Off beaten track

Old school beach dive back in California off the shores of Malibu, Dive #6 with Divemaster Dave, Phil, Brian and P from the Pacific Explorers Club . Escondido Beach: Bottom time � 17 minutes; Depth � 10 meters 27 feet (i.e. 10m) down, this was not exactly how I had envisioned my first California dive, off Escondido beach in Malibu. They had promised me kelp trees and that most definitely was there. I was after all seated right next to one. As I had raised my hand and released the air from my BC and slid under the waves, everything disappeared into a pea soup green haze. Divemaster Dave, Phil, Brian and P sank right next to me, yet when I hit the bottom they were nowhere to be seen. And boy did I hit bottom. For some reason, it seems that people dive out here in California with much more weights than we did back home. Even taking in the discrepancy of wearing a full wetsuit, hood, etc 27 pounds seemed a bit excessive. As soon as I went negative on my buoyancy, I shot through the water

Dive #26 and #27, diving off Mount Lavinia with Colombo Divers , Boatman Ravinda, Divemaster Jehan, buddy Ricardo and Instructor Paris for the second two dives of my Advanced Open Water Course.   Cargo Wreck: Bottom time � 40 minutes; Depth � 31.3 meters This dive combined my Deep, Multilevel and Wreck dives for my Advanced Certification together. The deep blue over the Cargo beckoned as always as we moored over the site after my briefing about narcosis, wrecks and a diveplan drawn up for the Multilevel dive. This was only second visit to the Cargo and I was excited (there�s my understatement for the year). Roll off and down to the wreck, my descent controlled with my new found buoyancy skills. The usual shoal of fusiliers was missing but as the white speckled ship rose up out of the blue the usual explosion of fish life dazzled. My old friend the trumpetfish was in attendance but a bit skittish this time as we drifted along the wreck. This being a Deep dive, we bottomed out and 30m

Dive #25 and #26, diving off Mount Lavinia with Colombo Divers , Boatman Ravinda, Dive buddy K and Instructor Paris for the first two dives of my Advanced Open Water Course .   Palagala: Bottom time � 33 minutes; Depth � 12.8 meters A word of explanation, well a few words. To quote PADI , the course �helps you increase your confidence and build your scuba skills so you can become more comfortable in the water.  This is a great way to get more dives under your belt while continuing to learn under the supervision of your PADI instructor.  This course builds on what you�ve learned and develops new capabilities by introducing you to new activities and new ways to have fun scuba diving.� Flowery words aside my main aim was to do the Peak Performance Buoyancy (PPB) dive, Navigation dive and Deep dive so I could explore the Colombo dive sites to the fullest. To those who have done the basic Open Water, I would highly recommend this option, some of the best sites like the Cargo Wreck , Tap

Dive #23 and #24, diving off Mount Lavinia with my favourite Dive Shop Colombo Divers , Boatman Ravinda, Dive buddy S and Divemaster Jehan. Palagala: Bottom time � 47 minutes; Depth � 13 meters This was the dive with the rather unexpected workout. S hadn�t dived for a bit and as we sank to the bottom I figured there might be some issues. The 3m visibility in Palagala takes a bit of getting used to if most of the dives you had done were the blue, 10m+ visibility ones in Matara or Hikkaduwa. And Palagala had freaked me out the first time. As S hit the bottom I winced a bit as both her hands came in contact with the silt and rock at the bottom. Not because of any damage to the corals, since it was mostly rock, but out of concern for her. Scorpion fish are abundant on the reef, amazingly camouflaged and getting stung by one is no picnic. You really want to take a good look before landing on any stony surfaces here (and in the ocean in general). We settled down for a bit and tried to sort

Dive #11 and #12, diving off Bentota with Thambapanni Dive Center . Hatare Gala: Bottom time � 31 minutes; Depth � 22 meters I needed to get out of the hotel, Taj Exotica, despite the nice rooms was vastly overpriced for what you got, especially in terms of food, but we had come there for a short break before the end of 2009 none the wiser. With the lunacy dripping out of the back of my skull I called reception and requested they put me in touch with a dive center. Another phone call and I was booked for bright and early in the morning for a two tank dive. Then next day a gentleman named Sri who looked liked he was built out of a tree trunk picked me up from the reception and took me to get my equipment sorted out (me being too lazy to bring my BCD and Reg to Bentota). Geared up and meeting another couple who were going to be doing their last two training dives for their Open Water License we headed to the dock. Heading out to the dive sites was an interesting experience as we had to

By John Still was one of the most influential books I have ever read, and one that I go back to every now and then. The copy I have is old, yellow and brittle, its spine worn from hundreds of reads many miles from home, in the cold of London and the blaze of heat that was California. Jungle Tide was one of the books that really solidified my love for the wild and the dry zone. Still writes beautifully of a variety of aspects of Sri Lanka's wilds, from the mountain forests, Sri Pada, the Wanni, Veddhas and my personal favourite, the Dry Zone jungles and wildlife. His anectodes are many ranging from stalking buffaloes, elephant graveyards, the devil bird, jungle charms to heal centipede bites and even losing the Governer of Ceylon (as Sri Lanka was known then) in the jungle. The charming recounting of his pet bears and leopards always made me want to keep either of the two, well mostly a leopard as a pet when I was kid. Possibly a bit unrealistic living in the middle of Colombo! The

This was a trip taken back in the day when I used to call California home, a bright and early morning in October 2007 when Nalin and I headed out to see some Blue Whales (the largest animal that has ever existed) off the coast of Santa Barbara. Fingers crossed if March goes as planned I should have a Sri Lankan version of this up soon! There she blows again�  It may have been a side effect of waking up so early on a Saturday morning that a decidedly odd version of that infamous Sixpence none the Richer was playing in my head. It�s been awfully long time since I�ve woken up late on a Saturday in my own bed�and in fact it looks like it�s going to be awhile until I get to in the near future. The throaty growl outside indicated Nalin had turned up in his Z, about 15 minutes early which was very un-Sri Lankan off him. We scarfed down some McDees breakfast while I gave my camera equipment a final look see. Body�check 4 gig card (would prove to be horrendously slow)�check 1 gig card (high spe