Bahamas - Andros
'Bahamian Rhapsody'
Accommodation : Liveaboard : How, Why & When : Prices
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West of the Exumas lies Andros , the Bahamas ' largest island. At over 100 miles long and 40 miles wide, Andros is big in size but it still remains little-visited and is an excellent choice for those seeking some ‘wilderness-diving'. The island is laced with creeks and its interior, densely forested, is still largely untouched and natural. Just a mile offshore is the Andros Barrier Reef, the third longest barrier reef in the world at a shade under 150 miles long. While there are some beautiful, shallow, sheltered reefs along its length, things on the outside are even more spectacular. Between Andros and the Exumas is an ocean trench known as The Tongue of the Ocean (referred to locally as TOTO) that plunges down to depths in excess of 3000 metres. Aerial views of this dramatic drop-off are amazing and it's easy to see how the trench gets its name. Though recreational dive limits won't allow you to see the bottom, drifts along this wall with visibility sometimes topping 60m makes for a breath-taking experience. Below the surface of Andros is a complex maze of underwater caves known as blue holes. There are hundreds of blue holes here, all originally caves that were flooded at the end of the last ice age. They remained unexplored until as recently as the late 1950s and there may be many more still awaiting discovery. There are inland blue holes and others found out in the ocean but they all make awesome subjects for photographers and, for the uninitiated, are a unique experience.
For the diving there are four dive boats. The largest can carry up to 16 divers and the smallest takes just four. The lodge has easy access to the dive sites and the average boat ride is just 15 minutes. Dive boats visit three sites every day – four if there's a night dive – and with over 60 different sites to choose from it's unlikely that you would repeat a site during your stay…unless you wanted to of course.