Miracle at Mirissa

It's a shame to be leaving Simpson's, where everyone has been so welcoming. However it's time to move on, with the rarity of the trains meaning a night back in Colombo before the next stage, along the south coast. I'm far from confident since my destination, Mirissa, is just a halt and there's no regular tuktuk stand there. At the previous stop, the guard takes me off the train and helpfully leads me to a carriage where it's safe to get on to the short platform. (I don't have to do what the man in the picture is doing). And as arranged, a tuktuk from the hotel is there to meet me and get along a very bumpy road to the hotel.

Mirissa is not the secluded hideaway I've been led to believe but it has plenty of activities, from yoga through fishing to live music. And there's flora and flora as well; a half-hour ride the next day takes me to a working tea estate, unusually near sea level (most of them are in the hills). Reptilian life abounds with the wild (a chameleon) and the protected (turtle hatchlings being released into the ocean).

As to the insect life (mosquitoes) the less said, the better. But as a footnote, there was a huge blackout a couple of days ago when some monkeys strayed into a power station near Colombo. I've assumed that the recent outage here was part of the norm, but this event has received international coverage and some friends back home have asked if I'm all right. Yes thanks!Read more