Mirissa

I continued my trip from Tangalle to Mirissa, close to the Southern tip of the island and only about 200km from the equator. Mirissa beach is split by the Parrot Rock. One side is a perfect sandy beach that slides slowly into the ocean. I spend the days on the beach; reading, chilling, working on my tan and drinking happy hour sunset beers. In the evenings I returned to the beach for fresh BBQ-grilled fish.

The biggest reason to visit Mirissa was that it is probably the best place in the world to see blue whales. The blue whale is the largest animal ever known to have lived. Since the deeper waters around Mirissa are rich in plancton, there is supposed to be a resident population always present.

The morning whale watching tour was a great experience. After a few kilometres from Mirissa harbour the first signs of blue whales were present. The art to spotting whales comes down to mastering their breathing behaviour. Blue whales have lungs instead of fish gills. Therefore they need to come to the surface of the ocean to spout the air out of their blow-holes. They then stay onshore dipping in and out of the water. around 3-4 times, breathing in and out. Finally they take one last long breath before making a dive down for food (shown by the tail above the surface). We saw this ritual at least ten times.