Mirissa, Sri Lanka

Beachy Mirissa is a popular tourist haven on Sri Lanka's south coast. We spent three days here enjoying the sun, surf, and late afternoon thunderstorms which cleared before dinner. Breakfasts were usually at upmarket tourist cafes while dinners were fresh snapper at beach front restaurants for cheap ($15nzd for two people). An Australian friend struggling to catch a crab on the beach had us all in hysterics, especially when he attempted to sell the crab to a crab vendor on the beach front.

During our time in Mirissa, we took a three hour voyage out to sea to view the biggest animals ever to grace the face of our planet... blue whales! They were immense. Spanning about 25m in length with only about a fifth of their bodies visible; these giants were impressive. Overall, we saw about 20 individual blue whales as they surfaced between feeding dives. The funnest fact I learnt during this expedition was that baby blue whales weigh three tonnes at birth and put on about 90kg (200lb) per day for the first year of their life! What beasts!Read more