I’d like to share my first time with you and help you pick your next diving destination.

Read more about the Dive into Life team here.

Where the journey will take us (crossing the equator)

The Maldives are one of the top world class diving spots because of their rich sea life and biodiversity.

Many people have heard about the Maldives but very few of us know where this country is, am I wrong? Even if you’ve already been there, keep reading, I guarantee I’m going to share some super interesting facts about the underwater treasures of the Deep South.

The Maldives are located south of India, in the Indian Ocean, between Africa and Asia. The country is composed by 26 atolls and the southernmost of them is right passed the Equator, it is called Addu, also known as Seenu atoll. This is where we are going to start our journey onboard the liveaboard Horizon III heading 3 atolls towards the north to end in the north east of Huvadhoo atoll.

Let’s find out if seeing reef and oceanic manta rays, tiger sharks, whale sharks and big schools of grey reef sharks in those atolls is just a legend. The Maldives Deep South route sounds very promising!

Arrival: Check dive – check! First whale shark – yes, check!!

We land at Gan international airport on the early afternoon on a sunny Sunday and Blue Horizon’s crew is welcoming us. A short walk to the jetty where the dhoni (name of the Maldivian traditional wooden boat) is waiting for us. The dhoni is the common means of transport for people and goods in the Maldives, but with the increasing popular diving activity in the country, it has also become a diving boat. It is very spacious and has all the amenities needed (shower, toilet, sun deck, air and nitrox compressor…) onboard. We head then to our house, the Horizon III.

Our room for the next 7 days is lovely. It has a king size bed, a lot of natural light, a shower tub and a bathtub too, nothing could have been better.

We are told that there will be a “check dive” in the afternoon for those who want to check their buoyancy and gear… Personally, I do not need to check either my gear nor my buoyancy as my gear is checked everyday before each dive I do and my buoyancy … well, I teach buoyancy, so I’m not going to the check dive for that. I’m going because I can’t wait to get residual nitrogen in my body, yes I am addicted, so we are in.

Vilingi Feryru Faru

The first dive site of the trip is Vilingi Feryru Faru, right behind the Shangri-La Vilingi resort, on the outer part of Addu atoll. It is around 3pm, the sunlight is getting less and it is what I like, when some parts of the slope are darker than others. Despite the time, we can see very well that the reef is healthy, full of hard corals and sea anemones. There is this huge coral block formed by layers of mountain corals with on top of it a school of blue striped snappers mixed with goatfish. While we observe the scene, I see a 6 meter (19ft) whale shark passing by at a shallower depth. We are so excited by this encounter. I can’t believe my eyes. It is the first time I see a whale shark in my life. This is going to be the best trip ever!

We spend the first night in Addu, our floating home is anchored not too far from Addu city. Everyone is tired from the long journey as we all flew from Europe. We travelled half the world and it’s already so worth it. Going to the Deep South means a stop for a few hours in the capital Male followed by an additional flight to Addu.

Monday: Glorious choreography by the reef manta rays

First waking up of the week. The crew told us the day before that they will use a cowbell every time they will wake us up, do a briefing and call us for a meal. They didn’t lie about that, they really use a cowbell… No need to set up an alarm, that’s all taken care of!

Read about what to pack for a liveaboard trip here.

Maa Kandu

The first dive is the one and only manta cleaning station at Maa Kandu. I had terrific dives there in 2017 when I was on holiday. I had the best dives with manta rays in my life. Why do I call it “the one and only manta cleaning station”? Because there is no other place like this one in the entire country – you can see mantas there all year round, it is not seasonal like in the other atolls.

We arrive at the channel around 7:30 am. Only one other diving boat is there, we do our buddy check and enter the water with our guide. After a few minutes I recognize the massive coral block where the reef manta rays come to get cleaned. We use a reef hook to avoid contact with the aquatic life. It is important to use one irrespective of your level. Strictly no leaning on or crushing corals. This place is unique and we want to preserve it.

There is an incoming current so the group is hooked on the inner part of the cleaning station at about 24 meters (79ft). It is important to be behind the cleaning station to avoid disturbing the mantas with our bubbles and being in their way while they swim to it. I pick a slightly different spot, from which I think I have a better view. I hook at 18 meters (60ft) where I can see the whole cleaning station from the shallower point. We see 3 giants circling for a while, then 2 young ones come fast and swim away. Later they come back accompanies by another two, summing the count to 7 reef mantas.

Wow, what a show!

The show is amazing! It is astonishing to have the chance to see them in their daily routine. We stay there until our No Decompression Limit reaches 5 minutes then we head to the top of the reef and start our ascent and safety stop after 55 unforgettable minutes dive. On the surface, we all have smiles on our faces, we have been witnesses of nature wonders…and it was only the first “official” dive of the week.

After breakfast, the cruise director asks us if we want to go back to the cleaning station for the second dive or dive the WWII British Loyalty shipwreck, also in Addu. The majority wants to see more mantas…so mantas it is!

This time there are more boats on site, the cleaning station seems to be busy. The visibility has dropped a bit due to planktons, there is a cold thermocline at around 18 meters (60ft) and below. We can count 5 mantas. The show is sublime and we stay there even though it’s freezing cold. Wow, what a show! You can read more about mantas in the Maldives here.

We all go back delighted to the boat after this amazing morning with reef manta rays. Now it’s lunch time followed by a break before the third dive in the afternoon.

Hithadhoo caves

I am really fond of wall dives, I like how corals grow on a vertical slope and how everything feels different. Hithadhoo caves, as the name says, has overhangs, very typical for the wall dives in the Maldives. These ones have huge sea fans, sponges and small soft corals on the inner part of the wall. Wonderful gorgonians and black corals cover completely the wall that starts around 10 meters (33ft) and drops up to 50 meters (165ft). The few overhangs are at about 25-30 meters (82-100ft). They are so big, we can all fit in and they are pretty deep too. I spot a tiny octopus in one of them among longfin bannerfish and blotcheye soldierfish.

The shallow part of the wall is not as healthy as at 15 meters (50ft) and below but it is full of life: thousands of anthias are covering the top reef and dancing. It is a nice way to end the dive with the late afternoon sunlight and the colourful fish everywhere.

After this full day of awesome diving, we head to the next atoll Fuvahmulah and continue our Maldives Deep South route.

Tuesday: 6 oceanic manta rays, 6 tiger sharks and a massive whale shark. All in one day!

Fuvahmulah plateau

Our first dive is the Fuvahmulah plateau, which is the island reef. We expect to see oceanic mantas and sharks. After only a few minutes, we encounter two oceanic mantas at 30 meters (100ft) coming from the blue heading to the deep reef. They are not shy and pass by so peacefully that we can observe them closely. One has 2 huge fish stuck on its head. This massive animal is probably 5 meters (16ft) long from tip to tip.

Things happen everywhere so I look at the surface and see an adult whale shark. It moves slowly right above the slope of the reef and disappears quietly. This whale shark was probably twice the size of the one we saw on the check dive. It is no so common to see them while scuba diving as they mainly stay in shallow water to feed filtering planktons.

We started our journey 2 days ago and we have already seen 2 whale sharks! The Maldives Deep South route is a paradise for marine life lovers. We see 3 white tip reef sharks resting on the bottom, another oceanic manta passing by, and a few small grey reef, white tip and silvertip sharks on the slope. It sounds common but seeing so many juvenile sharks means that the reef is healthy. At half dive we ascend to the top of the reef around 18 to 15 meters (60 to 50ft) and there we see many fusiliers, parrotfish and butterflyfish. To end this breathtaking dive, an oceanic manta comes from the top reef towards us like saying goodbye to us during our safety stop, just when we were about to fold our cameras. What it didn’t know (and nor did we) is that we would come back in the afternoon.

Merikafalu: Tiger’s Zoo

The second dive of the morning sounds as tremendous as the first one. Divers from the local island are joining us to show us where the tiger sharks hang out. The dive site is Merikafalu, also called Tiger’s Zoo, and it is at one of the harbours of Fuvahmulah island, at 7 meters (23ft) deep. The only time I have seen a tiger shark was from our boat while I was cruising in the mangrove in Andros island in the Bahamas. You can really feel the general excitement on the dhoni.

We start the dive on top of the reef near the harbour. The corals are stunning, the visibility excellent because of the sunny weather and the shallow depth. We reach a sandy bottom, kneel and wait for the show. The local divers are at the extremity of the line we formed. We can already see the area full of surgeonfish, giant trevallies and huge rainbow runners. After 5 minutes or so, two 3-meter-long (10ft) tiger sharks show up and swim slowly in the shallow area. Another 4 join a bit later. They all move slowly and are indifferent to our presence. They are massive, we can observe females in the group as some of them have rounded bellies. We can count not only one but 6 colossal sharks.

Some come very close, I can see their eyes look at me for a second. We are next to the second most dangerous shark for humans and strangely I am not scared. I want this moment to last more, to observe the biggest sharks I have ever seen.

Fuvahmulah outside reef

In the afternoon, the cruise director tells us that we will go back to the same dive site as in the morning but in a slightly different area: Fuvahmulah outside reef.

The visibility is not as good as in the morning, the light is also different, and that makes us feel like we are in a completely new spot. During the descent we see a patrol of some 10 adult barracudas and large rainbow runners. We continue along the reef and a juvenile white tip reef shark comes from the opposite direction. On top of the reef we see a couple of Napoleon wrasses and next to them there is a school of hundreds of banded jacks. They surround me, I can hardly see my buddy as they are so many. They finally swim away and almost straight away I see a grey reef shark passing by and 2 oceanic manta rays in the blue. The top of the reef is covered by thousands of purple and yellow anthias moving quickly in all the directions.

After another extraordinary day at diving, Horizon III heads to the next and last atoll of the Maldives Deep South route: Huvadhoo.

Wednesday: The most stunning hard coral reefs with plenty of sharks and eagle rays.

Maareha Kandu

To continue on our Maldives Deep South route, the first dive of the day is Maareha Kandu, a channel dive. After checking the current, one of the 4 guides tells us there is almost no current.

During the descent in the blue I spot far off a patrol of 8 eagle rays. It is one of my favourite rays. I like their shape, colour, head and behaviour. Unfortunately, they don’t allow us a close up. So we start the dive in the middle of the channel and head north. We see 15 grey reef sharks at the edge of the channel and 6 white tip reef sharks resting on the bottom.

When we are close to our NDL, we start heading into the channel at a shallower depth. A guide waves at me. I assume he saw something small. When I get close, I see a tiny white scorpion leaf fish. It is very pretty and hard to spot, well done buddy!

After taking a few pictures of it, we continue into the channel. The corals are not so healthy but there is a lot of life: oriental sweetlips, blue surgeonfish, fusiliers and turtles.

Gemanafushi beyru

The next dive of the morning is Gemanafushi beyru, located on the outside reef of Maareha island. We see many reef fish: fire gobies, Maldive anemonefish, wrasses, parrotfish and emperor fish. This site is more for spotting small critters. The Maldives have much more than manta rays, whale sharks and turtles. You can also see flatworms, nudibranch, shrimps, stonefish and many more if you know their habits…and if you manage to find them 😉

Discovery Thila

It is already time to get out of the water and have lunch. The afternoon dive will take us to a Discovery Thila, an inner reef in the atoll. Basically the tide is not suitable for a good channel dive so the cruise director prefers trying this new dive site. Actually, as I said earlier, there are 255 islands in this atoll, meaning there are many unexplored reefs everywhere.

We don’t know what marine life we will encounter. But that one is a very good surprise. I have dived for 2 years in Male atoll from the north to the south and for 1 more year on the west side of Huvadhoo and I can tell you that this reef is one of the healthiest. Already on the descend I can see how dense the corals are and I am excited to explore this endless reef for 60 min. I have the most beautiful coral garden in front of me.

Thilas are mainly known for small critters and schools of fish, and this one is not an exception. We see a tiny scorpionfish, a hawksbill sea turtle feeding in the shallow part, many anthias, a school of fusiliers. The end of the dive is outstanding, I have an amazing scene of beauty in front of my eyes: hundreds of colourful anthias cover the stunning hard corals and suddenly a hawksbill sea turtle shows up and being shrouded in a 4pm light (sunset is around 6pm), I am enjoying so much.

BBQ dinner on an uninhabited island

Tonight, we have a surprise from the crew. We are heading to an uninhabited island for a BBQ dinner. We get there around 5pm. Blue Horizon‘s crew is setting up everything to have a lovely evening. They prepare a round table with seats in the sand. In the middle of it, they’ve made two whale sharks out of sand and coal dust. They look so real! Not so far from there they’ve made another big whale shark too.

We are on a white sand beach set in a lush tropical bright green vegetation with palm trees everywhere. The blazing blood orange light covers the whole sky. Tonight the sunset is even better than on postcards. We can see no boat around, we are alone in this world! Soon we can smell the grilled fish and beef in the air. It’s time to sit and share our feelings with the other divers while savouring our delicious meal.

Thursday: Hundreds of schooling bigeye jacks, turtles and sharks everywhere. What a day!

Nilandhoo Dhekunu Kandu

We are in the North East of Huvadhoo atoll and the first dive of the day is Nilandhoo Dhekunu Kandu. Another spectacular channel dive on the Maldives Deep South route. The current is not strong, visibility is about 15 meters (50ft). There is a school of hundreds bigeye jacks passing by and suddenly they all head towards us in the blue. I love being surrounded by schools of fish. They are curious and don’t feel threatened by divers. It is maybe how they welcome human to their world, or at least it is what I believe. After a couple of minutes they go back to the reef.

On the edge of the channel there are many midnight corals, purple sea anemones with Maldive and Clark’s anemonefish everywhere. We also come across a couple of juvenile white tip sharks, dogtooth tunas and a few grey reef sharks. Then we drift into the channel for the last third of the dive. We see a hawksbill turtle feeding, a green turtle resting on top of a coral block, a small school of oriental sweetlips hovering on top of a table coral and many different parrotfish feeding on hard corals.

Kuredhu Kandu

The second dive site is Kuredhu Kandu. This place is a true blast. We start the dive where the slope is completely covered by layers of mountain corals. The whole reef! From top to bottom! There is a spread school of blue striped snappers on top of it, motionless. We see a small hawksbill turtle feeding at the beginning. There is a cold thermocline below 18 meters (60ft) with a water temperature of 26 C (79F) and it starts to make me regret the fact that I hate wearing a wetsuit, because it’s so beautiful down there that I want to stay for ages. On the bottom at 28 meters (92ft), the huge coral blocks are covered by small soft corals of all colours. I see a white tip shark resting on the sea bed next to them, it looks at me, I look at it, breathing.

Then I return to a shallow depth, I need some hot water. I think I have burnt enough calories for the whole day…or two. Towards the end of the dive we see another hawksbill turtle heading to the surface to breath, I observe it and wait for it to dive back down. Here we go, it swims head first to the bottom. I meet it in the descend and follow it for a while. It looks at me without feeling any treat. We swim together like a buddy team for a while. My actual buddy is with the other divers taking pictures. On the top reef, I see a Napoleon wrasse passing by. The area has quite a few orange sea anemones. We get carried away taking turns in photographing of a block with 3 sea anemones bunched together, it is soon time to surface and get lunch.

Vilingili South Corner

The afternoon dive is Vilingili South Corner. This is another channel but we are diving the corner of it. We head to the middle of the channel on top of the edge at the beginning of the dive to check if we can see any sharks. On the way a marbled stingray comes in the opposite direction and goes deeper. We see a white tip reef shark on the bottom near the edge. It doesn’t remain still, swims away but lands only few meters/feet away. We can observe it again.

At this moment, I see a reef manta ray passing by above our head but very shallow. We see some grey reef sharks in the blue but the visibility is not so good. Then we head back to the corner at a shallower depth where we see a lot of life. A giant moray, a green turtle and at the same time a juvenile white tip reef shark coming in the opposite direction. There are few hawksbill turtles, we spend some time observing one closely while it feeds greedly.

We stay in the same area for the night because this is where the best channels are to spot massive aggregations of grey reef sharks.

Friday: A breathtaking shark invasion and some of the coolest small critters!

Vilingili Kandu

The first dive is Vilingili Kandu. This channel is special because of its location. It is at the tip of a V shape, off the edge of the north east of Huvadhoo atoll, making the incoming current pushing stronger than on a “normal edge of the atoll” into the channel due to that V-shaped funnel.

Our group starts the dive in the south part and heads towards the north where the other group is waiting for us. The current is unfortunately low and we make our way slowly along the edge of the channel at 30 meters (100ft). Then we see a few grey reef sharks. As we progress we realise that it’s not only a few. Everywhere we look, far off, to the blue and underneath, we can see them by the dozen! We even see one curious silvertip shark coming towards us whereas the grey reef don’t. There is also a couple of white tip reef sharks among them. We are basically “pushing” them all towards the other group of divers. We are diving with 150 to 200 hundreds reef sharks, a unique experience.

It is the first time I dive with so many sharks. I had dove a few times with up to 20 sharks in one channel but today it is 10 times more! I can’t really believe what it is happening. There are no words to describe this.

There are two ways to live this experience, stay in one a the resort around or dive from a liveaboard that offers you a vast number of different dive sites in different atolls. But there is only one way to the Maldives Deep South route and it is onboard a liveaboard.

Read more about shark diving in the Maldives here.

Koodhoo kandu

The second dive is Koodhoo kandu. The current is low outgoing. There is a lot of life since the beginning. The big school of bigeye jacks is there, above the edge of the channel. We see a few grey reef sharks in the blue moving far off. We stay a bit shallower in the channel itself because not much can happen on the edge due to the outgoing current. It doesn’t matter at all as we spot a huge marbled stingray resting under a table coral. We approach it slowly and admire it breathing up close. It is not afraid of divers if their movements are slow. There is a big school of hundreds of white and yellow-tail snappers. A bit further I see a green turtle resting on a coral block, but as soon I head towards it, the turtle swims away gracefully.

Here I notice that hawksbill turtles are more used to divers and allow close approach whereas green turtles are more fearful. The reef is packed with beautiful and colourful soft corals, a giant moray eel is next to one of them. A huge titan triggerfish is having a feast destroying a piece of a hard coral. Suddenly, a cornet fish approaches me, not a common behaviour from this fish. I see that it has a small remora on its back and is definitely disturbed by its presence as it has a raw wound from it. The cornetfish is trying to “give me” the remora, in vain. The outgoing current is getting stronger so we start ascending to finish our dive with a safety stop in the blue. On the way I see 40 to 50 small barracudas.

Back on the boat, the other divers tell us they saw a huge whale shark and a leopard shark!

Maamuta thila

The last dive of the day and of this epic trip is Maamuta thila. This is an inner-atoll reef. The top is at 6-7 meters (20-23ft) deep and the bottom around 40-45 meters (131-147ft). The top of the reef does not have much corals but as soon as you descend on the slope we realise that it is actually extremely beautiful. At 10 meters (33ft), my buddy spots a male ribbon eel, the black one with a yellow line in the back. And then, a minute later, she spots a female ribbon eel not even 5 meters (16ft) away from the male, roughly at the same depth. I had never seen both male and female at the same time. I am so excited and happy because it is a rare encounter.

We then continue to the deep part of the thila. There we can see a few longnose hawkfish amongst black corals, their main habitat. We are even lucky enough to see a small ghost pipefish in the same coral. Both are so well camouflaged. These corals are also full of transparent shrimps. You literally don’t know what to focus your attention on first. We slowly ascend and look into the cracks on the reef. They are full of glass fish, so many that you can’t even see through them. Sometimes there is a moray eel right behind them in the crack but not here. However, we see few glass cleaner shrimps, one of them carrying eggs. If you put your hand and remain steady, the shrimps will come and clean it from dead skin. This is a cleaning station for small reef fish and morays.

Our beautiful dives are coming to an end

At the end of the dive there is another black coral almost on the top reef. We spot another longnose hawkfish and also a ghost pipefish, this one is bigger than the first one.

Two ghost pipefish in the same dive, wow, we are very lucky! Right next to it, there is a small stony coral with juvenile green chromis hiding in it. If you get too close, the all hide into it but as soon as you slightly step back from it, they all continue swimming on top of the coral. As much as we do not want to get out of the water, it is time for us to do our safety stop and let everything we experienced in the past days sink in. What a dream!

Saturday: stay dry and get sunburnt (life could be worse).

Today it is our last day of the Maldives Deep South route. We are not diving as we have to clear our body from the residual nitrogen absorbed in the past days. In the Maldives it is even part of the diving regulation from the ministry of tourism. You have to wait at least 24 hours between the last breath underwater and the time you get on a plane. We don’t joke with our safety so we are going to an uninhabited island for some nice drone, land and lagoon photo-shooting. The island itself is very small, it is basically a sand bank with a few trees and some rocks. The lagoon, however, and the roundish reef are big. From the beach to the edge of the reef, there are some 40 to 80 meters (131 to 262ft) depending on areas I would say. The private playground is amazing.

After being there for a couple of hours, it is time to go back to the boat and have lunch.

In the afternoon, we will join on the dhoni the divers staying for another week and enjoy our last afternoon jumping from the sundeck in the ocean, like kids.

I would definitely take the Maldives Deep South route again!

I have so many great memories from this trip. First, the boat. We felt so well onboard, it was like being at home, with an outstanding seascape around it. The room was very comfortable and the king size bed was very comfortable, we slept like babies. There is a nice sundeck where we could watch the sunset every day, having the feeling we are alone. The food was great. Meals changed all the time. We had steamed grouper, fried tuna, chicken, beef, vegetables and carbs, soup and salads, desert and fruit every day. There was always a tea and coffee break with snacks before or after a dive, I was very happy with the food.

My mind was blown every day! I had so many first encounters despite the thousands of dives I have done all around the world.

Imagine that within 5 days I saw my first whale sharks, first oceanic manta rays, first silvertip shark, first tiger sharks, first time diving with so many grey reef sharks on a single dive. This is priceless for a passionate diver as myself. I will never forget my week onboard Blue Horizon and the outstanding diving on the Maldives Deep South route.

So now, tell me honestly, are you daydreaming of seeing everything I depicted above? If I haven’t convinced you enough with the marine life and the greatness of the boat, then let me just add that this remote underwater paradise is actually quite accessible. There are numerous domestic flights a day to all the airports in the southern atolls and within an hour flight you’d be far from the crowds and the beaten route and sailing off to an unforgettable voyage.

Book your trip on the Maldives Deep South route now!

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Happy bubbles!

Check out more liveaboards which take the Maldives Deep South route

About the author

Nicolas Cesaroni has adopted scuba diving as his way of life since his first dive in 2010 in South-East Asia. A few months later he was a scuba Instructor, and a new life began. He decided to live his passion on a daily basis and explore as many tropical destinations as possible. He’s been diving and teaching scuba ever since in the best destinations in the world from Indonesia to Mexico by way of Thailand, Sri Lanka, Maldives, Seychelles, Egypt, Tanzania, South Africa, Greece, Germany, France, The Bahamas, Belize, Honduras, Costa Rica, and Panama.

He has become an avid underwater photographer over the years and his favourite critters are the tiny ones. You can find his stunning shots on his Instagram account @ocean.nico. In 2019, he took time out and co-founded the Dive into Life blog. The following year, having missed being underwater every day and living on remote islands, he was back in teaching status in the Maldives, where he is currently working.

When he is not underwater or editing pictures, Nico is a mixologist and he loves cooking.

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