Fishing should come naturally to me. OK, so I’d never actually had a go at it before but I do have Scandinavian heritage and I’m pretty sure fishing is big in northern Europe.
And I’d watched at least five seasons of Deadliest Catch – so how hard could it really be?
As my body dangled awkwardly over the side of the boat idling in the Indian Ocean, it suddenly dawned on me that I’d made a serious miscalculation of my angling abilities.
I was getting ready to call it a day when at last there was a violent tug on the line resting limply between my fingers. Game on.
I began pulling furiously at the nylon while I desperately tried to remember all the fishing techniques Hemingway wrote about in The Old Man And The Sea.
All of a sudden sharp cries of “give here, give here” came from the deckhand behind me. Reluctantly, I handed it over.
By this time, the dozen or so participants in the sunset fishing trip in the Maldives had crowded around the mariner to see what the haul was.
The catch of the day, however, was a large portion of disappointment.
After 10 minutes, the line went slack as the unknown fish made off with an early evening treat.
“Probably a small shark,” said the deckhand, no doubt a statement intended to soothe my bruised ego. It didn’t work.
However, as I sipped beer and watched the sun set over the horizon as the boat made its way back to shore, I was more than happy to let the dog – or fish in this instance – have its day.
Peace of paradise
That’s the thing about dejection – or any sort of negative emotion for that matter. It doesn’t seem to last long on the Lhaviyani Atoll.
This ring-shaped patch of coral reef is home to Atmosphere Kanifushi, an award-winning luxury holiday resort and my place of residence for five days.
After spending most of the pandemic staring at the many paint patches peeling from the grey walls at my home in North Wales, a brief trip to this far-flung piece of paradise sounded just the ticket to banish the winter blues.
Getting to the five-star resort is a mini-adventure in itself.
It’s accessible for tourists via a 35-minute seaplane ride from the capital Male – a breathtaking journey that will give you a bird’s eye view of the Maldives’ famous atolls and make you feel like Indiana Jones.
Around 1.2 miles in length and 100 yards wide, the beautiful Kanifushi island is surrounded on both sides by the vastness of the Indian Ocean. It looked like it had jumped straight out of a holiday brochure.
The soft warm sand beneath my feet was so white that I had to wear sunglasses to appreciate it, and the crystal-clear sea was a hue of turquoise I thought only existed in a Dulux catalogue.
Dotted around this thin strip of land are 132 quaint bungalows, while another 40 villas lie perched off a couple of wooden jetties overlooking the water on the other end of the island, which is part of the Lhaviyani Atoll.
I was quartered in one of the resort’s 20 new Grand Pool Villas, a luxury suite complete with a huge four-poster bed and an even bigger outdoor bathroom.
Glass double doors lead out to a decadent garden area complete with a private infinity pool where you can swim, sip cocktails and enjoy amazing views of the beach and ocean directly beyond your private garden.
However, if the villa doesn’t sound big enough for you (and possibly your brood) the resort has also opened 10 exclusive Kanifushi Residence spaces.
If fishing failures require some luxurious and soothing recovery time, there’s always the Akiri Spa by Mandara which offers a holistically focused menu, steam room, sauna, Jacuzzi and spacious treatment rooms.
Food, glorious food!
While I’d shamed my Scandi forefathers during the fishing trip, I was determined not to disappoint them when it came to the other thing the Jones family are famous for – eating.
The island is home to four restaurants as well as two poolside bars and a quaint Sri Lankan street-food ‘snack hut’ right by the beach.
On an average package holiday to Kanifushi the main bulk of your dining experience will take place in The Spice – a buffet restaurant serving breakfast, lunch and dinner.
However, the fare here is a universe away from the average all-inclusive dining experience.
From Maldivian crab curries and Sri Lankan egg hoppers to fresh seafood and steaks grilled in front of you, it caters to absolutely every taste and whim.
The jewel in the crown of the resort’s culinary scene however is Pier Six, an over-the-water restaurant opened in 2019, specialising in grilled Japanese teppanyaki dishes.
Prior to my visit, I’d only tried sushi in those sorry-looking plastic ‘meal deal’ packets.
My first taste of the fresh sushi on the island showed me that all my preconceived notions of this Japanese delicacy were way wide of the mark, and I dutily chomped my way through mounds of fresh-caught tuna nigiri and salmon sashimi.
And the main course was even more of a surprise. Ushered towards a free-standing grill in the middle of the restaurant, my dining group were dazzled by the culinary acrobatics of a resident chef as he chopped and sizzled his way through lobster, king prawns and buckets of rice.
All good things must come to an end
As I made my way up the pier and towards the jetty where the seaplane back to the airport was waiting, I kept thinking back to the day I arrived on the island.
Heading into the resort lobby amid a fanfare of traditional Maldivian drumming, I got chatting to a couple who happened to be on their way home that day.
I turned to leave them and the woman waved at me with tears in her eyes and said ‘‘have a lovely time’’.
Strange, I thought. I didn’t really understand it then but as I got closer to my last journey on the seaplane, I definitely did. I almost burst into tears myself.
The Maldives is on many people’s bucket lists and it’s easy to see why. In my mind this resort was the closest I’d been to paradise and I was genuinely sorry to leave.
But I’m sure that elusive baby shark was thrilled to see the back of me...
Book the holiday
Destination2 offers seven nights on all-inclusive at the Atmosphere Kanifushi resort in the Maldives from £3,079 per person, travelling from Heathrow in May. Includes seaplane transfers. Find out more at destination2.co.uk.
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