Top 10 Diving Beaches

Posted on May 20, 2013 by Neill Ghosh
Amazing beaches and diving.

Our favourite beaches around the world.

Tim Simond, author of Dive in Style, presents his top 10 beaches worldwide. Not only are they stunning but all sit next to world-class diving so you can spend your mornings in the depths and your afternoons on the sand.

Pamalican, Philippines - Totally surprising and totally stunning. Endless soft white powder framed by waving palms and giving onto perfect tranquil turquoise sea. Better still it’s totally private and can be all yours when you stay at the incomparable Amanpulo.

Pine Cay, Turks and Caicos - Here you are guaranteed an almost totally deserted mile of perfect untrammelled white powder and irresistible multi-hued water. It’s stunning and the laid back Meridian Club offers the very best in Caribbean charm.

Anse Victorin, Seychelles - Anyone can convince themselves they are a photographer here. Guaranteed privacy backed by waving palms and bookended by those iconic Seychelles Granite boulders – perfect; as is the place you will be staying, the private island of Frégate.

Peter Island, British Virgin Islands - The yachties love Deadman’s Beach, but they are kept away so you can enjoy the perfect sand and palms strung with hammocks. Peter Island Resort & Spa is totally private and offers this wonderful beach and some of the best diving in the Caribbean.

Maroma, Mexico - It may be close to Cancun but you would never know it. Here you’ll find a wide, powder soft white sand beach and clear waters. You can dive reefs, the cenotes, and from June to September with whale sharks. Pretty special.

Lizard Island, Australia - Lizard Island on the Outer Great Barrier Reef is home to 24 totally private and pristine beaches, amazing snorkelling with friendly turtles and 150 year old Giant Clams. Take a private boat and picnic off to any of the beaches and you’ll feel like it’s all yours.

Vamizi Island, Mozambique - This private island in the remote Quirimbas Archipelago is home to some of the finest beaches in Africa. Sand so fine it squeaks like icing sugar as you walk on it. Add in one of our favourite dives on Earth, Neptune’s Arm and you really have it all.

Pink Beach, Komodo, Indonesia - One of just seven genuinely pink beaches worldwide set on this amazing island and with the most amazing snorkelling straight from the beach. Komodo is only accessible by liveaboard and the remote dive sites offer pristine coral, wonderful macro and the big stuff. Perfect in the summer.

Park Hyatt Hadahaa, Maldives - When it comes to white sand beaches, nowhere does them better than the Maldives. One of our absolute favourites is this island. Conjure an image in your head of the perfect desert island and it will look like this. An incredible house reef makes it even better.

Mnemba Island, Tanzania - A totally private island and one of the most exclusive in the world. Just look at this on Google Earth to see the quality of the sand and blueness of the lagoon. Cheap it isn’t but special it most definitely is.

Posted in Australia, British Virgin Islands, Indonesia, Maldives, Mozambique, Original Diving Destinations, Philippines, Seychelles, Tanzania, Turks & Caicos | Tagged , , , | Leave a comment

Diving with great hammerheads

Posted on April 5, 2013 by Louisa Fisher
Great hammerhead off Bimini in the Bahamas. By John Bantin

Great hammerhead off Bimini in the Bahamas. By John Bantin

Where in the world can you go where you are all but guaranteed close-up encounters with great hammerheads? The answer is Bimini Island in the Bahamas.

Having made the trip out to the Bahamas in February to discover hotels and beautiful diving, I have come back astonished at what the Bahamas has to offer: incredible hotels with something to suit everyone and lovely diving from wall dives to blue holes to reefs. But what really took my breath away, without a doubt, was the shark diving with the great hammerheads.

Just a five minute boat ride from South Bimini Island took us a sandy bottom site with a depth of around eight metres and this is where the shark diving begins. As soon as we arrived, Stuart Cove’s trained shark feeding team began to scrape dead fish under the water and add a trail of fish oils to bring in the sharks. The first to come in were the nurse sharks and as soon as these arrive you know the bait is working! For us, the hammerheads came in about an hour later but it can be longer or shorter, which will depend on the strength of the current and most likely other factors too.

As soon as they arrived, we quickly kitted up and gently slipped into the water heading straight down onto the sandy bottom. What was immediately obvious was the incredible visibility; I have barely seen such clear water. And then in came the great hammerhead, five metres in length and staying close to the sand in the hope that it would come across a bit of dead fish to vacuum up. I caught my breath as it swooped in front of me, just centimetres away and I was struck by the gentle nature of this creature which has so commonly been referred to as deadly. A concept that could not be more misleading. As the afternoon went on, a couple more hammerheads came in as well as a few bull sharks skulking in the background. For photographers or shark enthusiasts it does not get any better than this.

This was an experience I will never forget and if you like sharks or even if you are not sure, I urge you to just GO before the secret is out.

Want to find out more about this trip? Get in touch. 

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Saving Sharks with Bite-Back

Posted on March 20, 2013 by Neill Ghosh

Bite-Back Logo Web RESIZEDWe are delighted to announce that we are partnering with charity, Bite-Back, to try and help the cause of shark and marine conservation. Every time someone books with us, we will be donating an amount to the charity; and if people want to donate more, we will match their donation (within reason of course or we’d go bankrupt!).

Bite-Back is an energetic, innovative and pioneering shark and marine conservation charity with a clear focus and a ‘let’s get things done’ attitude.

Bite-Back campaigns relentlessly for the protection of sharks and other vulnerable fish, capturing the imagination of the media and celebrity supporters along the way. Its campaigns have been shaped by the fact that over-fishing is the single biggest threat facing the marine environment and that over-consumption is the root cause. The biggest campaign victories have been achieved simply because everyday people have taken part in its online campaigns or turned out at events or simply made a donation.

We are immensely proud to be working with such an incredible charity and we hope we will be able to provide much support in the months and years to come.

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Imaginary Celebrity Diving Holidays

Posted on February 5, 2013 by Louisa Fisher

Original Diving’s imaginary travels – the Beckhams, Depp and Redmayne

The world is full of possibilities when it comes to diving holidays and we are experts in creating the right trip for you. With this in mind, we thought it might be fun to dream up a few imaginary snapshot itineraries for famous people in the present. For example, where on earth would you send the Beckhams on holiday for a dose of winter sun and to learn to dive? Diving is a popular sport amongst celebrities, Tiger Woods once explained his love for diving with ‘The fish don’t know who I am’.

We hope you enjoy!

So Becks has signed for Paris St Germain and their holiday over Christmas in the Maldives was a disaster due to the weather. With the prospect of several months apart, they need to head to the sunshine for a romantic getaway…

We would recommend giving the Maldives another chance and heading to Soneva Fushi in the Baa Atoll, northern Maldives, where the motto is ‘no shoes no news’ so that they can get away from the media. They would enjoy a peaceful couple of weeks in the sun (the weather is perfect now!) with delicious food and top quality service. They are keen to learn to dive and the dive school at Soneva Fushi is one of the best, if not the best, that we have ever come across so would be the perfect place for guiding Posh and Becks through their training.

Having fallen in love with the Bahamas while filming Pirates of the Caribbean, Johnny Depp acquired his own private island in the Exumas. Since this was a good 8 years ago now, it is in need of renovation so he is looking for somewhere to hold up while the builders move in…

We would tell him to head to Fowl Cay, also located in the Exumas so he can easily pop back to his island if he needs to keep an eye on things. Home to some of the best diving and snorkelling in the Caribbean, he can test out more of the Bahamian waters while staying at this incredible resort. This luxury boutique hotel is a cross between resort and private villas so he would still very much feel at home with each villa having separate bedroom, sitting room and large deck. We know Johnny is a little bit quirky so we think he would definitely love the neighbouring islands swimming pigs!

Hot on the scene new heart throb and fresh out of Les Miserables, Eddie Redmayne is in desperate need for some relaxation and to escape his new found fame. He wants to keep active so is keen to learn to dive but wants remote…

Sounds like the perfect fit for a trip to Sorido Bay in Raja Ampat. Located in west Papua, Indonesia, the region of Raja Ampat has some of the best diving on earth and is about as remote as you can get. Mushroom-shaped emerald green islands are surrounded by turquoise waters just teeming with marine life from the smallest reefs dwellers such as the pygmy seahorse to the occasional giant manta ray (6m). These are some of the fishiest dives we have ever done and would be an extremely exciting place for Eddie to learn to dive and get completely away from it all. The resort is tiny with just seven bungalows and there are 27 dive sites within 10 minutes of the resort. Not to mention the house reef which has had more species counted on it in one dive than anywhere else in the world.

Want to find out more about these trips? Get in touch. 

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Our Top 5 Winter Dives

Posted on February 5, 2013 by Louisa Fisher

Diving with a turtle in the British Virgin Islands

Now that February has begun and the weather in the UK is grim to say the least, we thought it the appropriate moment to turn your attention to those parts of the globe that are enjoying warmer climes and of course some lovely diving. While you may be drenched from your commute to work in the UK, in these destinations you will only be soaked from an incredible dive and this certainly won’t last long with the sun on your back!

Here are our top five dives in locations where you can get your fix of winter sun:

  • Manta Point in South Ari Atoll, Maldives – the place to head for mantas and sunshine at this time of year! Manta Point (Hukuru Elhi Faru) is a famous cleaning station for mantas between January and April where they come up from the deep to free themselves from unwanted parasites.
  • Blue Magic in central Raja Ampat, Indonesia – the perfect time of year to head to Raja Ampat and not to mention some of the best diving on earth. If we had to select a dive, it would probably have to be Blue Magic. Where else in ONE dive can you see the extremes of the pygmy sea horse and the giant manta ray (6m)? Add in a veritable broth of schooling jack, barracuda, some beautiful nudibranch and flatworms, mantis shrimp, black tip reef shark, wonderful soft and hard corals and you can usually find a wobbegong shark or sleeping ‘walking shark’. It is simply unbeatable. Green turtles can be found here as well as black tips, white tips and grey reef sharks.
  • HMS Rhone in the British Virgin Islands – stunning weather and a world-class dive: the wreck of the Royal Mail Steamer Rhone. Sunk in a hurricane of 1867, Rhone is one of the best known and sought after wreck dives in the world and starred – complete with killer moray eel – in the film The Deep. Having been there for nearly 150 years she is now totally encapsulated with corals and home to abundant marine life, including yellow moray, lobster, barracuda, a school of Jack, Soldierfish, Spotted Drum, Queen Angelfish, Cowfish, and octopus.
  • Gladden Spit in Belize– whale sharks anyone? From March to May around the time of the full moon enormous schools of snapper come here to spawn, which in turn brings in the whale sharks who feed on the billions of fish eggs: you are almost guaranteed encounters. Add in sunshine, other fabulous diving too and you have the recipe for a perfect winter sun holiday.
  • Octopus Rock in the Musandam Peninsula, Oman – just a short flight from the UK and guaranteed sunshine, this is one of our favourite places for winter sun. Octopus Rock has its specialty of seahorses alongside other fantastic marine life which can’t be ignored! Triggerfish by the thousand provide the backdrop, huge parrotfish, endless nudibranchs, lionfish and at least 5 different species of moray eel.

If you would like to find out more, please get in touch. 

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