🙂 BLUE WHALES!! Dolphins.Turtles.
🙁 No one has fuel due to the economic crisis.
We were up at 7am for a lovely walk on the deserted beach. Usually the stilted fisherman are there to be photographed but this fell on the New Year period and there was no one to be seen. We headed back for a delicious breakfast of freshly squeezed juice and fruit and pancakes. We pre-ordered the Sri Lankan breakfast for the following morning.
Ranjan dropped us at the meeting point with Sunny Mirissa Tours for our snorkelling with whales trip. They were recommended as ethical and having the correct licence to operate this trip which means that it is a bit more costly than other operators may offer. A tuk tuk transferred us to the beach from which they were launching. We did all the paperwork and were warned that the spotters had not had any sightings yet that morning. We only had the one morning so we opted to continue with the trip regardless.
We headed out and the sea was very calm and smooth. Just as we were beginning to despair after about two hours of patrolling the horizon we spotted spinner dolphins who had the time of their lives playing in our wake. They also had babies which were entertaining and adorable to watch. We were the only boat out due to the New Year celebrations.
It was really hot and we were getting hungry as 1pm so we all agreed to head back to the mainland. Just before we were going to launch the boat some turtles came up next to us so we jumped in – they are clearly use to being fed as they made a bee line straight for us and it was difficult not to bump into them with the waves. Whilst we were snorkelling with them we heard the guys from the boat yelling at us to get back on as a whale had been spotted!
We raced all the way back through the surf and out to sea. A magnificent blue whale surfaced right next to us several times. We did dive in (Caitlyn was so excited she jumped in without her mask and snorkel!!) but he was so quick to dive that we didn’t really get any good footage snorkelling. WHAT an experience! They are MASSIVE! True bucket list. We were SO happy!!
A tuk tuk picked us up and took us back to base ready for Ranjan to collect us. We were very happy customers!
We took a stroll to the famed Instagram Photo site of Coconut Island – there were quite a few others waiting to claim their moment too!
We headed back to The Sandhya for a quick snooze and to freshen up before heading out for dinner in the evening. On our way back the stark reality being faced by Sri Lankans in the midst of their economic crisis was blatantly clear – miles of queues for petrol: tuk tuks from one direction and cars in the other direction. Ranjan had to show photographs of us and our correspondence in order to be able to fill up his tank, or else he’d be limited to 5,000Rs.
We enjoyed a sundowner before heading off.
Mirissa Beach was a hive of activity – but we were told that it was actually exceptionally quiet!
We enjoyed strolling around and soaking up the atmosphere and enjoyed a mojito. It was good to see that the turtle nesting sites were being taken care of.
We headed back to The Sandhya for a relatively early night as we would be moving on to Yala National Park in the morning.
Go Back to: Sri Lanka
Go Back To: Ahangama
Go to: Yala National Park
