What more can I say?
You know those times when you step back and have a bit of a look at things, and you think
"Wow. I'm pretty lucky."
Imagine entering a competition on Twitter to win a surf trip to the Maldives (a destination of tropically warm waters, great waves, and legendary beauty) and actually winning!
Simon from England, Aline from Belgium, and Mayra and Maryele, both from Spain, did just that, and they each got to bring a friend, Tony, Bieke, Mikel, and Carlos on the "trip of a lifetime".
We, those of us working on the trip (the junketeers) were just as lucky as the winners, I think. Anne-Ro from Tommy Hilfiger, Ilaria from Vanity Fair Italia, Yara, blogger extraordinaire from This Chick's Got Style, Chris from Magic Seaweed, our Portuguese surf instructor, Maya, and Sonny (and me) photographing. We were all so stoked to be there.
And that's what you want to hear. You hardly want to read about a bunch of blase ho hums getting to go on a trip like that, do you.
It was the stuff of dreams.
I met the crew at the airport in the afternoon. The skies were dark, and it had been raining.
All day, people in Male had been telling me that it was the rainy season, and that every day would be rainy.
But there was no rain when we jumped aboard the Princess Ushwa, our floating home, and there was no rain on us for the next five days.
We stepped back, had a look...
Lucky?
Ooooh, yeah.
We hung out on the white rooftop of the boat until the sun set, then headed down for a yummy dinner. Our chef was a genius with tuna. It featured in almost every meal, which sounds bad, but every time it was different. A lot of times we didn't even realise it was tuna, though we cottoned on pretty fast to the fact it most likely was tuna.
That night everyone slept like babies rocked by the gentle sway of the boat (except me, who was like the princess with the pea on the hardest bed ever, but not really the hardest ever because the crew were on the wooden floor of the dhoni moored alongside us and I didn't hear them complaining, but I accept all accusations of princess in matters of mattress comfort).
Our first morning of the surfari in paradise, we were excited. A rainbow of languages buzzed over breakfast.
We hopped onto the dhoni and headed out for a practice paddle, and a little look at how close the reef is to the surface of the water ...
That dark blue water is pretty deep. It was a brave call for me to paddle across it, but everyone else did, so I couldn't not do it.
Once over the deep section, into the shallows of the atolls, the water is minty picture perfect.
The novice surfers had their first taste of a reef break that afternoon.
I had a little swim off the boat,
and hung out with captain Mode's pet, 'Iguana' (name and occupation).
We spent a couple of days moored off the island of Thulusdhoo,
and the gang had a go at surfing Cokes - so named after the island's Coke factory.
Near our mooring was a wreck of a surf boat, not unlike our own, that had lost it's grip in the middle of a big storm one night.
Sonny and I had a closer look from the dingy...
I loved the textures and the colour.
Aside from a couple of reef scrapes, the only injury was this one of Carlos',
But if you are going to have a surf injury to talk about, you may as well make it a good one...
I have never seen so many pieces of sea urchin!
But even with a foot-full of the spiny shards, Carlos was back on his surfboard the next day.
So cool. These guys hadn't really ever surfed before, and there they were, taking on reef breaks!
And they loved it.
Idyllic surrounds, and your own personal surf coach are a pretty good sweetener to get you out on a board, but I admit to being surprised at how keen everyone was to give it a go.
For those who weren't surfing so much (like myself), there was still plenty of island time, and the islands are pinch yourself postcards.
The sand is so white it made even me look brown!
And that water!
I just couldn't get over the colour of the water.
I wanted to float in it forever.
When you think of tropical paradise, this is the place you picture.
After Cokes, we headed south and moored near Quarters, a gentle right-hander over a deeper reef, which was great for everyone to get their confidence up.
I went out on the dingy to get some photos.
I saw the most beautiful fish - they were big fish, a school of them splashing near the surface, and they were electric blue. The pop of colour in the turqoise water was fantastic!
Some of the others told me they'd seen turtles and stingrays over near the break.
Did I mention we felt lucky?
Paddle paddle!
Maryele...
(Sorry it's not closer - I only had a 70mm lens to use)
Fuku, our Maldivian surf guide...
Maya, with his paddle board and GoPro attached to the paddle. (Hopefully I can share some video footage with you soon)....
Sonny...
The smiles!
I asked everyone to jot down their feelings about the trip, but I realise I didn't need to. They all said "great", "best", "amazing", but really, it's the huge smiles that told the full story.
Mikel, hitching a ride...
On the last day, the keen surfers headed to the break, the relaxers headed for the snorkelling, and I stayed on the boat to catch up on editing and try to put some video footage together.
The crew were busy doing some housekeeping,
and some mucking around.
And, way too soon, it was time to go.
Back in the harbour near the airport, our adventure was ending like it had begun. The sky was dark and stormy, just like when we first boarded.
Yet, the weather had been perfect for our whole holiday.
Lucky.
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