Cheese and Dolphins

Last week I went Whale Watching with some people from office. Now one of the cool things about this was that we stayed at the Lighthouse Hotel in Galle, and boy is that a fancy hotel! Now I remember the first time that I went to that hotel. It was used as a bathroom pit-stop on long trips by my family when my brother and I were little. And since we were not allowed to use the loo’s for free, we had to buy something to nom on too. Anyways the last time I was at that hotel, I climbed up on the rocks which line the beach in search of mudskippers (Periophthalmus barbarus or Periopthalmus koelreuteri). Once I got up there and spent a few minutes observing this goggle eyed Gobie I realised that I was stuck. Getting up to the top of the rocks was so much easier than getting back down! After some careful consideration about my location I decided that life was too short to sit and worry about getting off rocks, and just slid down hoping and praying that I would not end up getting poked by the nasty looking rocks. I did however reach the soft sand, and though I was thoroughly soaked I skipped through the hotel leaving a trail of sea water behind me. Ah.. Those were the days…..

Now when we got to our room, my friend (lets call her X) and I went absolutely berserk! I mean the room was HUGE! We roamed around and then found the bathroom. I kid you not it was as big as my room at home. I could have lived in there. Now it was about 11 pm in the night and we had had no dinner, so we reluctantly left the room and dined with our other colleague (lets call him Q) and our boss (lets call him B). Dinner wasn’t all that great actually. Maybe I was just tired. The only thing that did intrigued me were the baby potatoes that were randomly scattered around my plate. They looked like little pellets of goat dung… But tastier.

By the time I went to sleep it was close to 2 am, and five minutes later I was rudely awaken by my alarm. With a stream of curses directed at my phone I checked time and realised that it was (most unfortunately) 5.30 am. With the movements of sleep walking walrus’s X and I grudgingly changed and bid farewell to the land of dreams and headed outside.

It took us about 45 minutes to get to the Mirissa Harbour. We were to go out to sea in a boat hired from Mirissa Water Sports. When I saw the boat I was like a kid in a candy store. I jumped on board and made my self comfortable at the Bow and waited for everyone else to settle in. By everyone I mean 12 other individuals! Finally after about 15 minutes we were off. On and on we went out into open water. I couldn’t wait to see Blue Whales (Balaenoptera musculus). Imagine, the largest mammal on earth! About 30 minutes after our departure we were all given a bag in which sat our breakfast. I must say, it wasn’t very appetising. Cheese sandwiches, a funny cake with grotesque coloured preservatives and a banana. After much consideration I downed two little sandwiches (they weren’t very nice).

An hour and 15 minutes later we were about to cross over to the Blue Water from the Green. It looked a lot like the mixing of waters in the Amazon River. Soon we would see Spinner Dolphins. I was in my element. The sun and the sea.. The waves and the wind… And sea sickness! What in the world? I thought the stupid sandwiches were supposed to prevent this terrible feeling in my tummy!

Ok now calm down. I can’t get sea sick. This is crazy. “Can someone make this rocking stop!”

So I sat down in order to make my head stop turning. Now here is something I should mention. Never. I mean never ever ever sit down when you feel sea sick. Because if you do, you will just feel so much worse! So I stood up again, and when I did I saw them. A pod of beautiful blue and steel grey Spinner Dolphins (Stenella longirostris). There were at least 200. What an amazing sight. They jumped out of the water and did the most acrobatic twirls like the Ballerinas of the sea. I grabbed my camera and started shooting. They swam towards the boat and started swimming along with it. Cris crossing underneath. If I could just scoot a little lower I just maybe able to touch one. So down I looked completely mesmerised by the sight, when suddenly I felt the bile rush up my to meet my tongue.

Oh bugger…

In a flash I was running towards the back of the boat where I stuck my head over the side and just hurled my little heart out. There went the cheese in all its white gooey goodness. But then, all of a sudden I felt rejuvenated. I felt brand new! I cursed the cheese that made me puke and went back to my post. Just in time too cos we all spotted a Blue Whales spout. We saw about three actually. Hurry! To the whales! However, we ended up making two more circles around the pod of dolphins and by the time we started towards the whales they had already dived. But did that make us stop. No. We just kept going for another hour.

My happy recovery did not last long. About 10 minutes later I felt sick again and threw up plain old greeny yellow bile (I do feel like explaining what it looked like so bare with me), that tasted so sour and foul and also slightly salty (I drank some salt water after I threw up the first time). So for the rest of the journey I slept. I was unable to do anything else. Every time I opened my eyes everything started spinning. It was horrible. I could not enjoy my self one bit. Due to my sea sickness I came away with crappy pictures as well. So much for Whale Watching!

It wasn’t just me who got sick. X and Q were just as sick as I was and slept the entire trip as well. Thing is they slept in the shade and I slept in the sun, which wasn’t too bad cos it helped a lot when it came to ignoring the rocking motion of the boat.

When we did step on to dry land four and a half hours later the entire boat crew grined and said “Anith sare enakota sea sickness tablet ekak ude ganna harida”. Translation: Next time you come, remember to take a sea sickness tablet. No kidding!

- Tigs