My Take On The Planets Best Dive Holidays
Because I am a hotel reviewer, I always get asked where are the best scuba sites. Here they are in no particular order.
1. Rocktail Bay, Kwazulu-Natal, South Africa
The temperature in the Maputaland Marine Reserve can be on the cool side, but there are plenty of warm water fish and good chances of seeing some very large pelagic species. Rocktail Bay Lodge has the only dive boat for 100 miles. We even saw common dolphins and humpback whales on the ride to the dive site. Fred and Fins, the dive masters, now send me the occaisional emails retelling their adventures with everything from whale sharks as well the more endearing species such as pipefish and green turtles. Between November and March you may see mating brown turtles along the sandy shoreline of Natal
2. Osprey Reef East of Cairns, Australia
As one of the most amazing dive sites in the world. It has a huge population of sharks of shark life] all year round and untouched soft coral experienced before]. North Horn site is well known for its local population of White tip reef sharks. It has also been a shark feeding site for over ten years. The silvertip shark, moray eels and many smaller species are familiar with humans. Ocean Explorer now study the sharks, they are tagged periodically. A underwater amplitheatre allows divers to sit 20m deep to experience the feeding frenzy. View silvertip reef sharks, blue sharks, dogthooth tuna and scalloped hammerheads. Big soft coral trees deep on the Southern wall. Incredible pelagic action, including rainbow runners and spanish mackerel .See pleurobranc and shrimps. Accessed from Cairns or Port Douglas , some dive boats also include Osprey Reef in their Great Barrier Reef Liveaboard Scuba Diving Trips.
3.Grand Turk, Turks & Caicos, Bahamas
Located along the end of the Bahamas, Grand Turk is usually sheltered from heavy currents and visibility is excellent year-round for scuba diving. Grand Turk is a mid summer meeting place for giant manta rays. Grand Turk is ringed by dropoffs covered in hard corals, starting at 25 feet and rising to 30 feet then plunging 7000 feet straight down.
4. The Bismarck Sea, Papua New Guinea
I happen to like coral and sponges and sea slugs and all the weirdly shaped micro-creatures that crawl, slither and hop along the reefs. That is why I love the “fertile triangle” of the Philippines, Indonesia and Papua New Guinea (PNG), where marine biodiversity is the highest on the planet. Getting to PNG from Europe is a long slog, and once in Port Moresby you need to fly on to New Britain Island, but the diving makes up for it. Night diving on the offshore sea mounts rising from the abyss in the Bismarck Sea cured me of my fear of being in the sea at night. Apart from the big stuff, you will see squat lobsters and sponge crabs, dwarf scorpion fish and pygmy seahorses. Some of the best shore diving in the world is accessible from the Walindi Plantation Resort in Kimbe Bay, where biologists have identified more than 800 marine species.
5. Surin and Similan Islands, Thailand
Close to the line on the map between Thai and Burmese waters lie a string of islands in the Andaman Sea. There is an element of “wilderness diving” around here and an incredible choice of rarely visited dive sites. At Koh Bon, the bommie rises from the ocean depths and attracts groups of feeding game-fish as well as mantas. Richelieu Rock is a similarly unique site, well known among well read divers for the number of macro-life inhabiting the reef.
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