Dolphins but no whales

When our alarm went off at 5.15 I was sound asleep, but we were soon up and ready for this morning’s outing, whale and dolphin watching in Weligama Bay. Champi picked us up at 6.00 and drove us to the dock in Mirissa. But there a small problem arose. The company we were supposed to be booked with, Sail Lanka, didn’t have our names on their list. In the end Champi told us to just get on the boat, the Opal, and he would sort it (we later learned that the tour company had sent the wrong names!)

Boarding late meant we had little choice of seats but we lucked out in sharing a table and sofas with a friendly young couple, he English and she South African, who told us they were currently living in Hanoi and teaching English there. By some coincidence his father was from the north east, and though he himself grew up in Ipswich he was a Newcastle fan!

We set off and soon after were served coffee and a breakfast of fresh fruit, sausages and scrambled eggs. I stuck with the fruit but also ate the muesli bar I found in the other breakfast given us by our hotel! After breakfast I alternated my time as we travelled out to sea between chatting with our companions and climbing to the upper deck to take photos. There were quite a few local fishing boats, and at one point we came pretty close to a huge container ship.

When we were some distance out dolphins were spotted, quite a few of them. I tried to get photos using the burst setting, with some limited success, then just stood watching them for a while. I believe these were Spinner dolphins.

Spinner dolphins get their name from their habit of leaping from the water and spinning up to seven times in the air before falling back into the water. But although they were lively enough we didn’t see them perform like that. We also saw yellow fin tuna jumping out of the sea, but they were impossible to photograph!

We continued further out to sea in search of whales but despite lingering in what we assumed were promising areas (given how many other boats were there) we didn’t see any. However we did come across another type of dolphin, the larger Risso's dolphin, and I was more successful in photographing them.

Eventually the search for whales was abandoned and we turned back to shore. We had already been out longer than we'd expected so we thought the planned stop for swimming might not happen. But not far from the port they dropped the anchor and announced that those who wanted to swim could do so. We'd already decided against swimming as it's a pain being stuck with wet swimwear afterwards, so we just sat and watched the fun. And we were close enough now to the port for me to take some photos (on full zoom) of the colourful fishing boats moored there.

It wasn't long before everyone was back on board, at which point we assumed we'd head back. But no, it transpired that lunch was also included and we were served rice with prawns and tuna in a nice spicy sauce, and vegetables, followed by the traditional Sri Lankan dessert of watalappan, a delicious coconut custard milk custard spiced with cardamom and cloves.

We were concerned that Champi would be worrying where we'd got to so I WhatsApped him, but he replied that he knew where we were because he could see us from the shore. Once we were finally back I grabbed a few photos of the colourful fishing boats

Champi then drove us back to the hotel. It was time to say goodbye to him. Despite our reservations about his guiding he'd been a good driver and had really put himself out at times to ensure we had a good trip, so of course we tipped him well. When we got back to our room there was a fun towel arrangement on the bed that I just had to photograph! And as we had more than enough towels I was able to keep him on the desk for the rest of our stay 😊

We went down to the Cove Bar for a cold drink and enjoyed watching a White-throated Kingfisher cracking open a shell. We then went up to the Moon Pool where I had a good swim and we chilled for a while on the loungers.

Just as it had yesterday evening, it started to pour with rain not long before we planned to go out for the evening. We asked for a buggy but still managed to get pretty wet. Anyway, we had a good evening despite that, with drinks in the bar followed by dinner (though not as good as the previous one) and a walk back afterwards as the rain had turn to a light drizzle.