Along the coast of the big blue to see the Big Blue

From our nook in our beachy heaven, we travelled by tuk-tu

k and then meditation bus (the music resembled that of a temple and I wondered how the driver stayed awake) to Mirissa, the home of the Big Blue Whale excursions.

The hostel was an epic fail, lets just clarify that now. Epic. Fail.
Lew got a bad chest infection from the damp and I got the flu. All because it was a damp, dank, dark cave. We were fools, but who cares, as we got a hilarious story in the location.

We decided to go and see the whales with Raj and the Whales, a very environmentally sound and rational guy (he threatened people who litter with death by drowning and no-one was to ask him to get closer to the whales as 'how would you like someone creeping up on you in your home?!')

So Lew, myself and 30 other unprepared passengers pile onto this lovely little boat. It was lovely for about 20minutes until the first 'sailor' fell ill. The poor Aussi guy, who I can only hope was somewhat hungover, made his way to the back of the boat to relieve himself of his severe nausea.
This was followed by a mother on the upper deck - her baby girl was carried down by a crew member - followed by the grandmother, who was just as green.

One by one, the sea weary were picked off and Lew was one of them. Only, he can make friends while being sick, as he and a German guy decided to console each other, pat each other on the back and discuss strategic locations for their gaze to fall upon to ease their suffering. Yet, unknown to them, their pain was to continue for another four hours.

By this point the Australian was lying down, no doubt passed out from diaphragm exhaustion, only to be sharply awoken by a crew member when the lovely blue whales came into view. The Aussi was yanked by the sides of his life jacket and almost carried to the starboard deck to see the beautiful mammals gently swim through the rocky waters. This was seemingly all to much for the chap as he quickly twitched a nod and backward stumbled to the opposite deck to continue what he had been doing for the past four hours. By doing so he joined Lew and Co. for the remainder of the trip and I couldn't help feel somewhat amused at the line of men trying to look alive.

The whales were amazing, I saw them all from my safe location curled up in the back corner of the boat. Sick people do not agree with me, if I see someone being sick I tend to join in for fun.
They (the whales, not the sick men) were such glorious, graceful animals that were so much bigger than I could have imagined. I will never be so thankful to the crew member who took my camera and took a multitude of photos and videos of them, because if it were not for him I would have nothing to show for the trip. Nor would Lew.

On the way back after seeing the whales we saw hundreds of dolphins, working together with the local tuna fisherman to catch some fish, it was fantastic. It was all old line technique that meant no dolphins would be harmed.

It only took another five hours for us to feel somewhat human again and for Lew to start chatting. Apparently sea sickness also impairs his conversation skills.

Due to the epic fail of our hostel in Mirissa we decided to move on to pastures new which took us to our final destination...