2 Become 1

If you’re looking for land and water attractions – along with different hospitality experiences – then head to the Conrad Rangali Maldives.

- Dominic Ellis

It’s a short walk from Deluxe Beach Villa 221 to the beach at Conrad Maldives Rangali Island and as I’m sitting marvelling at the Sea view from one of many loungers, a small black-tip reef shark glides up and down the shoreline. When I next look up, one has become two.

You don’t have to go far to see majestic marine sights in the Maldives. Yesterday lunchtime considerably bigger sharks and fish eagerly feasted on tossed-in tuna from the Mandhoo Spa restaurant, and the day before, catching the traditional dhoni between the resort’s two islands, an eagle ray gracefully glided under the platform.

But you can venture out of course; we took a boat half an hour off the island to a turtle reef where we gazed at an adult Hawksbill using flippers to unearth coral and a junior playfully swam with us, periodically dropping like a stone to the bottom of the reef. We saw a grey reef shark fleetingly here too, even if it wasn’t quite as large as the one the group saw the previous day, but unfortunately no whale sharks on account of the tides. On a sunset cruise we also saw a pod of dolphins, just as we were giving up in fading light, and reeled in halfa-dozen fish on an evening fishing trip (the beauty of GoPro cameras is that I could share one of the group’s photos easily onto my iPhone).

Emboldened by several snorkel trips around the resort, on the last one I went out as far as a buoy, where the coral was thicker and water deeper. Passing a large crystal-clear shoal of Blue Surgeon fish, the startling sights came thick and fast, including an enormous brown moray eel, which looked like something out of