In April 2015 we began the longest trip in duration and possibly distance that we ever taken. We flew to Dar es Salaam in Tanzania where we boarded the National Geographic Orion for a trip across the Indian Ocean to Sri Lanka. We were away from home for 31 nights. This voyage began slightly south of the equator and ended just north of the equator so the days were always bright and hot. Crossing the Indian Ocean, the seas were very calm and there is very little to see mid-ocean. Whales and sea birds were very rare. On the other hand, the clouds and water were spectacular.
We began our journey with cultural tours in Dar es Salaam and Zanzibar.
The Seychelles is a very widely distributed group of islands. We spent many days in the remote western islands of the Seychelles. These islands are low coraline islands often with impressive reef systems. Because they are remote they are rarely visited. Many of the islands have been used for coconut plantations in past (to produce copra for coconut oil), but most are now returned to a wild state. We spent some time on shore, and a lot of time snorkleing around these islands. We have video of our drift snorkels in the Aldabra Atoll and of our other snorkels in the coraline islands.
The eastern islands in the Seychelles are ganitic in nature and tend to be taller. The have reefs and beaches of coral sand, the the character is quite different. You can see the difference underwater in this video from St. Pierre. These islands are also much closer together than the coraline islands so there is more development and inter-island travel. Here there are some unusual plant and animal species.
From the Seychelles, it took three days to get to the Maldives. This along with several one and two day transits to and within the Seychelles meant we spend a lot of time on board ship including time to stop and swim in the middle of the Indian Ocean. Where we stopped for the swim the ocean was around 7,000 feet deep and really warm. There were no fish or birds around and no other ships. Truely the middle of nowhere. The only thing in the water other than other swimmers was a lone box jellyfish that you can see Mike, in scuba gear, photographing.
The Maldives is a huge collection of coral atolls studded with small islands. Because they are close together, it is easy to travel among the islands and most of the larger islands have some developement but it is easy to find fantastic places to snorkel. Most vistors to the Maldives stay at beach resorts that occupy an entire island--the size of the island determines the size of the resort. This limits the experience of the guests to the one island and its reefs. Because we travelled by ship we could experience undeveloped islands and many remote reefs that had more life because of their remoteness. We have video showing our many great snorkels in the Maldives.
We ended our journey in Sri Lanka visiting Galle and Colombo. After all the time we had spend in remote parts of the Indian Ocean it was quite a shock to suddenly be on a large land mass crowded with people. Our short time in Sri Lanka gave us a quick introduction to the history and culture of Sri Lanka.