Turtles, Whales & Surf

Hello Sri Lanka again. Arriving with a welcoming mat in form of Tropical Cyclone. Luckily we decided not to fly out of Chennai airport as we found out later That runway was flooded and flights cancelled. First stop Mirissa to swim with turtles and hopefully see Blue Whales. Staying in a lovely old fashioned backpackers (but better), shared kitchen with a fridge but these days with ensuites in room (and not squat toilets like in the 80’s). Snorkelling was better than expected – knowing that not a lot of coral is left I was surprised how many fish, large and small with a good variety there were. The turtles too are not concerned about people and just swam so close. Unfortunately the visibility was pretty poor due to being stuck on the edge of the cyclone. I had also forgotten to charge my camera so only got about 10 pictures before the battery died. Luckily Steve did get pictures of the turtles. Will try again another day, hopefully the weather will improve. Off to see if we can spot the Whales, there are possibilities of quite a few species – our main aim is the Blue, the largest Whale. Sea is very lumpy, the cyclone taking its toll and also it is very cloudy, not ideal spotting weather. Some passenger’s got ill before we had even left the harbour (lovely start). Early on we saw some Bottle Nose Dolphins. As the morning wore on were giving up hope on any whales when almost at the end of our time we came across a mother and calf Blue Whale. Hard to photograph well as ocean and boat movement made it interesting to keep the camera on the subject and focus. First sightings were also short, apparently the Whales do not stay on surface long when the weather is rough. The boats stayed around, gradually the sea calmed (tide turned and sun came out – ish) and finally a reasonable sighting of mother and calf, with some photos that are mostly in focus. Just amazing, she is over 30 metres long, huge.. Rain again just after we hit shore and all afternoon, slow moving cyclone, hope it goes north soon as predicted. Its core is many miles north near Chennai in India. Snorkelling the next morning did not take long as visibility even worse than first day – could barely see more than a few inches clearly. Mirissa a few years ago was very laid back, now it is becoming quite up market and expensive so we did not stay long. Tangalle is next and to a lovely place over looking a lagoon supposedly great for birds. It was too, except for in 2 days only a couple of hours without torrential rain. Such an amazing location, empty wide beach and great lagoon but…… Still gave us time to catch up on photos, blogs etc. Moving on to Tissa Lake, great place to wander around morning and night as there are so many water birds. Yala National Park is one we have never been too, in our minds, too touristy but we have read that Block 5 is much less visited so thought we would have a last try at getting better Leopard pictures. (2015 we got some in Willpattu NP but very far away).. Beautiful road to the park lined with huge Poinciana Trees (all numbered?).  Would be incredible when in flower. On the way in there was an angry elephant on the road that chased us – apparently idiots have taken to feeding them so one or two now stand on the road and wait, if you don’t feed them they chase you. Luckily we were in a jeep as we were told sometimes people in Tuk Tuk can be in for a bit of trouble. No Leopards for us, but a beautiful park, very few people and lots of other wildlife. Particularly notable at this time where the sheer numbers of peacocks displaying. Hundreds of them around the park and often 3 – 4 within a couple of metres, all displaying to catch a mate.  Impressive. Not only are there lots in the park, the main expressway is obviously a popular spot too. When we parked a dog with 3 puppies came and sat by our vehicle. By the time driver had got tickets there were only 2 – could not work out where other one went.  5 hours later when we returned there were still only 2 – maybe a bird of prey took it? Bundala National Park is another rarely visited park, mainly only bird watchers. We were really hoping to see the Indian Pitta (missed in India as it had already migrated south), we did hear it a couple of times but no sightings. Wonderful park though, very scenic and so many birds. Painted storks by the hundreds as well as many others in large numbers. Even had a visit from a couple of Mongoose early one morning. Back to Hikkaduwa which now appears to be a Russian state! Everything is in Russian – crazy. Apparently Sri lankan Government are encouraging them with free visas, loads of (quote Ceylon Times) Draft dodgers. Had a country wide black out one night great fun, hard on the restaurants though as most had to close. Went to Turtle beach as had been told there was one 80 year old Turtle that comes to shore daily. All the tourist were feeding it and some touched it until shouted at by me (they were right under a sign that said “do not touch”….. There were actually more smaller turtles as well, one was in hurry to get food and bashed into Steve. Quite a few pretty fish and lots of Unicorn fish, never seen so many together or so big. Visibility wasn’t great as there was a strong current which we could hardly walk against let alone swim. Walking to the supermarket came across a Salvation Army building – looks like they are branching out into the restaurant business. – Other side advertised Pizza too. A few days playing in the waves is lots of fun, very powerful, warm water 29 degrees and sun (at least in the mornings). Last day and huge waves,  Not the above, that was yesterday.  Only pro surfers allowed out and a small section of beach for swimmers but not allowed to go deeper than knees as a big pull.  Life savers told us at 9am “already had to rescue 3 Russians this morning”. Still was fun as even in the shallow water you could body surf in at speed. End of travels for this year, looking forward to catching up with family and friends back in Australia.