Visibility underwater was just great, and the weather calm and sunny. Only towards the end of the month we had a few windy days. All in all it was perfect for some great diving. Many pictures can be seen this month, from dive sites all around Mahe and even close to Praslin. We also found yet again a new dive site, we call it Toukoula.

Twin Barges

Night dives are special, not everyone likes to try and venture into the darkness under the ocean but once the effort is made, most divers love night diving. The Twin Barges wrecks are a great place for night diving as there is always much to see, and the colors of the corals come out brilliant at night. Most divers spend their entire dive on the wrecks during a night dive, and this is mostly not the case during any of the day dives made here. Corsair Reef lays right next to the Twin Barges.

Aquarium

This is one of our favorite sites. In 1998, due to the massive coral bleaching event caused by "El Nino", all coral died here. We now are seeing some really nice coral growth and not only a lot of fish, but also a great diversity in fish. This place is perfect for a relaxed dive with little current and a maximum bottom time as most of the area is in only 10 to 14 meters depth. The pictures left, right and in the two rows below are taken at Aquarium.

Brissare Rocks

An all time favorite of our return guests, and we had many requests to visit this beautiful rocky dive site during this month.

There is always loads of fish to see, and usually a number of White Tip Reef Sharks, sometimes Nurse Sharks and often Rays, and turtles.

But if that is not the case there is still plenty of fish to see, and all that in a beautiful underwater scenery.

Site Enler & Lo Bordaz

Not very often we visit these dive sites as they are both deep dives, and usually we visit a deep and a shallow site during our 2 tank dive trips. We dived on Lo Bordaz first and had terrific visibility, we encountered a restless Nurse Shark. And the usual but strange thing, Palette Surgeonfish who were sleeping in between the rocks in the middle of the day. Perhaps these are Creole ones who take a siesta? There were also schooling Batfish, and Barracuda's. The second dive at Site Enler was not as spectacular as I had expected it to be, it was a still beautiful dive but we did not see any Sharks and Rays, the first time since I have come here. At the end I was lucky and saw a pod of Dolphins accompanied by several Yellowfin Tuna's during the safety stop.

 Blanchisseuse Rocks

This is a site that we only visit when seas are beautiful calm, so we can enjoy the boat ride to this site. Our dive was magic.

There were Octopus, moray eels, eagle rays, some schooling snappers. The huge anchor and a long trail of anchor chain that get's lost in the rocks,

of perhaps a lost pirates ship, is laying very close to the main rock formation. As we pas by the anchor I suddenly see the huge amount of yellow striped pilot fish,

and behind it the huge Giant Grouper, just behind that a school of Humpheaded Parrotfish is passing by as well.

Mammelles Rocks

Also this is a beautiful site, she lays close to the island Mammelles and most of it lays in a depth of only 12 to 16 meters of water, so bottom time is no issue.

This site does attract a lot of fish, and often Sharks, Rays and Hawksbill Turtles are seen. We had stunning visibility and great encounters, a couple of White Tip Reef Sharks,

 Lobsters, Humphead Parrotfish, Octopus, big Black Jacks, some Seychelles Anemonefish, and Fusiliers all over the place. The pictures in the row below are from this dive site.

Jackpot

Of course we did visit this site a couple of times this month. As always there were some Sharks and Stingrays to be seen, huge amounts of schooling Yellow Snappers but also an Angel Fish that I have never seen before. I will be back to get a closer look at them during my next visit.

Shark Bank

Also here the viz was great. We had some good sightings of the Great Barracuda's that roam

around here, they often stay on the edge of the site. But this time they could be seen close

 to the rocks, there were also many lobsters and the lone Humphead Parrotfish. Eagle Rays could be seen up close and in schooling formations on several occasions.

Toukoula

We knew that there could be a nice dive site in this area, so we gave it a try once and wow this is really great stuff.

Many good sized corals can be seen here and a huge amount of fish. Many White Tip Reef Sharks, Stingrays,

Eagle Rays, Octopus, Lobster. You name it and it is there. This will definitely become one of our favorite dive sites.

The pictures in the two rows below are from this site.

Bay Ternay Marine Park

Especially the reef just off the main reef often holds a nice surprice with lot's of fish, schooling silver Sweetlips, Red Striped Snappers,

and mostly several Leaf Fishes can be seen as well as a number of Moray Eels. Although we do not see the number of Turtles

on the reef as in previous years, we still regularly see a Hawksbill Turtle or two on the main reef.

Ile au Vaches

This site has fantastic rock formations but also some of the best coral growth, and besides that some really nice sightings

with lot's of fish, Moray Eels, Eagle Rays, Hawksbill Turtles, White Tip Reef Sharks, and Groupers of different kinds. Also schooling fish, fusiliers and Jacks,

Big Black Jacks and Blue Trevallies, Golden Trevallies.

Therese Rocks

I personally did not visit this site for a long time and was very pleasantly surprised with the huge mountains of coral that are still alive on the reef of this dive site. The visibility we had was just brilliant and we also had some nice sightings with colorful reef fish, Moray Eels, Schooling Fusiliers and Groupers.

Trois Banc

The visibility was so good, it looked like you were not even under water. There were many Eagle Rays to be seen, some Lionfish, Batfish,

Schooling Snappers, Moray Eels and at last also a White Tip Reef Shark. The coral growth has been terrific in some areas around the

granite boulders where reefs with many branching corals can be seen, many of them are already have a diameter of one meter.