Whale Tails
Trip Start
Oct 31, 2009
1
39
52
Trip End
Feb 25, 2010
Where I stayed
Paradise Beach Club
Mirissa, Southern, Sri Lanka
Thursday, January 21, 2010
Mirissia itself is lovely - a great beach, the waves are great for bouncing in, and there's a pretty headland at one end you can climb for the views.
This time of year just off the South coast of Sri Lanka there are apparently lots (relatively) of blue whales - the biggest animal ever to have lived.
Whales, like the rest of Sri Lankan nature, are early risers, up at 5:30 to go whale watching. The local whale watching tours are very much in their infancy, our equipment to head out into the India ocean to find the largest animals that ever lived a small dingy with a single outboard motor, a fisherman and his 10 year old son as crew. Originally 7 tourists in the small dingy - but one German woman takes one look at the boat and heads back down the jetty as fast as possible.
First up - we pass through a massive pod of dolphins - there must easily be a hundred if not many more of them. For twenty minutes they surround the boat, playing in the wake and jumping out of the water and performing spectacular barrel rolls in mid-air. They are apparently "spinner dolphins" - aptly named.
Whales may be big, but the ocean is even greater and the whales prove more elusive than the dolphins. - the fisherman's son is our crack naturalist guide and whale spotter he shouts "big fish! big fish!" at distant sightings. We get to see several distant water spouts, and 3 big tails on the horizon, but whales are much faster than our small boat and we never get a close look. Perhaps rightly.whatever the largest animal that ever lived does with its time, it is not performing for the whim of 8 small apes on a plastic tray out in the ocean.
Only distant views of whales - but the amazing dolphin encounter made up for it.
Comments
Clare will be jealous of the dolphin encounter. Enjoy Indonesia.
Very jealous! I hope you got some good pitures :)
pictures*
I would have loved to see the Dolphis too. Can't wait to see the pictures