No Fixed Abode: Smells fishy

Monday 2 May 2016 - Mirissa, the beach

Waking early as usual Glenn went to explore the fishing harbour that the receptionist had directed us to yesterday. At the entrance he was challenged by a security official who tried to sell him an entrance ticket for 25 rupees (about 2p) but as Glenn had come with no money he let him in anyway.

The quay side was packed with dozens of brightly coloured fishing boats all rafted together jostling against their mooring lines. The quay itself was a mass of vans, tuk tuks and men with wheelbarrows flitting from boat to boat to get their hands on some of the bountiful catch. And what a catch: sharks, huge rays, large fish, small fish, crabs and the weirdest bright red fish that looked ready curried - the whole area steeped in a pungent fishy odour. While men wielding large knives chopped and filleted, the local dogs and crows feasted on the discarded heads and fins. Enthralling mayhem.

Further round the corner crews from already unladen boats were laying their nets onto the quay while others manhandled a boat between a host of others into a tiny berth and lorries full of ice wove their way between this action to re-stock boats ready for their next outing.

Returning to the hotel Glenn found Yvonne now awake and ready for breakfast - a dreaded buffet. We’ve now become fearful of buffets as it’s become increasingly difficult to stop eating the delicious food and we are both suffering with some disfigurement to our previously svelte bodies. LOL.

With some success in the willpower department we made our way to the beach before the sun got too powerful and paddled along the tideline until we found a shady spot under a coconut palm. Yes you did read that right, shady spot. The sun here is evil, as yesterday’s array of fluorescing bodies attested. After unrolling our towels we lay down to bask in the shade. Glenn and Yvonne lying doing nothing, who’d a thought it.

Within a few minutes Glenn became restless and headed into the sea. The surf here is weird. Several ordinary little waves then a huge rip current backs into a massive breaker that knocks you over then back to little waves again. All that turbulence stirs the sand up into a soup so you come out dirtier than when you went in and hanging onto your shorts. All that was more than enough reason for Yvonne to remain out in the dry.

After a couple of hours we’d both had enough and made our way back to the sanctuary of our air conditioned room to escape the heat and humidity - Florida friends, you know where we’re coming from, right?

A nap and some more planning for tomorrow’s journey brought us to dinner and with no footie being played we watched the IPL 20 20 batsmen knocking the ball all over the park with the Sri Lankan chef and servers hovering behind approvingly.