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Post date: Oct 8, 2009 12:49:49 PM
Confetti Reef and Batfish Reef
My wife and I visited Denis Island in the Seychelles in September 2009 for our honeymoon. It is a small island with 22 chalets each with their own private beach. There is a fantastic restaurant serving a variety of food including chicken, beef and pork raised on their own farm and locally caught swordfish, tuna, Dorado and bonito.
Due to having a limited luggage allowance, because of the rather exciting half hour internal flight, we didn’t bring any of our own diving equipment apart from snorkelling gear. We have had a couple of bad experiences in the past with poorly maintained equipment and were concerned this might be the case in such a remote place with a very small dive school.
Ted Charles runs the dive school. A more laid back man would be difficult to find. When we visited him the first time his first words to me were “are you dead yet?” I replied, “Well not exactly dead but quite relaxed.” We discussed our experience, which is limited as we are both Ocean Divers, qualified to dive to a maximum of 20 metres and arranged to return the next day at 09.30am for our first dive.
We immediately walked around to reception to ask about a deep sea fishing trip and were informed by the receptionist that we couldn’t go fishing tomorrow as we were diving. I have never stayed anywhere where all the staff know your names and what you have been doing all day.
We arrived at the dive centre the following morning and found the BCD’s with cylinders and regulators already set up on the porch. Looking at the equipment it appeared to be fairly new and in excellent condition with test stamps clearly marked on the cylinders. Being used to diving in the UK in a drysuit carrying 12kg’s on weight it made a very pleasant change to be in a 2.5mm shorty wetsuit with 4kg of weight.
We walked out about ten metres in the warm sea (31ºC) to the boat. It is only a ten minute boat ride to the 2000m drop off so there were two metre waves and the ride can only be described as bouncy. My wife Helen, endured this by sitting on the floor with her eyes shut hanging on for dear life. After five minutes we were at the dive site where Ted gave a very thorough briefing. We tipped back off the side of the boat, righted ourselves and prepared to descend.
The moment you glance down through the water it can only be described as stepping out of the back of the wardrobe on Lewis Carroll’s “The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe.” It really is like entering another world. Instantly you can see the coral on the sea floor and the numerous fish and abundant sea life. We descended down to 20 metres and almost immediately Ted was trying to coax something out from under a large rock. Suddenly a head appeared. For an instant I thought it must be a moray eel but as the rest of the body emerged it became evident it was a turtle. I suspect Ted wakes the poor thing up every time he dives on this site for the tourists to see.
We moved on and he pointed out a couple of white tipped reef sharks. They weren’t very big but amazing to see in the natural environment. Neither of us have ever dived with sharks before. Suddenly there was a shark in front of us and a turtle to our right. The excitement became too much and my mask filled with water. We watched the shark for a minute then swam to our right. The turtle was quite happy to let us approach and Helen stroked his head before he slowly moved off.
During the rest of the dive we saw a feather tipped sting ray, a huge lobster, lion fish, nudi branch and a large shoal of tuna. At least we thought they were large until we went fishing for them a few days later.
Ted is very enthusiastic although rather than a “look but don’t touch” approach he has more of a “look and stroke” approach. There was a nurse shark resting on the sea bed between some rocks. We all respected its personal space but Ted swam up to it and started stroking it. Fortunately it didn’t seem to mind.
Its not exactly busy diving on Denis Island. On our first dive there was just my wife and I. On our second dive we were joined by another couple. During this dive my wife thought that Charlotte was humming and vice versa. It was only afterwards Ted informed them that they had been listening to whales out in the deep ocean.
One of the advantages of staying in a five star resort is that they refuse to allow you to carry anything. During the breakfast buffet if I filled a glass with orange juice a waiter would insist on carrying it back to our table. The same applies to the diving equipment. They won’t let you carry anything other than your mask and fins. They set up all the equipment, put it on you and do just about everything but breathe for you. You do of course still do buddy checks.
It’s a bit of a long way for a diving trip but if you want a very relaxing and luxurious holiday with some fantastic diving thrown in I can thoroughly recommend Denis Island, Seychelles.
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