Off beaten track

Continued from here 4.30 dawned dark and bleary, as we hobbled down to congregate at various randomly decided locations before getting together in a loosely knit convoy for the 20 minute drive to Mirissa. Once we in a roundabout manner found Mirissa Water Sports , a stones throw from the harbour; the next step was to provide all our details, ID numbers, address, hair colour, when we last had a shave, etc for the Navy�s benefit. Actually I jest; it was just name and ID number. Fighting off the rather friendly dogs at the harbour we boarded the two storey boat, the Spirit of Dondra and were issued humongous life-jackets which I quickly discarded (I wouldn�t recommend this to the regular traveler but I have issues with bravado) as we moved out of the harbour. We gathered steam and headed out into the deep blue of the open ocean as Six Pence None the Richer still played in my head and Mirissa gleamed golden and newly minted in the early morning light.   (L-R): Boarding the boat, Mirissa

Back in February before diving fever took over.   Sugathe: Stay calm and don't get excited. I don't think he needed to tell us twice!

It was a funny sense of D�j� vu that I felt, as the boat slipped out of the Mirissa fishing harbour as the sun rose on the southern edge of Sri Lanka. I had the Sixpence None the Richer song in my head again, There she goes , in some psychosomatic flashback to my California trip to see Blue Whales. This trip was totally different though, in more ways than geographical. While the California experience had been purely to see the biggest animal that had ever existed the Mirissa/Unawatune trip was a weekend away with sea, sand, food and good company in equal quantities. The venue for the weekend was Bishu�s (you can call the gentleman at 0777708880 right after reading this post�trust me it's the best budget place to stay in Una), cunningly disguised as the Unawatuna Bay hotel where a group of 20 of us (well mostly 20) crashed down for a weekend of chilling out and�wait�I already mentioned above what conspired for the weekend. But did I mention chilling out? After a long trafficky div

Dive #29 and #30 (and #31), diving off Mount Lavinia with Colombo Divers , Boatman Ravinda, Divemaster Jehan, Dive guide DJ and buddy Karin. Taprobane East Wreck: Bottom time � 35 minutes; Depth � 31.6 meters Imagine a canvas of pure white sand and aquamarine blue , a picture perfect tropical paradise beach with the endless bowl of the blue sky replaced by the ocean. Into this starkly beautiful landscape had sunk a small boat, initially probably sullying the pristine scene with its harsh man-made lines, oil and diesel leaking. Time has however smoothed this out and now it is heaven underwater, the rusted shell covered in green and pink soft corals and fish exploding out of every nook and cranny. Heaven's Gate (picture courtesy of Dharshana Jayawardena off Dive Sri Lanka ) As we sank through the 30 meter plus visibility waters, the rusted wreck looked strangely abstract and as we got closer, amorphous. As we got closer to the bottom the reason for the shape-shifting became obviou

Dive #15 and #16, diving off Mount Lavinia with Colombo Divers , Boatman Ravinda, Instructor Shaf and Divemaster Jehan.   Palagala: Bottom time � 46 minutes; Depth � 12.7 meters This was actually my first dive with my own gear and only my third dive with Colombo Divers following my fiasco of a performance on the first two dives . I think Shaf was still a bit circumspect about my diving abilities but we headed off for the short boat ride to Palagala and hit the bottom. Truth be told I�m quite far behind on my dive logs these days and I can�t really remember much about this dive. What I do remember was that I was somewhat of a better performer during this dive though I faintly recall being pulled down by Shaf during the safety stop once. A juvenile Golden Trevalley also made an entertaining interlude for us, swimming up off the reef and getting quite pally with us. Apparently they are quite fond of swimming up to large fish and following them for protection. Of course every now and then

Dive #9 and #10, a continuation of the boat trip diving in the Catalina Islands with the Magician Scuba Charter , Captain Jerry, the pirate divemaster and dive buddy Praveen. Big Geiger Reef: Bottom time � 16 minutes; Depth � 10 meters What a disaster of a dive! As we swam to another cliff face and kelp forest I noticed P continually clearing his mask. Getting through the kelp we moved into an area covered in red and green seagrass and P motioned to me to surface. Apparently his mask kept flooding and his eyes were killing him. We tried to figure out what was going on but with no luck, every time we descended, his mask flooded and he was most definitely not enjoying himself. Signaling to the boat crew, who were looking at us in some consternation as we bobbed on the surface, that we were ok, we began a surface swim back to the boat over blue water. This was ardous and long and my leg started cramping up half way leaving both of us tired and exceedingly annoyed. The only enlivenment wa

Dive #7 and #8, diving in the Catalina Islands with the Magician Scuba charter , Captain Jerry, the pirate divemaster and dive buddy Praveen. Red Crane Quarry: Bottom time � 31 minutes; Depth � 9.5 meters Tired and scared. Those would be the most appropriate adjectives to describe Praveen and my train of thoughts as we huddled together in the leaden morning at the Long Beach harbour, the cold wind nipping at us unmercifully even in June. We had picked up our gear from Sports Chalet the night before and had spent a rather panicked night trying to figure out how our dive computers worked, watching a navigation DVD and reading the Open Water manual to try and recollect what we had learnt during our certification course almost half a year ago. The primary reason for the panic was when we were told that the Divemaster on the boat would actually stay on the boat during the dive and not accompany us as was the norm in the tropics. Actually on second thoughts, shit scared and tired was probab

Dive #46 and #47, diving off Mount Lavinia with Colombo Divers , Boatman Ravinda , Divemaster Jehan, Dive guide Nishan and buddy whose name I cannot remember.   Cargo Wreck: Bottom time � 49 minutes; Depth � 31.3 meters It was a dark and stormy morning as I moseyed down to the Dive center greeted by Nishan, Jehan and our buddy who were sitting solemnly in a row outside the center. My heart quailed a bit when Nishan said the dive for the day was cancelled due to rain. I hadn�t dived for over a week and a half due to a trip out of Colombo to see whales in Mirissa (more on that later) and a hectic schedule had kept me in office. I was starting to hallucinate at my desk with the white wall in front of me suddenly turning into deep blue with a trumpet fish dancing temptingly in front of me. As you can see I needed to dive (though I am wondering with some trepidation as to what the heck will happen when dive season ends). Thankfully Nishan was just having me on�well to a certain extent. We