After waking up and eating some breakfast, the weather changed from sunny to a huge storm. It was raining a lot and some streets were filled with water. We wanted to leave Male and also we waited for the ride to the terminal of the hotel. The hotel offered that for free, but the driver arrived later than expected. At the end we made it barely on time to the ferry.
Driving to Degurah
We purchased the tickets, for a few Euros it was possible to drive with the public ferry several hours all the way to Degurah. A popular tourist destination with long sand beaches.
The ride started quite rough, many huge waves. Water was splashing into the ferry and sleeping was hardly possible. It was warm, but the windows could only be open if you were down from getting water in your face, multiple times.
Locals were watching movies on the phone and the other foreigners were just waiting for the ride to be over. It was still interesting to be on the boat and getting the full experience.
After a while the weather was getting worse and worse. The staff was trying to handle the boat and had to check the bottom quite often. I was worried that something was wrong with the boat and that someone would fall over in the ocean.
Luckily both things were not happening, but something else, we had to turn around and drive back to Male. After more than an hour of driving, we turned around, because the weather was too bad and the waves were too high. It was really annoying, because that meant there were no boats coming for the next few days and the only way of getting away from Male was by speedboat, which was super expensive.
We arrived in Male, got our money back and tried to figure out what to do.
Finding a solution
All of the foreigners were working together and I went to the harbor in order to find a ride for us and negotiate prices, but when I went there, nobody was driving yet to Degurah. They would arrive a few hours later. The other two Germans were going to the airport, where they had a safe ride to the island, organised by the hotel. We went with them.
At the airport I had to find out that the ferries at the airport are only possible to ride with, if you had a hotel booking. We had no hotel booking and also didn’t want to go back to the harbor in Male and maybe get a boat over there.
I went to the guy, with whom I changed money and booked a decent hotel with them. It wasn’t cheap, but the whole island wasn’t, so there was nothing we could do. Also we would arrive in the darkness and it is not the best idea, to improvise at a new island in a new country like that, at least that is what we found and after the speedboat ride, I was happy with the decision.
We paid 60$ per person for the ride, so more than 20 times more than with the public ferry. In my opinion the price is way too high, but it is how it is. There were no public ferries driving and there was nothing we could do against it.
Speedboat from Male to Dhigurah
Arriving in the speedboat was actually quite nice, the seats were comfortable. There was free water and the boat itself looked quite fancy. Everyone spoke English and the ride should be done really quickly.
The weather wasn’t any better than before, it was raining and there were waves. From the moment the speedboat started until it arrived it was one of the worst experiences I had in all of my travels. I am not a person who is getting seasick, not even with high waves. While driving this speedboat it was getting close to becoming seasick and had to almost throw up.
There was no fresh air, the door was closed the whole ride and people in the boat were throwing up. It was terrible and nobody was enjoying it. Luckily I was able to fall asleep, that helped to make me feel a lot better, but still once we arrived at Dhigurah port at night, I was just very happy we arrived. Everyone we talked to felt the same, because for everyone it was a terrible experience. I am still feeling surprised that not more people had to puke.
Dhigurah the dream island?
After arriving in the hotel, to just relax, we found ourselves in the morning to go to the beach after a quite poor breakfast. At least for me it wasn’t a good one.
At the beach there was a white sand beach waiting for us, but before actually going there, I had to buy new underwear. No idea why, but all of the underwear I brought was just gone. I never had that issue before in my life, but for everything there is a first. The underwear wasn’t cheap, which was expected in a touristic island.
Beach
Finally at the beach! The sun was shining, it was warm and some women were posing for their social media pictures. It was very windy, which helped the body to calm a bit. I was more excited for swimming than for anything else. The waves were so strong that even I couldn’t enjoy swimming, which means something. Marla was not really trusting her skills in the water that much and the water came quite high at the beach.
We ended up not staying as long at the beach and went back to the hotel, where we needed to check out, because we planned on doing some camping. We checked out and were allowed to leave our luggage until the night in the lobby, that was quite a relief. While we walked all over the island and were shocked to find a lot of trash at the part of the island where most locals had to live. The piles of trash were quite high and I was able to film a longer video just while walking along the trash. It was something I knew about before, but still it is not nice seeing that in reality of course. I don’t know if it would be similarly bad if there were not the masses of tourists, but I believe it would not be like that.
Finding a sleeping spot
Finding a sleeping spot was the next task of the day. We were planning on doing a camping night. We walked around the whole island, which was great in shadow and terrible in the sun. The climate was warm but there was some wet heat which I am always struggling with. The island in general is quite beautiful with tropical forest and beach on both sides of the island. While walking along the trail through the jungle we were picked up by a local, who took us on his motorcycle, which was quite cool. At the end we arrived way quicker at the end of the island as expected.
We saw many bats along the way and were fascinated about the nature there. When we arrived at the beach it was slowly becoming sunset with the people becoming crowded at the place. It was very beautiful.
What is up next?
Next week you will be reading about how the trip continued, so stay tuned!
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