The end of week one in Sri Lanka.

So we are at the end of the first week of our travels and it has gone really quickly. I suppose at the moment it still feels like we are on a little holiday and I'm expecting to pack up and go home soon but of course we have lots more to come. We started the week in Hikkaduwa, on the west coast. The plan was just to stay 1 or 2 days but the surf was good and we moved to a guest house right on the beach so we ended up staying here for 3 nights. The beach here was beautiful and mike managed 3 surfs a day, just resurfacing long enough to eat in one of the lovely restaurants on the beach before heading back into the sea! However it was more touristy than I expected... I thought Sri Lanka was just being discovered by tourists but apparently not!





After three days in Hikkaduwa we moved on to Galle, a fort town, further down the west coast. We only stayed here one night as it was more expensive and the town is quite small, but really interesting to walk around and very beautiful. The town is also more upmarket and "trendy", with lots of shops and some pretty vintage shops and art cafes. We went to some local fruit markets and sampled some of the local fresh fruit and a few of the the 32 types of bananas that grow in Sri Lanka!



Whilst in Galle we also went in a tuk tuk to a local turtle sanctuary where they take in and rehabilitate injured turtles and release newly hatched baby turtles into the sea. It turned out to be an expensive journey as the sanctuary was actually miles away... Closer to the next town we visited! But it was lovely to see the baby turtles! Mike has seen some sea turtles while he's been surfing and I'm hoping i'l see some in the wild while we are here!




Finally we have spent the last two days in Unawatuna, which has a picture postcard beach with white sands, blue sea and stunning sunsets. Because the beach is so beautiful, again it is quite touristy and the beach restaurants here are a bit more commercial than in Hikkaduwa and more pricey! However it has been lovely swimming in the sea and relaxing on the beach.









From Unawatuna we organised a whale watching tour as many species of whale migrate past the south coast of Sri Lanka from dec-march. This has been my highlight so far and we got to see about 5 or 6 blue whales and sperm whales (although as they are so huge you can only see a bit of the whale at a time, hump or tail, so we had to rely on the guide to tell us which species it was!) the photos didn't come out brilliantly as the whales move so quickly and the sea was quite rough so the boat was lurching all over the place (resulting in a poorly feeling mike). Apparently people often see huge pods of upto 2000 porpoise and dolphins but they were elusive today and the sea was quite chopping making any dolphins difficult to spot. I'm really happy to have seen the whales though as seeing these gigantic creatures in the wild is a once in a lifetime experience!











We are going to spend the next week moving south down the coast before making our way up to the national parks and hill country. Love to all at home. Amy and Mike xxx

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