February 2020
Coming from Mexico, I wanted to discover another atoll on this Maldives one month trip, after I had explored the North and South Ari Atolls and the North of the Maldives and the Raa Atoll on two trips last year.
Thus, on this trip I visited the Southern Maalhosmadulhu Atoll, called Baa Atoll for short. Each visited island is described on its own website. Besides Fehendhoo I visited the following islands: Fulhadhoo, Goidhoo, Thulhaadhoo, Maalhos, Kamadhoo, Dharavandhoo and Dhonfanu. At the end of the website you will find the link to the next island.
The island Fehendhoo forms together with the islands Goidhoo and Fulhadhoo the Goidhoo Atoll, which is the southern part of the Baa Atoll.
From Male there is no direct boat to Fehendhoo. First the visitor reaches the neighboring island Goidhoo by speedboat, from where private boats leave for the few kilometers to Fehendhoo.
The island
The island Fehendhoo is very compact with friendly people. It is just over 2 km long, has about 100 inhabitants and 3 guest houses.
Right at the beginning there was a problem with my accommodation ‘White Lagoon Fehendhoo’, because the owner could not finish his rooms under construction in time and wanted to put me in an unattractive alternative accommodation, which I refused. After I thought about staying in another guesthouse, the guesthouse could provide a room after all. A friend of the owner with a cheap special price gave up his room and moved to the alternative accommodation.
This banyan fig tree with its many aerial roots was standing right next to the guesthouse.
As the Maldives is an Islamic country, women are only allowed to wear swimwear on specially marked beach areas, the so-called ‘Bikini Beach’. The bikini beach of the ‘Tropical Village Guesthouse’ was located about 300 meters from this guesthouse. The bikini beach of the other two guesthouses ‘White Lagoon Fehendhoo’ and ‘Fehendhoo Stay’ was almost at the end of the island, about 2 km from the guesthouses. The ‘White Lagoon Fehendhoo’ guesthouse therefore offered a shuttle service with a golf cart. At a fixed time in the afternoon, the golf cart brought the guests back to the guesthouse. If the guests wanted to return at other times, they walked the distance through the palm forest.
The bikini beach of the two guesthouses ‘White Lagoon Fehendhoo’ and ‘Fehendhoo Stay’ was located at the end of the island. Unfortunately it was not possible to walk alongside the beach, as bushes interrupted the beach repeatedly.
The western end of the island with a view to the next island Fulhadhoo, left in the picture.
At sunset I walked to the bikini beach of the ‘Tropical Village Guesthouse’
Boats were maintained at a small shipyard.
Crabs
Forest crabs also lived on this island.
This one just caught a bug.
Snorkeling
The main snorkeling area of Fehendhoo is several hundred meters long and is located north of the west end of the island, right next to the bikini beach of the two guest houses ‘White Lagoon Fehendhoo’ and ‘Fehendhoo Stay’, about 2 km from the guest houses. In the water, there is a permanent westerly current that is specially strong close to the shore and at the end of the island, so that I only reached the beach with some strong flipper strokes.
There is a second smaller snorkeling area in the middle of the island on the southern shore, where I met some humpback unicorn fish.
The underwater world was diverse. On every snorkeling trip I met new creatures.
This Blackspot emperor is well camouflaged in the sea grass near the shore.
Bluestripe snapper
Humpback snappers, with some blue stripe snapper in the background
Hump snapper and Blue stripe snapper together in one swarm
Yellowfin goatfishes, together with other snappers
Picasso triggerfish
A poisonous Red lionfish, which I ate in a restaurant in Tulum (Mexico).
Sabre squirrell fishes are very shy and are usually found in hiding places. Therefore they are difficult to photograph.
A Halfbarred goby
Speckled sandperch
A young Indian sail-fin surgeonfish. The adult fish have a brownish coloration.
A Pinstripe butterfly fish. Even the eye is striped!
Blue-green chromis
Two only slightly more than 10 cm tall Six spot sleeper gobies in front of their cave
Onespot damselfish
A juvenile Onespot damselfish
I often encountered this approx. 20 cm long Messmate pipefish.
A Cowtail stingray
An Orange-spine unicornfish
Humpback unicornfishes
Convict surgeonfishes
Oriental sweetlips
Blacktip reef sharks
Spotfin squirrelfishes
A Black-blotched porcupinefish
A sea cucumber. It feeds on plant particles in the sand.
A Tiger cowrie seashell
Giant clams
A Raakani clam. These have always served the inhabitants of the Maldives as food. The clams are heated in a fire. The smoked meat is a delicacy.
Corals
As the photos show, the biodiversity on Fehendhoo is high. Sun worshipers also enjoy themselves.
After 5 days on Fehendhoo I traveled with a private boat to the neighboring island Fulhadhoo.
This text is an automatic English translation from the German original by deepl.com