Karumba Village
Now that I live in my dream location, I find it very difficult to leave. I have thankfully travelled to many destinations in my youth.
This story is one of the most memorable.
In the early 80s, I travelled to the Maldives with friends. It was nothing like it is today: remote, difficult to get to, but idyllic.
The voyage was long. From London Heathrow, a stop in Zurich , another in Dubai and finally to Colombo, Sri Lanka, for the first haul. Air Lanka was amazing. The stewardesses all dressed in stunning peacock-coloured saris. The comfort on the Tristar was fabulous: big comfy chairs, inflight radio to listen to, and leg room. Just as well for 13 hours. Even fillet steak was served with real cutlery, and we weren’t even travelling first class. I was dressed for comfort in trousers, blouse, and shoes for this journey. There were no leggings in the 80s!
Arriving in Colombo, I was startled by the heat. We disembarked into the tiny airport transit lounge. This lounge was guarded by armed military and full of mangy stray cats. There was no bar or restaurant, just a small counter where you could buy snacks and soft drinks. This was a four-hour stopover with chrome wire kitchen chairs and Formica tables—a stark difference from the plane.
Eventually, we boarded the small plane to take us to Malé, the airport island, a mere 1 hour and 45 minutes away. As we flew in, it was amazing to see the tiny white atolls floating in the blues of the Indian Ocean. Once we landed and got our luggage, it was time to take the boat to Karumba.
The heat was now searing, and my feet had swollen, my trousers and shirt way too hot. We arrived at the dock where the boat was waiting. Not a ferry or even a modern speedboat. Waiting for us was a traditional sailing dhoni. Once boarded, we set off under sail. First, we sailed to an island called Villingili to drop off a couple who were staying there, then on to Karumba. This total journey on the little fishing boat took around four hours. I believe we had to sail around a monsoon storm! With no shade, hot sweaty British town clothes, and swollen feet, I look back and giggle. My poor feet also got quite
sunburned once I had taken off my court shoes! But the thrill of being on the open water of the clear blue Indian Ocean overshadowed all of that. Once we arrived, we disembarked onto the rustic wooden pier, were greeted, and taken to our hut. The whole journey from Amersham in the UK, where I lived at the time, to Karumba had taken 28 hours. But the adventure was only about to begin.
The island, Karumba, was the first island to become a tourist destination. It was sooo not like it is today. The island had 10 blocks of rooms all built on one side of the island on the beach. They which were more like mud huts with roofs made from thatched palm leaves. There was a very basic shower and toilet and wash basin. The water was a dirty brown colour as it came out of the tap. The pillows had a bit of a rank odour but the linen was clean, crisp and white. The bed was turned down each night and bougainvillea petals scattered on the bed. After getting into shorts and T-shirt, it was time to explore.
The island itself is 1/4 square mile in area. 10 minutes to circumnavigate the perimeter, at a slow stroll!
The restaurant, which was on the opposite side of the island to the rooms, was open air, the tables were set with more pressed linen. There was a chalk board with the menu written by hand. This evening’s fare was Tuna and green bens and poto”s, nope that’s not a typo. When the plate came they were in fact green beans and boiled potatoes. Every evening the menu was some kind of fish or chicken with green beans and potatoes. Breakfast there were all of the egg dishes. Poached, Scrambled, fried or boiled, with toast. No bacon of course. With it’s open air plan and roof made from the same thatching as the chalets the restaurant was attractively charming and the waiters attentive. The bar was of the same style, in fact the bar itself was made from half of a Maldivian sailing dhoni cut longways which was quite quaint. They did have all the branded drinks like Gordons and Schweppes, Coca Cola and beer was German bottled pilsner. Many of the guests were from Germany. There was no spa or no rooms on stilts in the sea, no swimming pools. There was a tiny shop where the staff hand printed with lino templates on white T-shirts with pictures of fish you could see
shallow water. They sold them for very little money. You could by cigarettes and cans of coke but that was it. There was however a dive school.
If you ever wanted to feel like Robinson Crusoe, this was the time to visit the Maldives. There was nothing to do, nothing. Oh yes you could sun bathe, and swim. This proved to be fun at times as it was Monsoon season. You could sit on the beach and watch the black cloud moving around with it’s tunnel of heavy rain pouring into the sea. As the cloud approached some would run for cover of their room. Not us, we went into the warm sea, usually with a beer. It was literally over in a few minutes, we were young and impetuous. After a few days we had settled into beach life.
There were some excursions by boat. One where you could sail round and see Chicken Island, that supplied the eggs and meat to the hotel, Prison island where they put the baddies and another island where all the wives of the men who worked on the resort lived with their children. This was just a boat trip, we were not allowed to stop or get off and look round.
We visited the Capital Island Malé which was full of shops all selling the same things and men tugging at you “you come see my shop” was the cry. I did buy a hand beaded necklace that was made from garnets. The presidential palace was also on this island. That was the most stunning building and well guarded by military, similar to the guards in Colombo airport. We learned from this trip that the airport island was in fact just next door, only 40 minutes by boat from Karumba. The long voyage when we arrived was because there was no boat to Vinllingili which was much further away so we had to deliver their guests before we could go to our island. So that was why the sailing turned into the four hour trip. It didn’t help that they ran out of fuel due to the extra miles so we had to travel under sail.
Before the end of the first week the two excursions on offer had been done so that left 15 more days in Paradise.
Having met the dive instructor, our group of four decide to go and hire snorkels so we could see the beautiful sea life. Upon leaving the dive centre, instead of hiring snorkels and fins, we had signed up to do a PADI
open water diving course for the rest of the holiday. This phased me a little as I was not the strongest of swimmers. But the water was shallow enough to stand up in where we learned the basics. After a day we had no choice but to go on the boat to deeper water because it was part of the course. Never in a million years did I ever think that I would be on a boat, kitted up with scuba gear and tip myself backwards over the side into the sea. The first time was nerve wracking. Tox, the dive instructor would walk from bow to stern and point to each diver from port to starboard alternately. That meant it was your turn to fall. With one hand on my regulator and the other on my mask I tipped. It wasn’t difficult as the weight of tank just pulled you in. As I began to sink, I turned onto my front and took my first breath. I felt like I was flying. Beautiful colourful fish were swimming all around as I fell. The rest of the group waiting on the sea bed as I was last to tumble. Suddenly I stopped falling and began to float back up to the surface! Tox arrived quickly and added more weights to my weights belt so I would sink. I was too light! Then I just gracefully floated down to the sandy bottom of the sea. Here we did a few exercises like clearing our masks if water leaked in and swapping regulators with your buddy in case they ran out of air!. We practiced all of the hand signals for OK, up, down, right, left, you lead, I lead and importantly the chopping sign in front of your throat saying you were out of air! It was a short dive and we all passed this element. We were then allowed to go on supervised dives in deeper water.
Three of these dives stick in my mind. Banana Reef, Manta Point and Victory Shipwreck.
Manta point was by far my favourite. We set off in the morning and anchored at the given coordinates. Everyone kitted up and we tipped over the side one by one on Tox’s signal. I was again one of the last off the boat and as I floated down I could see everyone in what looked like the bottom of a sand dune. I was having trouble again getting to the same depth. I manage to get about halfway down the underwater dune and was clinging to the side when suddenly the most beautiful manta ray appeared. It was huge, must have had a five meter wing span. It was so graceful and swam so close to me the I could see it’s enormous blue eye. It was inquisitive as I was the closest I just kept totally still and I would say that this
Manta was looking at me, swimming a half circle round me just two meters away. Suddenly one of the other divers shot up from beneath to try to stroke it’s spotted white belly. The Manta gave one, fast flap of it’s wings and was gone, out of reach, out of site. Incredible.
Shipwreck was exactly that. It was a delivery ship that was bringing goods in to Malé. Again we kitted up and dropped off the dive boat. As we free fell down we could see clearly the deck, on which we all assembled. Tox guided us down into the belly of the vessel, through corridors, past sailors berths and onto the Captains deck with all the instruments of shipping intact. This was a modern ship that had recently sunk. Then we dove further down into the stores where there was an incredible amount of items that were supposed to be delivered. Toilets, sinks, shower units, furniture and sewing machines to list a few. There were enormous fish here called Batfish that where flat and probably measured about 50cm’s high. We had learned before we went on this dive that this cargo ship sunk with nobody aboard as the crew were all on land. The captain got drunk and decided to sink the boat. I don’t think he went down with the ship though.
Banana Reef was a dive that I absolutely did not want to go on. So this day they changed the plan and decided to go again to Manta point. We arrived at the destination and dropped anchor. Kitted up as usual and Tox came down the boat pointing as usual to each diver. Seconds before he got to me somebody said they were looking forward to seeing sharks! I looked at my buddy who apologised. They lied! The fear of dread rose in me but I didn’t have time to protest and not go. As Tox got to me instead of pointing he pushed me backwards into the water. This time instead of gracefully floating down to meet the others, I pushed my hands out in front and paddled my fins to get to the rest of the group as quickly as I could. Tox lead us into a cave and picked up two rocks and began to knock them together, quite quickly several sharks, probably three or four arrived. They were white tip reef sharks of about 2 meters in length. They were circling outside the cave. I was terrified. After a little while, they left and we began to ascend to the boat. This is where I made sure that I was in the middle of the pack of divers not on the outside. I wasn’t going to be lunch for Jaws anytime soon.
The last compulsory part of the PADI qualification was a night dive. The penultimate evening of the holiday we all met at the dive club, kitted up and waded into he water. We wore head torches and could only see about a meter in front of us. The thought crossed my mind that a shark could come at any moment but that soon went away. I was watching a pod of lobsters walking in a line along the seabed. A Moray eel popped out of his rock to say hi and little clown fish wedged in the fingers coral sleeping. Parrot fish and beautiful wrasse looked stunning in torchlight.
The last afternoon of the holiday saw us assembled in the restaurant taking the written exam so we could have our open water diving permits if we passed. Once it was done we hit the bar. Gin and tonic’s in hand we were sitting on chairs on the edge of the beach talking. We all agreed that we had had an experience of a lifetime. I said to my friends “ you know the only thing we haven’t seen are dolphins” then as if by magic two came into the shallows of the beach, we ran to the waters edge to get a closer look. Then swam in the warm sea for the last time.
Oh my how heart warms now that I have finally written this story down after forty plus years. I passed the PADI open-water diver permit by the way.
I learned some serious life skills on this trip
1. Trust your buddy (except when sharks are involved)
2.Dress comfortably to travel.
3. Be brave and face your fears.
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