BEAUTIFUL BEACHES, DOLPHINS, SEA SICKNESS AND FINDING THE WORLD'S LARGEST MAMMAL
ARRIVING IN MIRISSA
After 2 days in Galle, we checked out and got a tuk-tuk ride, with a man who worked at the hotel, to the beach town of Mirissa.
There isn’t really too much to Mirissa. It’s a small town, with a beautiful crescent beach, a number of hotels and a few small restaurants and beachside bars.
The main draw for tourists, aside from the beach is to go on one of the whale watching excursions, where you’re highly likely to encounter the world’s largest mammal – the blue whale!
Upon arriving in Mirissa, we straight away booked ourselves onto one of the tours for the following day and did so with a company named ‘Raja and the Whales‘. We’d researched a few different companies as there were many offering similar trips in the area, but this seemed like the best.
The cost was about 6,500 rupees per person (approx. £30). This included the boat trip itself, pickup from your hotel, breakfast while on the boat and other snacks and tea and coffee.
How was the trip? I’ll cover that later. First off, we hit the beach!
MIRISSA BEACH
As Mirissa is such a small town, no matter where you’re staying you’re only a few minutes walk from the beach.
And what a beach it is.
A beautiful crescent of beach. Fine sand, warm waters and gentle waves.
There are a number of small bars / restaurants dotted along the stretch of beach and we sat and drank cocktails, while the sun set.
There’s plenty of options to eat fresh fish, caught that day by the local fishermen, which they display out front of their restaurants, along the beach.
There’s apparently beach parties here on a Wednesday evening, but we didn’t see this. It was quiet season while we were here, so there weren’t many people on the beach, but I assume it could get quite busy here for peak season.
From what we experienced it was a great, relaxed beach spot to chill out for the evening.
The main reason we were here though was to see Big Blue, so let’s get on with that!
WHALE WATCHING
PREPPING FOR THE TRIP
We were picked up from our hotel around 6:30a.m. and taken to the Raja and the Whales office, for a quick briefing before heading to the boat.
We were also offered sea sickness pills when we arrived and were urged to take them immediately so they had time to kick in before we hit the water.
If you go on this trip, don’t try and be brave. Take the pills. You will regret it if you don’t. I’m usually fine on the water, but this was another level. I took a pill, but still struggled.
ON THE OPEN WATER
We got on to the boat and set sail.
It would take us around 2 hours to reach a spot that was ideal for spotting the whales and this was the choppiest water I’ve ever known. I struggled to finish my breakfast, but snapped out of the nausea quickly when one of the crew shouted that they’d spotted blue whales.
I ran to the top deck to get a view!
He was right there was a blue whale. And it wasn’t the only one we saw. We encountered around 10 blue whales. Incredible!
These photos can not do justice to the trip (nor can the later video), as I didn’t have my zoom lens with me, but I had to take some shots obviously.
These creatures are huge (up to 30m in length) and you can’t even really see how huge as you only see glimpses of them as they come up for air and dive down.
Later on in the trip we also saw dozens of spinner dolphins, which raced under our boat and dived in and out of the water alongside.
What an incredible sight. The trip was certainly well worth the money and I couldn’t believe how many blue whales we saw.
I felt really sorry for this guy though – with sick bag in hand. I guess he didn’t take his sea sickness pills. He was sick within the first few minutes of being on the boat and didn’t recover. Every time someone shouted that they’d seen a whale he couldn’t have been less bothered. He just wanted off the boat.
To add insult to injury, when he finally got some rest, he broke his glasses. Poor guy.
For me at least I considered it a top trip. I can wholeheartedly recommend Raja and the Whales. The staff were incredibly friendly and helpful and very efficient. And to top it off, we saw blue whales. Success!
VIDEO
Here’s a quick video edit of the trip. The footage isn’t great, but it’s all I’ve got! Hope you take a look. It gives you a better idea of how rough the sea was and how close we were to the monstrous creatures.
MORE CREATURE HUNTING
After two days in Mirissa, we were moving on again.
Having a taste for spotting creatures in their wild environments, we headed to Tissamaharama (often shortened to ‘Tissa’) to go on a day safari.
Exciting times.
Read on for Tissa!
