With the preference of majority last year’s company annual office trip was planned to Trincomalee.

With that we remembered that there was a news article in Defence.lk that SL Navy has started Whale & Dolphin watching cruises in Galle and Trincomalee recently. I have been to Trincomalee in 2003 during the peace talks and went to Muttur by ferry (named Seruwila 2). It was about one hour journey across the harbor and there were many things to visit. So we decided to get this arranged.

As the organizing committee we checked the possibility of arranging a cruise tour for Whale & Dolphin watching. When we inquired from SL Navy they said cost is LKR 5000 per person then (now it has been reduced to LKR. 3500/= with the profound request from public). Then we felt that it is not affordable alike

• Per head cost is too high, and hence for a family it would be too expensive
• Not sure about the possibility of seeing Whales & Dolphins (if that happens we won’t be able to survive the criticism from other colleagues  )

But we still didn’t give up. After having several discussions with project manager whale watching project by SLN we were able to obtain appropriate deal which is affordable. It is LKR 175,000 for 150 participants.
Since this is totally a new experience for all of us we had to face several challenges to organize this.

1. Since this tour starts at 7.00am at least we need to leave from hotel by 6.30am. Therefore we had to discuss with the hotel management to arrange an early breakfast buffet (by 5.30) for all of us.
2. Making everyone to get ready (130 members) by 6.30am, because usually our night time sing along session & booze runs till 1.00am, 2.00am.
3. Since we work for a private organization the nature of doing things are different from Forces like SL Navy. So we had to adhere to their system/practice.

Though our main objective is Whale & Dolphin watching we had several other objectives also.

• Visit strategically & historically important Trincomalee harbor which is the 5th largest and finest natural harbor in the world. This is 10 times bigger than the Colombo harbor. It is a marvelous creation of nature because it is overlooked by terrace highlands and any giant ship could be hidden in the harbor if you don’t have an aerial view. (They have actually done this during the war and they showed us where they hid Jetliner during our tour.)

On 23rd morning we got up early with lots of enthusiasm and left from the hotel by 6.45 after having the breakfast. When we were reaching to the Ashroff Jetty everything was ready and A543 Cruise was waiting for us. We started our long awaiting journey by 7.15am.

A-543 was waiting for us (Click Image to Enlarge)

A-543

Map (Though it is mentioned as short cruise it took 5 hours) - Click Image to Enlarge

1st they took us on a ride around the harbor and during this tour we could see several important things like:

• Foul point lighthouse where we didn’t have control till early 2007
• Koneshwaram Kovil
• Naval dockyard
• Prima Jetty, Mitsui Jetty and some of the beautiful islands inside the harbour.

Prima flour milling complex at Prima Jetty	SLNS Sayura berthed at Naval dockyard (Click Image to Enlarge)
SLNS Samudura berthed at naval dockyard (Click Image to Enlarge)	No whales or dolphins yet…

It was just 30 minutes and we were still in the Trincomalee bay. Suddenly the Commander Kosala Wijesooriya, project manager of whale watching project announced that our ship is surrounded by dolphins. Everyone ran out to see them.

100s of dolphins have surrounded us and they were swimming with us. It was very difficult to capture their movements with a single click camera. This is where the advanced technology became more important than a good eye!

Thanks to Roshan who owned a multi click camera we could capture some of their nice movements.

It’s play time! (Click Image to Enlarge)

Click Image to Enlarge

After watching the dolphins, the captain started the journey towards the deep sea where the Blue Whales are generally sighting.

On the way we got surrounded by another crowd of dolphins and they swam with us for a longer time. It was so interesting to see them; sometimes they seem to be playing.

.	Wow… (Click Image to Enlarge)
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We were lucky enough to see rare scenery – Flying fishes (පියාමස්සෝ in Sinhala) who come out from the sea and flying about 10m – 15m. They do this to protect from their predators as explained in a documentary program called ‘BBC Life’
Even after a few hours of journey we still didn’t see at least a single whale.

We went about 10 naval miles towards the deep sea and captain had a map with GPS locations where he had sighted whales in previous tours.

Alone in the sea…

With the sun rise and having spent several hours in sea we were a bit tired and crew onboard invited us to enjoy snack & refreshment. They had arranged us a very good snack with fresh fruit juice.

Suddenly there was another announcement from captain “there are 3 whales close to us”

We all ran out again. We could see 2 of them at a distance of 50m – 100m. They were there for about 10, 15 minutes. But we couldn’t take a good picture. We could see the Blue Whales “blow” (the large spray) several times at a distance.

But we couldn’t get closer to them. According to the captain some odd days they cannot approach them closely due to some reasons (weather and sea conditions, whale habitats etc.)He was also stressed that passengers should also got to have enough luck to see those giants at close proximity.

Impatient to see Blue Whales…they are close by…	Too late…
The only photograph we could capture – The Blue Whale	View from bridge of the ship
.	Bridge of the ship
.Koneshwaram Kovil from Sea	One of the natural hiding places for ships in Trinco Harbour

After a successful journey of 5 hours we came back to the Ashroff Jetty. It was a great/different experience altogether and everyone was overjoyed.

Green Ocean – which was used to transport injured in the rescue missions during the last phase of the war

Buses were waiting for us just after the cruise

In the evening we had another life time worth experience. It was snorkeling near the Pigeon Island.

Till I complete that report enjoy reading this.

Day 1

Left Colombo at around 12pm. Arrived at the hotel by around 3.30pm and spent the entire evening at the beach and sea.

Day 2

Arrived at the Mirissa harbour by 6.20am since we were to leave by 7am. Was at sea for around 40 minutes when the guide spotted whales. Got to see 3 whales(for the entire trip….hmph) of which only 1 posed for the camera.

Blue Whale…..The only photo

Disappointed with the lack of show put on by the whales for us we were circling around at sea for another good 2-21/2 hrs hoping to see some more when we came across a school of dolphins that put on a terrific performance cheering the whole group up after a disappointing morning……Should say that the dolphins made up for it..

Getting ready for a jump…..	A step closer ....
10/10 for synchronization…..	.
.	.

WOOOWW!!!!

Performers and the Spectators

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After a quick sea bath and lunch at hotel left for Colombo by 4.30pm thanking the dolphins for the great entertainment provided.

A week end trip to Kalpitiya was planned as a family vacation. The main attraction was the dolphins but some detours to see interesting sites on the way were also in the itinerary.

We started around 4.00 am on a Saturday – just 3 of us in our car. En route to Palavi along A3, we visited the Munnewaram Kovil in Chilaw. The Munnewaram Hindu Kovil has many little shrines within the main complex; dedicated to various Hindu deities. Photography is not allowed inside the kovil.

The Munneswaram Kovil

The Munneswaram Kovil

Our next stop was at Nawadankulama tank for some birding. This is about 1 km along the road to the right, just pass the 105 km post. We were a bit too late and the sun was not ideal for birding. Despite this, it was quite an exciting stop over.

The Aiyanayake devalaya near the Nawadankulama tank	Ohhhh! The luxury of a mud bath!!!
Nawadankulama Tank	Kana kok suda
Lesser whistling ducks	Life at Nawadankulama

Getting ready for school

The road up to Plavi is fantastic. To get to Kalpitiya we turned left at 120th km post and drove along B349. This stretch of the road is carpeted only for about 6km and the rest is not so good. The terrain around is harsh and dry but it is offset by the spectacular view of the Puttalam lagoon on the right side of the road.

The Puttalam lagoon

Along the way we visited the Thalawila church – which is the oldest Catholic Church in Sri Lanka – and saw the Norochcholai coal power plant from outside. Permission from the Ceylon Electricity Board is needed to get inside.

Norochcholai coal power plant

Thalawila St. Anne’s Church

The road up to Al Aksha junction offers fascinating insights to life in the area.

Friends	Trying to creep through, despite being “framed”
Just the right thing to quench the thirst and hunger	And of course, the famous “Puttalam asses”!

The road from Al Aksha junction to Sethawadiya is pretty narrow but can be done in a car. The directions are not marked and you need to ask the villagers for them. This can be pretty confusing due to barriers in communication.

The first glimpse of Sethawadiya, Dolphin View Eco Lodge	The road to Sethawadiya
The beach chalets	The lagoon in front

Chilling out in the lagoon – if you don’t mind some mud!

The next day was bright and sunny and it was ideal for dolphins. We were joined by two other guests in the hotel for the trip. We set off by 8.15 a.m eager to see the dolphins.

Safety first

The first sighting was around 8.45 a.m. and there after the dolphins came in hundreds and the sea was literally filled with them! The dolphins were all Long-snouted spinner type and they put on a spectacular show, jumping up and spinning in the air.

First sighting	Up in the air and back into water
Synchronized swimming	Skimming the surface

Swimming along the boat

The only ugly incident in an otherwise perfect trip was this example of highly irresponsible bit of eco tourism we witnessed, much to our disgust. The two boats in that group would charge into the middle of a pod of dolphins, making them dive back into the water rapidly. The tourists in the boats would dive into the sea with scant regard to their safety or the well being of the dolphins they were out to see. It would be interesting to know whether they would be allowed to behave in such an ugly manner in any other country!

Towards irresponsible eco tourism

The dolphins were spinning most of the time and my son was able to capture this spinner in action minutes before we turned back and WOW! what a fantastic bit of spinning it was. It was the perfect ending of a memorable trip.

what a fantastic bit of spinning it was

The event was organized as the 6th event of Adventure Sri Lanka flickr travel and photography group. As planed we left Colombo around 2 in the morning after going through few unexpected things on transport (Unfortunately it continued). We were travelling in three vans with 21 members of Adventure Sri Lanka group soon joined by three other members by a car at Seeduwa around three in the morning. We all started going towards Kalpitiya. On the way we looked for a place to get a short breakfast and tea. We were only able to find a place close to Palavi since it was early morning. Food was not that good, though most of our guys ate them as usual. Then we started driving towards Kalpitiya.

Road from Palavi to Kalpitiya is under constriction. Some parts of the road is as good as A2 but rest is awful. If you plan to go there get a vehicle with good ground clearance. We passed Norochcholai junction and continue our journey toward Kalpitiya. We stopped by few places to get a snap of sunrise over the lagoon.

Just before sunrise	Shooting the sunrise
Waiting for the sun to come out	Shooting boats

Our misfortune continued as a result of my mistake again. When I called the Dolphin beach hotel, we had passed the turn off to hotel by about 8Kms towards Kalpitiya side. We had to turn back. Finally we reached the place by 7 in the morning. 30 minutes later then scheduled. We had to hurry up to the boats and get to sea. There were 24 of us in 4 boats. Within few minutes we were in the sea looking for dolphins.

Chasing dolphins ........

........ or chasing our friends in the other boat ?

I was so disappointed, my friends in other two boats were long gone and my boat was running on first gear Yet we managed to pass one of the slow moving boat. It took us about 30 minutes to get to where our friends were, and there were dolphins all over the place. They were fairly large, not the ones we expected. Lately we got to know that those were Risso’s Dolphins. They are larger and without the well known nose. Activeness on the surface of this variety was fairly low, comparing to other two species in our ocean, so there was nothing much to photograph.

Waiting impatiently	Experts in action
Here comes the dolphins	Dolphin watching
Dolphins close up	Dolphin watching

We spent about 30 minutes with them and saw only few surface actions. Unfortunately I was not been able to capture any jumps. We head back to main land after about half and hour with dolphins and then suddenly there was a big sound coming from the behind. Our boat driver was hanging hard to something, Oh no.. it was our boat engine and it was in the sea. That’s where the Adventure begun. Few of us jumped back and helped him to get it back on boat. But it was not functioning anymore. We shout at one of the other boats, and they got back to us.

After tying our boat with the another one, we pulled the boat for about 2 hrs toward the main land. It looked like we were floating at the same place for all that time. Without a control of direction it was really difficult to sail it to where we wanted. After making few calls to hotel finally we got a response, they came come to us with another engine. Myself with another, jumped to the new boat to reduce the weight, and that speed up both boats. We were so hungry and couldn’t wait till we step on land.

Our crew was waiting at the hotel for us. We all were so hungry and I informed the hotel manager that we have no option other then having breakfast there. We had planed to have it on the way back to Nawadankulama. After breakfast at about 11 we discussed what to do next. Some guys wanted to go to the edge of Kalpitiya so we headed that way. It was noon and the sun was burning. We didn’t come across any interesting thing. Without wasting any more time we decided to head back to Nawadankulama.

Nawadankulama was as good as every time we went there. Had plenty of opportunities for photography.

Flying Great egret	Jacana take off
Kingfisher in action	Camouflaged predator
Bond of life	Dragonflies
Common Moorhen	Star Tories
Common Coot	Enjoying the nature's beauty

We spent till 6 in the evening at Nawadankulama and everybody enjoyed the beauty of Nature and caught some good memories in to their digital cams. We headed back and reached Colombo by 10pm. It was a long tired day… but worth!