Borella never change!

I was so relieved to be back at home because I was experiencing the bitterness of winter, in Melbourne, at its best. We really should be admiring the sunlight we enjoy in tropics. In other hand, Sri Lanka was experiencing un-ending rainy season. 

I started my life as usual. I spent some days at my coworker place near Borellla. Though Borella is an important hub within the heart of Colombo, it hasn't changed for few decades. Look and feel was just like the times we were going to school passing the same roads. 

Given there are no many options, I used to drop in by Ananda Bhavan (i.e. ආනන්ද භවන්) or Mihiri bath kade (i.e. මිහිරි බත් කඩේ) for lunch during my work. It was quite a contrast to the Swedish cafe, called Miss Maud, which I go for coffee while I spend time in Perth. Though its not reasonable to compare, I always think of the contrast of flavors of south Asian and Western food. Given we have all the best spices of the world, getting flavor in a dish is no drama. In fact, we used to demand it since childhood. When a westerner eat them, they get overwhelmed. Sometimes I cook fish curry, but with minimum available spices and serve my Australian friends. They start admiring its taste, but for me they are below average in terms of flavors.  

This time I organized a family trip to Anuradhapura. Since girls had already studied about ancient kingdoms of Sri Lanka, they had a good time exploring ruins and etc. As I guessed they liked Jethawanaya and Abayagiriya, since those venues are much more peaceful and the structures remain as real historical monuments without any modern touchups or colors. I too like less crowded places. Anuradhapura is a gem for someone like history and Buddhist heritage of Sri Lanka. You can spend months watching different historical sites.

We also visited Soma Nanda's (i.e. සෝමා නැන්දා) place. She was my mothers close friend (a relation too) in schooling time. Soma aunty has a great romantic story. She had run away with her boyfriend to start a new family in Anuradhapura. So why Anuradhapura? because both of them had read a lot of novels written based on historical events of Anuradhapura. So both of them were obsessed with those stories as well as Anuradhapura city itself! Isn't it an interesting story? Her "romantic" husband, Newton uncle was seen feeble and aged, but happy. I have also heard that he was once abducted by LTTE terrorists during his carrier as a guard in CGR (Ceylon Government Railway). Guard is the head (like captain) of a train. When we were leaving their place, he was impatiently waiting to see next Cricket match in television: his time passing activity of old age. Life happens! 

Shanjeewan from top of Kilimanjaro!

May be I told you previously, the strange way I came to know Shanjeewan. I simply bashed into his jeep while reversing my car after few drinks in the Christmas Party of Sub Aqua Club! Our connection was built in spite of an unorthodox (..an embarrassing!) way we met. For some reason I guess I am among first few people he talked to, when he laid his plan of Summit Sustainability project. I was bit surprised as well as thrilled to see his super human ambition. I was like ..you bugger really going to climb 7 summits! He said Yes Aiya..I will try. I not only encouraged the project but supported financially too.

By the time goes and didn't here anything from him, I simply felt may be its too much of a challenge for this young lad. All in a sudden Shanjeewan messaged me saying he made it to the summit of Kilimanjaro. He has also thought of me for my support and decided to take a photo of my picture within the background of the mountain. Such a nice way of gratitude. I felt so proud of this beautiful soul. I wished him all the luck for coming challenges including mighty Everest! 

Diving at Trincomalee

I was too lazy and wasn't too sure of what to do for eastern diving season this time. Usually I sketch a rough plan in my mind before any season and this time it didn't happen for some reason. Perhaps I wasn't very happy with the diving experience in last season. Most of all I was in utter confusion on identifying the best time for underwater shooting in east coast. Both diving excursions planed last year to Trinco and Kalpitiya were not as good as I expected. When I say not good, its about my wrong judgment of sea conditions.

I had only small window which I could afford to go out due to various reasons. Top on that, there was a forecast of a hurricane in bay of Bengal. This made my decision much more difficult. I ended up calling department of metrology to find out more. Well, in tropics predictions are pretty much a complex equation of probability, only statistician would understand.

Some relate visibility of ocean in Trincomalee area with the sediments carried by mass of waters flow from Mahaweli river. This connects inland rainfall to conditions of diving sites in east. Some deny this theory categorically since its not that significant. 

I made my mind, called Devana and said I am heading to Trinco this week for diving with least expectations. First he wasn't interested, but when I said I am catching a train for a change. So it was quite an experience to go in the train to Trincomalee. It was faster than we expected. 

Since it was a short stay, we decided not to go to Nilaweli side but to do a couple of dives with Ashen near Trincomalee town. First I was bit nervous to see boatman struggled to locate the site to anchor the boat, but it ended up quite well. Visibility wasn't great, so I was restricted to shoot macros. I was also thrilled to dive Swami Rock historical site for the second time.

Once I ascend to the surface after a dive, I noticed a familiar looking boat passing with foreign divers which I recognized as the dive boat of Blue Deep. Blue Deep diving station is like my home and most of the crew knew me. I was staying and diving with them last season for days. If they see me in water at this moment they would think what the heck Sumedha Aiya doing here without telling us. I felt bit guilty. Without much thought I covered my face with the mask again and dip underwater until they go to a descent distance! Moral of the story.. you can encounter a known person even when you are in sea nowadays.. behave yourself!

Once I was casually roaming around the beach, I saw a familiar looking guy passing by. Then  I recognized Ram who is a diver and photographer running a small diving operation in Trinco. We both knew each other through social media but this was the first time we had the chance of chatting to each other in person.

Last day of diving I felt like having a drink. After telling my desire, Ashen arranged everything for a great beach catchup. He arranged us an upstairs of a modern looking apartment facing the ocean with all what we needed. Buddhika who is a dive master from Kalpitiya who was freelancing in Trinco for the season also joined us for drinks. It was a great catchup and good way to finish the quick diving trip to east. We headed back to Colombo in a bus.

To my surprise one of my macro shots of a clownfish captured near Middle reef got a lot of attention and was commented as a good shot.  

Guru Geethaya film with Bada

When I heard Guru Geetha movie is out, one who came to my mind was Bada aiya (බඩා අයියා), namely Sanath Hittiarachchi. Sanath has been in senior batch while I was a university student and we had pretty similar taste about arts and literature. Actually we two had to plan and execute most of the cultural and art programs those days. Sanath was the biggest fan of the book Gurugeethaya (The first Teacher by Chinghiz Aitmatov). Devana was the one who always did the hard part when Sanath come up with a big idea. So after many decades we three got together to see the movie.

More than the movie, meeting three of us to see the movie of our most loved book was quite a nostalgic feeling. Movie was good and we really enjoyed the evening.

Afterwards we spent sometime in Galle Face green eating Isso Vade (ඉස්සො වඩේ) and drinking cardamom tea, talking about literature and good old days within the vicinity of lights of five star hotels nearby. We also talked about how life happened to us with the rat race, started after finishing our studies. Talking about your plight with like-minded friend itself is a healing.

Matters at home.. & tough times to face

Matters at home were going ok. We  had a party for Amma's eightieth birthday. I couldn't believe she is eighthly. Since she wasn't a traditional mum, it is always difficult to imagine her old version. Though she turned 80 she is active as she used to be. My brother and I were struggling to keep her in right balance in terms of activities since we knew her character. Just stay at home and go to temple is not her. That's a far cry from her style. In contrast, though mind is youthful, too much action in old age can be bad. Anyway, it was quite a nice party we held at home with her favorited relations and friends.

All other things came to a halt, when Sawanthi had to go through a surgical procedure to remove a stone in kidney. More than anything recovery process wasn't as smooth as doctor promised. She was going through a massive pain and there was only little we could do about it. When she recovers her father got critically sick which shook all our lives. After spending one month in hospital, most of it in intensive care unit, he passed away! Doctors and hospital staff of Sri Jayawardenapura did a great job, but it wasn't a battle nature would allow us win!

Day before death, Sumangala Thero along with his head monk visited the hospital and did a mini pirith preaching which gave a good spiritual energy to thaththa. Sumangala thero, then Wasantha, and I have a long history. I met him in my first job which I did nigh shifts during my university days. Since then we were friends. Later on he started to show interest in religious life and eventually ended up been a Buddhist monk! I had to call my mate, Sumangala Thero since then!

Sawanthi's fathers death took me back to the day I lost my father, how shocking it was to me and how long it took me to heal the emotional wound.

It will take long to heal.. especially for my girls, they experienced a death of a close person for the first time.. I saw they put papers with hand written messages to their grandfathers coffin. 

Dolphin watching at Kalpitiya

With all difficult times we passed, I wanted to take girls out of this negative environment to refresh their minds. No one was ready for a big trip with jolly mode but they agreed to my idea of spending a couple of lazy days in late back Kalpitiya. So I head to Kalpitiya with family and it gave us the most wanted change of mode. We spent time walking in the beach.. dipping in the pool..

I arranged a dolphin watching trip in a small single engine boat belongs to Shanaka which enthralled the girls. We stayed in a better hotel with a swimming pool which is a much more luxurious place than Romesh's where I used to stay during my diving trips. We also had a wonderful dinner out side of the hotel. Place is not a usual restaurant, but actually a humble looking extension to a traditional house. Sea food was fabulous and it really went well with Spanish wine we brought with us. Later on I came to know its the home of Shanaka's uncle. 

Just as last few Christmas times, there were few interesting catch-ups in store.

I used to say Borella doesn't change since last ice age! In spite of my claims, one day I saw a little, but modern looking coffee shop opened in Cotta Road. Now I can have a real coffee break while working in my co-worker space. let's do a coffee catchup was becoming a favorite phrase in my vocabulary! 

As per this writing, May 2025, Shanjeevan should be busy arranging stuff for his next climb which is Mount Blanc of Europe. Let me send him a encouraging message before going to bed...

Partying at Kalpitiya

When we first came to dive at Kalpitiya, a couple of years ago, it was like love at first sight. Its not all about diving, but people, culture and slow life what we started to admire. Day to day life of most are closely connected to church in a good way. Life was slow.

Then I knew this is going to be an annual ritualistic visit. Since we wanted to connect more with the people, I suggested Niro and Devana about my plans to host a party after diving. They accepted my plan but none of us knew the scale or the format.

First thing first! I packed all my gear and headed to Kalpitiya in a bus which was a very hectic one. Especially with all my gear, it wasn't a good choice. When I reached my beach hut I was hungry and exhausted.

Without further wasting of time, I wanted to start diving next day. Shanaka who is the owner of our diving station welcomed me as always and made all the necessary arrangements. This time I was introduced to two young guys Ashen and Hasitha who are trainee dive masters to help with my plan. They had seen my underwater photos but never seen me in person. Actually Hasitha too was an underwater photographer with some history of working for media companies.

As I faced bad luck in east in last expedition, this time too sea conditions were not in my favor. Though I had a lot of plans to shoot underwater, it ended up being a challenge that tried my endurance. Once we were drifted with the current about 1.2 km. Luckily we had deployed a surface marker so the experienced boatman could track our path. Each dive we conducted in challenging conditions add more confidence to our portfolio of experiences. 

Though murky and rough water doesn't give much chance to do wide angel photography, it leaves little chance to capitalize if you are creative in macro. Against all odds I managed to shoot one long awaited abstract shot of a soft coral.

One night, Shanaka invited me to his home for dinner. This was unexpected. It was very joyful catchup with his crew. Shanaka's wife was a great cook and great host. Party was full of seafood delicacies which will cost you a fortune in Colombo. What I enjoyed most was the connection they have with crew members. Shanaka and his wife were treating crew just like their own siblings. There were few young Muslim boys from same neighborhood who operates dolphin watching boats. (some of them wanted to keep our mobile phones camera's away while they have a drink!) As I learned, party in Kalpitiya was never complete without a session of Karaoke after drinks. In fact, before finishing the party we all started to sing a blend of Jothipala to Clarance and few Tamil songs. I thanked for everything and invited them all for our beach party planned to host in couple days.

Last day of diving, as we were back on shore and cleaned the gear, Niro's van appeared with full stack of sound equipment those he use in DJ parities and clubs in Colombo. I was sure, none of our invitees would have expected professions music of this level. Following day we drew to nearest town which is Kalpitiya to buy the needful: Some liquor and food for the party. Also bought more fish from a local fisherman and arranged them to be prepared through Ramesh who is the manager of the beach hut. He actually arranged a very motherly local lady to cook them in the evening.

By the evening, we felt bit nervous since we didn't know how we arrange and proceed. Most of all, we didn't know how this neighborhood would react. Anyway, Ramesh seems to be waiting to see how we go with this. After waiting a while we decided to start whatever the consequences could be. Then came the fun; people around us were in jaw dropping state when see state-of-art music equipment we unload and connect. It was like, OMG, this bestarred seems to have meant a real party!

Then we started the music and it was "The Party" we could ever imagined! Ramesh asked if we mind if some guests join us and we said No Problem. Then it was going in full swing. Apart from us, diving team there were some locals and also a team of kite surfers from Spain on the beach dancing to one and only Niro's DJ music. We realized Shanaka was not only a diving instructor but a great singer while he sang a couple of songs. In fact, he has been in a band when he was young. Everything was going in great rhythm. I danced like no one is looking! I imagined of this party, the very first time I came to Kalpitiya. 

Following day we left Kalpitiya just like a group of celebrities leaving a town after a successful show!

Another excursion at east

I had all the intensions of diving when east coast season started in 2023. I couldn't do much in west coast season this time since Sawanthi went through a surgery and needed a lot of rest, leaving me to play the typical family man role, for a change. By June, I was more than ready. While we are based in Colombo, east course diving always comes with logistics issues. 

When I prepare for the trip, both Devana and Niro volunteered to drop me and the gear to Trincomalee  which I denied since its sounded too much of a ask to me. Then plan turned out to be a different one which is I am to take a bus from Colombo to Trinco but they will join me at the last day of diving so we all driving towards Batticaloe to continue our excursion on land. That's gonna be my first trip that connect underwater expedition to a land excursion which sounds fascinating.

I picked the early morning bus from Fort to Trinco and reached my accommodation, a shitty place called Natraj Guest House, just after midday. 

Ocean had been pretty calm for weeks and had changed a couple of days before. I wasn't aware of the real ordeal until I plunged into the water. Surface swell was intense, but I managed to descend holding the floating mooring line laid by Sri Lankan Navy to reach underwater museum. Though it was a sunny day, beneath the water was dark since surface movement of the ocean obstruct the light. 

After doing some shooting, in below average conditions, we entered a shipwreck where we felt sudden change of water temperature. I felt cold currents going through, but we were safely encapsulated inside the wreck. When we left the chamber and come out of narrow opening, we started to encounter the gale force of the current. I wasn't ready for that. I managed to hold a rustic metal railing still fitted to the wreck. My hand got cut and could see my blood flowing in curvy pattern. Blood was more maroon than red. Anyway, now I am stationed against the current. I had at least 90 bars of air in the tank. Then I saw our diving leader, Tharanga Malli as well as the Dutch diver who was the other member of the team were also hanging by the railing. 

Then I saw Tharanga wanted to start swimming. I was sure that current was not something we can easily deal with. Then I signaled him to go ahead and evaluate it. I didn't want to drain my energy. While getting old, I always think of saving the energy since that is crucial, not like when I was in my twenties. After a couple of failed attempts, Tharanga too gave up the idea of swimming away. After awhile, we knew we were loosing air fast. Then we three hold by hands and let go of the wreck railing, resulted taken us very fast with the current. Though terrified, it was such a strange feeling. I felt like an astronaut on free fall towards the endless Milky Way!

After current is subsided, we made a surface marker and ascend to the surface. Since surface was choppy getting to the boat too was quite a challenge. I saw a couple of other dive boats in a distance and watching at the struggle we were going through. Later on, our skipper said they left the site saying conditions are too dangerous. 

That was my first day of diving which tried my endurance. Came ashore exhausted yet feeling accomplished by the tough experience. Had a good lunch prepared by Kalu's team and done some resting which was essential. 

My other objective of this trip was to explore the seabed near the Koneswaram temple in Swami Rock. This seabed should be hiding all the past secrets of the events took place around the sacred area. As per the legend, Portuguese destroyed the temple and threw the sacred objects and etc. to the ocean in seventeenth century. This part of the story is connected with early expeditions of Mike Wilson & Arthur C. Clarke which I have written about at least a decade ago.

Day before the dive, I visited the Koneswaram temple with Tharanga Malli. Scenery was splendid. Later on I had the opportunity of listening to a talk by Angeline Ondaatje who has explored this place extensively since her childhood and also done quite a research on history. One important fact she mentioned was this view had been a splendid one before recent constructions obstructed it. So beauty we see today is just the remaining of a big breathtaking picture.

Next day I dived the ocean adjoining the base of Swami Rock. Conditions were not the best, but much more manageable. Apart from fauna and boulders, we also saw some statues. What we saw weren't the historically important ones, which I am told by marine archeologist, Rasika Muthucumarana later on. Anyway, I was happy that I could explore a place I always wanted to. A couple of good underwater photographs I took were the bonus!

Same evening I joined our diving crew for a beer and learned more about the area and history. Koneswaram temple we see today is a very recent establishment. History we should be concerned about is something different. There are politics around this. Some Tamil leaders were behind the new establishments and some had opposed the idea. Nevertheless, importance of studying the history of this site is of paramount importance. 

As I finish the diving I was expecting my other collogues who were driving from Colombo to pick me and drive towards Batticaloa for the second leg of the trip, but on land this time.

As planned we headed to Batticaloa. Actually, I never been to Batticaloa before. Even the township itself had a character of its own. Jewellery shops and whatnot are open till late and the town was alive like a big city. Tharaka, a friend of Niro who is a high ranker in Petroleum corporation in the region, kindly allowed us accommodate in his bungalow. Not only that he also arranged a nice evening by the lagoon with drinks, so we all were indulged and had a great conversation. One other guy who met there was Dasun, who is a Army officer. While we were spending time by the lagoon, we saw small boats passing by those involve in catching crabs and fish with traditional methods. They only carry a small kerosine lamp. Boats were spotted from the far like scattered bunch of fireflies in the dark. 

Our guys are interested in history as a fact. So they decided to explore a couple of historically important places. Given we didn't have much time, we could only explore Thoppi Gala (තොප්පිගල) and Kusalana Malei (කුසලාන මලෙයි). 

Kusalana Malai was a interesting site with ruins of ancient monuments mostly made of granite. It seems to have converted to a Hindu shrine in recent times. It sounds like some people wanted to reflect different picture. So this is directly connected to ethnic tension still irrupts time to time in eastern province of Sri Lanka. Anyway, we were warned to visit the place without getting attention of nearby communities. As we heard, they didn't like archeologists and journalists to visit these places because it can have adverse effect at their attempt of deformation of history.

One other objective of the visit was to make connection with Coast Veddas to find out more about this. Especially, Channa had read and explored quite a lot about history of indigenous people of Sri Lanka and he was very keen on meeting Coast Veddas.

Coast Veddas are supposed to be lower class of different Vedda groups in the island and their roots may have diverted from interior Veddas long ago. Like Veddas in Dambana (දඹාන) has closely connected with Buddhist culture, Coastal Veddas had connected with Hinduism since their territory was surrounded by Hindu community. Channa's theory is Coast Veddas may have some ancient practices those were vanished from other communities long ago. 

After knowing our enthusiasm, Tharaka introduced us to a professor in Eastern University who has been gathering information about whereabouts of this community and he gave some valuable clues where we should be searching for. Anyway, we realized its not a simple task that could do without spending a significant amount of time at it. We had to give up the idea, though reluctantly.

Following day, after having a great breakfast, we left Baticaloe, saying bye to Tharaka and Dasun for the great hospitality. We were actually thinking of returning in some point because its a different region that needs a lot of time to explore.

Our team, except for me, are friends with officers of Department of Wildlife since they have consulted the officers during their diploma program conducted at University of Colombo. They thought it could be a good idea if they can pay a visit to Yala Galge wildlife range office on our way back and to see their "Students". Whatever said and done it was a very long route. That return journey was eventful!

Niro wasn't well and by the time we noticed he wasn't in good shape at all. Then came a tire puncture. Not to say we all were exhausted. After a while, Channa was vomiting by the side of the road. To add more bitterness, our van was stopped by Police and fined for speeding. Anyway, we made back to Colombo safely, but exhausted as could be.

Travel to east always add something special to the portfolio of experience and this was nor difference.  

Going out of the city

 As I mentioned in my previous post, Western Australia wasn’t hit badly by Covid. Though we were not allowed to go out of the state, travel within the state was possible during the period of jeopardy. In fact, I planned a couple of solo excursions away from Perth. 

In October 2020, I jumped into a Qantas flight and headed to Exmouth, a small coastal town located 1300 km North of Perth. Actually, there is no airport at Exmouth, so flights are landing in nearby military base at Learmouth. Jewel of Exmouth is the Ningaloo reef, which is one of the famous places for Whale Sharks. Just like Udawalawe or Minneriya is all about Elephants, Exmouth is boasting about Whale Sharks.

This town has been established in 1967 to support nearby US naval communications station, though this area itself is having a big history around World War II. Specially, Exmouth area was used as the base for iconic Operation Jaywick, which was deployed to destroy Japanese ships in Singapore harbor in 1943. 

Interestingly, Exmouth still holds the remnants of US occupation. I heard Exmouth retailers accepted both US and AUS dollars during that period.

People met at Exmouth; Rheel, Renuka and Ema

I liked the township of Exmouth and its inhabitants who are stress free and sun loving. I just wandered around the city and ended-up in the Pub called Froth. There I met a matured person, called Rheel, who was spending half of the year in Exmouth with his wife after the retirement. He was spending his dream life fishing and enjoying the slow country life.

One day he was coming to the pub later than usual. Therefore, I said, “You are late Rheel”. He replied “Its Broom time!” That day I learned the meaning of Broom time. Broom is located further up, probably the last town up north, before starting the vast uninhabited land mass until Darwin. They say, in Broom, there is no value for time. People would do anything in their own phase. I like it! Pretty Sri Lankan too!

One morning, I got up and went to the shared kitchen of the lodge in my batik sarong on. I noticed one lady was looking at me with interest. When I got my morning tea prepared, this lady had already come closer to me and said;

“This looks a nice Sri Lankan sarong”

“Thanks, In deed. I am a Sri Lankan” I replied.

“කොහොමද? ආයුබෝවන්..” She said and made me surprised. 

Meeting Two Sri Lankans means a chat, a lot of it! Then we introduced ourselves. She, Dr.Renuka Ranasinghe, had come to Exmouth in search of opportunity to swim with whale sharks as many others. In addition, I learned, she had left Sri Lanka during the dark age of 88-89 to pursue higher studies in UK, eventually ended up in Perth. She had been in Sri Lankan National Swimming squad, prior to famous Julian Bowling’s era. Anyway, it was her last day in the lodge and we greeted each other and move on with our own plans.

One of the attendants at the hotel, Ema showed some interest when I was preparing my camera in the lobby and asked, are you hear for diving. I said that’s right. Then we started chatting about diving and etc. I was told she is an experienced dive master yet working in the hotel since she was advised to stay away from diving for a while after a surgery. It was good to have someone to talk about what you like most. She gave me some tips before heading for diving. When she got some free time, we played a game of pool. 

The day I left Exmouth she said, I wish you get a chance to fly back to Sri Lanka and see your family soon. I said, I wish you recover soon and start diving again. She also promised me to take diving in world famous Navy Pier, if I return.

I am sure; Ema should be diving within the cold waters of Ningaloo Reef by now. 

Whale calling at Ningaloo Reef

Well, I loved diving in the Ningaloo Reef. Actually, most of the diving crew were back packers who were learning to be dive masters and they were so friendly. One assignment given to me was to dive with a trainee and make her life hard by doing all the nonsense, to evaluate how she handle the situation. I was thinking, I am your client and now I am giving your crew a training! :-) Anyway, they were some of the generous and friendly crew I ever came across Australia. (Sorry, Sydney you are way behind!)

I was expecting a small version of Great Barrier Reef in the Nigaloo Reef, which proved to be wrong soon. Ningaloo Reef is not tropical as I expected, but sub-tropical with much colder waters. It got its own unique style. Anyway, I was having a love-hate relationship with cold waters. So I managed to dive after wearing an extra layer to cover my head and ears. I was wondering how Indian Ocean is taking different forms in different ends. It was like meeting a friend in faraway place, yet behaves strangely. 

I don’t say my photography in Ningaloo reef was great in quantity, yet I managed to shoot a couple of great photos admired by viewers, including Resting Turtle which is my favorite. Most interestingly, I heard whale calling during my dives and that was an outstanding experience. (I should be trying this in Mirissa one day).

Diving under the historic Busselton Jetty 

When 2020 December was around the corner, it was evident that I am not going back to Sri Lanka soon and going to be alone during Xmas shutdown. One day, I read about the Busselton jetty and its marine life, which sparked my photography gene. During the Xmas time, I rented a car and drew about 200km south to reach Busselton. It is a touristic place. 

The famous Jetty of Busselton was built in 1865 and it is still the longest timber jetty in southern hemisphere. It is 1,841m long.  In fact, it is being preserved and attracts many tourists.  One of the iconic things in the Jetty is submerged observatory where people can look at the marine life through the glasses of its chamber. 

Well, I don’t see marine life without getting wet, so I contacted nearest diving center and hired diving gear. Water was very cold and I actually wore three layers of wetsuits to keep me warm. Actually, it was one of the most different dives I have ever done. Since structure of jetty obstruct the sunlight, you feel like you are going through a tunnel. Good thing is, they got abundance of marine life. Especially, the pillars of the jetty were heavily populated with soft corals so they look like X’mas trees. 

Once we saw a Port Jackson shark resting on the seabed. Sadly, it had a fishing hook and a thread still attached to its mouth. We tried to remove it but it wasn’t easy with the available tools. My buddy, Jordan said he would return with needed tools. I know, a good hunter don’t leave injured animals. Not sure how that can be applied for fishing. 

I stayed two days in nearest coastal caravan park at Capel. While there were many campers, I stayed in a room made of converted container. There I enjoyed a wonderful sunset. Actually, I didn’t enjoy sunsets when I was young, but now Sunsets are healers. Sunsets makes me sad and emotional. Is it because Sunset remind us of our ending?

Eventually, some of my photos were used by Busselton dive center to promote themselves. 

What temperate waters offer

We always see great underwater photos with clear blue backgrounds and that’s like a dream for any diver or underwater enthusiast. Those are tropical waters. As Sri Lankans we are blessed with such beautiful warm waters around our island. Anyway, ocean gets different character in different regions. Once you pass the tropical belt, go further away from equator, you find temperate zone. Here I am documenting experience of my underwater excursions in temperate waters. It’s the journey of green waters than blue waters!

I dived in Great Barrier Reef for the first time in 2012 which was amazing. The experience itself was pretty much the same as diving in Sri Lanka since it offers tropical waters. Anyway, I was based in Sydney. So I thought of diving around the temperate waters around New South Whales because I cant afford to fly to Queensland frequently. This is where the real adventure started.

Once I learnt the conditions, I knew this is a different game. Need to wear thick wetsuit along with boots, hoodies and what not to stay warm in 19 – 22 degrees water. Water of Tasman sea is heavily influenced by sea currents of Antarctic ocean currents. In summer, land temperature may be reaching forties, yet sea water remains cold.

Plunging into cold water

My first dive was a disaster! I felt like I am diving in a green jelly: nor corals and much fishes. I thought, I would rather dive in Beira lake in central Colombo! One of the buddies I dived with was a tourist from Egypt called Ali. As soon as he surfaced, he asked Why the hell people dive here at all? I am not surprised since Red Sea, one of the most colorful seas, is in his doorstep. Anyway, my impression too wasn’t much different.

By the time goes, I read more, started to realize and appreciate the differences. When hiking, we never compare Singharaja Rain forest with Wilpattu. Though you don’t see tropical fish, you would find some other great fauna like Sharks, Seahorses, Rays, different kinds of fishes and slugs. Though you don’t see coral reefs, you find kelp forest which is another different experience. I started to like this underwater greenery.

Lack of fauna is not the biggest complain I had here, but the challenging conditions. Visibility was so poor and sea currents are a norm. When it comes together, each dive in temperate zone was throwing many more challenges at me. In fact, I felt great after each successful dive. I simply decided to obey the rules wisely. When Australians do two dives, I was satisfied with one because that seemed more than enough for me in terms of exhaustion. By the time goes by, Guys in Manly dive station knew me very well due to my significance; I was the only dark-skinned diver, I was skinny, and I was on my own. I had to catch the early morning ferry to get there. 

I can remember one experience explained by Tony Buxton, a pioneer diver lived in Sri Lanka, in his book Ecstasy of the Deep. Once he joined a team of adventurers in Sydney and started to sail around the world. As soon as they started sailing, they were hit by a gale that put Tony in to great panic. So, he was so concerned and started talking to others about the situation. Other Australian mates had told him that these are normal conditions, gales and hurricanes are yet to come. So this was the same experience I had in diving.

One of the favorite sites I dived was the Shelly beach (belongs to Cabbage tree bay aquatic reserve) in north of Sydney. It was close to famous Manly suburb. Usually, we walked to the shore and dived from there. One thing I enjoyed here was a friendly grouper named Harry. I always wanted to go and see it season by season. This fish usually preferred to swim along with me for a while.

I continued diving in summer and autumn though I was always adhering to my limitations as a skinny Sri Lankan boy, not as a giant AUSI bloke. 

Sharks at Nelsons Bay

One of the remarkable dives I did was in Nelsons Bay, which is more than 200 km drive from my home. I had to leave around 3 am to reach there and meet the buddies. Anyway, that’s where I saw many sharks in one place. I spotted around 10 Grey Nurse sharks in same dive.

I was watchfully resting in a small canal shaped naturally made set of boulders to photograph the passing sharks. Dive master was ahead of me. Dive master suddenly turned at me and started to stare at me seriously. I was puzzled and thinking what’s wrong with me. Then I realized he is not merely looking at me, but his eyes were focused on something behind. My instincts said not to turn around and Dive master signaled the same. In a fraction of second, about 2-meter-long shark quickly passed few inches away from my face. As I learned later, there had been a shark resting in the other end of the channel. One young diver had seen it there and started to swim away as fast as he could, disturbing the creature. Shark had no other way to escape but to come towards my end. On land or water, same theory applies; We should not make animals excited by our behavior. It’s their territory.

Once I came to the surface, dive master was laughing and told me..hey buddy you collected something to tell your grand kids.. didn’t you! Anyway, it was not that adventurous. I knew Grey Nurse sharks do not have a reputation of being aggressive. Still they are wild creatures; sharks. Mostly panicked ones.

Nelsons bay is a place where warm water meets cold water. Unfortunately, the water of Nelsons bay wasn’t good that day. Murky water doesn’t help photographers much. Though we saw many sharks, none of the images came out to be in the level of satisfactory.

As we were finishing the dive, I experienced the so-called Washing Machine effect of the currents for real for the first time. This is nothing but water was taking us in circles in a great force, just like you are in a washing machine. I was staying calm. My biggest worry was I could clash in to another diver resulting injury.

In search of Seahorses

In 2015 summer, I had a self-assignment to shoot a seahorse. In fact, I dived in few places, but my last dive planned to do in, more promising, Chowder bay. That day I was lucky to dive with a buddy who was very supportive and knew what my target was. This ended up being the pay off day! At last we found amazingly tiny seahorse. I was equipped with my macro lens and managed to click about 20 shots before I was forced to surface since air level had gone beyond 50 bars. One of these images are still one of my best photographs. I see this Seahorse everyday since this became my choice of wallpaper in my laptop.

In 2nd July 2019, a Shark attack was reported in Shelly beach, Manly where I was diving frequently. I read this while in in Sri Lanka. To my surprise, I learnt culprit was an "innocent” Gray Nurse Shark! This was an eye opener – any harmless looking creature can become aggressive in some point.

Other side of Indian Ocean

In late 2019, I arrived in Perth, WA. As usual, my hand luggage was nothing but underwater camera equipment. Once I got familiar with my official assignments, I started to learn more about diving.

Before I plunge into the WA dive sites, I had the opportunity of diving into the biggest man-made tank in AQWA aquarium in Perth. Though I had already dived in shark infested waters of NSW and QLD, this gave me the opportunity to have a decent closer look at few different shark species. Since I first went through basic diver training, long ago, in a swimming pool at Hikkaduwa, this is the first time I dived into a man-made tank. It was an interesting one.

One of the easily accessible dive sites I came across was Rottnest Island. Honestly speaking I expected much warmer and clam waters in this area, since photographs taken from surface showed amazingly great - peacock blue waters. Anyway, underwater currents were always a fact to consider. Not like in NSW, great thing in WA is it offers a subtropical fish. WA located in much warmer region of temperate zone resulting both corals as well as kelp forest, which is a rare combination. WA also offers you to see Indian Ocean in a different perspective.

Since all my dive gear was in Sri Lanka, this time I had to rent things from a diving company. Since I am a small-made guy (at least compared to Australians!), I always ended up wearing a loose wetsuit that exposed my body to cold waters. Once I had to postpone my second dive because I thought I would get hypothermia. By that time, I had a bitter experience with hypothermia, and I knew what it can do to an average human body. Overall, I wasn’t very happy with the poor equipment supplied by my diving operator. Anyway, I really liked the dive instructor, called Ian, who lead our team. He is friendly, talkative and knowledgeable person. He is a videographer and a photographer. He took photos of his team underwater and I also ended up being an “actor” in some of his underwater videos published in Aquatic Australia page.

 “Sharks” is a big subject in Western Australia. Threat was always there for spear-fishermen, surfers, ocean swimmers and for divers. I always believed, divers are the last in the list. Since divers stay underwater, sharks see the real size, much bigger thing once diving gear is attached, that makes divers not-an-easy prays. (Which proved to be wrong soon, when it comes to Great white sharks!) Ian had an electronic device to produce an electric field to distract the sharks if a life-threatening encounter occur. Anyway, we didn’t get a chance to check how effective that was. As an amateur photographer I was searching for sharks.

Rottnest island is a very beautiful island to explore on land as well. One of my colleagues, Neil once offered me to join their boat tour to the island and explore it on bicycles. It was a great experience. Neils’ family and his extended family members were planning their 2019 Xmas holiday in the island. Skipper of the boat was Neils brother-in-law, Dru, who was a very nice gentleman. Though I didn’t get to dive that day, managed to swim in many bays around the island. Anyway, Neil informed someone had seen two Bull sharks near Geordie bay, the same day.

Tragic death of a diver 

2020 started with a sad news. A diver was killed by a Great White Shark near Esperance, WA. Just like Nelsons bay in NSW, Esperance is also a place where warm water meets cold water resulting an abundance of sharks and different other fauna. While I am writing this, victims’ wife, who saw the horror of fatal shark attack is in hospital due to the shock and police is still unable to recover the body. This incident made me think, how badly I under estimated the threat of Sharks in WA. Biggest mistake I did was I measured it in terms of the threat level in NSW or QLD. I was disappointed about my maturity.

Temperate waters… mystery, beauty and a challenge

I don’t think, I could really understand the temperate waters within my limited dives but managed to grasp some decent experience in cold waters. To be honest, there were few dives I finished thinking I am not going to dive in this shit again! Yet, I plunged into the same water next summer. In a way, I am pretty proud of my grit. After all, I know water is not always blue, but can be green too!

Meeting a legend

A friend of mine, Kumudu, told me the whereabouts of Mr.Bandusena. When I dig more, I didn’t have any doubt, he can’t be anyone but one of the pioneering commercial divers in Sri Lanka. I had read about him. According to Kumudu he was living in Sydney. Then I was really interested in seeing this legendary diver who should be now in his old age. I told Kumudu could you please introduce me. Then Mr.Bandusena has asked why he wanted to see me? is he a journalist? Anyway, after convincing him that I am no one but a diving enthusiast who have read about him, he agreed.  Then it was hard to schedule a day since he had a strict time-table and I too was very busy since I was working as an IT Consultant in Sydney at that period. Once I asked him can I come this Friday? He said NO!, Fridays I cook for my children.

Anyway, at last I got the chance to see him in his residence at Frenches Forest, North of Sydney on March 2014. I visited him along with Kumudu. On our way we bought a bottle of Barossa Valley wine as a gift. We were greeted by his wife, who was a very charming English lady. It was a lovely warm home. In no time he was so thrilled and started to tell me his good old stories.

I was listening to those jaw-dropping stores while having a beer on that cold evening. As far as I knew, he has been the first Sri Lankan commercial diver commissioned in Colombo port development activities. He also showed me old diving equipments like Diving bells and classic diving manuals kept carefully. His wife assured he was happily talking about his legendary diving life in Sri Lanka to someone after a long time.

I kept on asking questions.

How did you ended up being a commercial diver?

It was a fateful thing. After finishing my school education, I applied for many jobs and I was selected by port authority to train as a diver. For some reason I picked it.

It was very hard in the beginning. All divers working there were Englishmen and they were the worst people I have ever come across. They humiliated me continuously.

"You may haven’t heard such filthy words they were using."
ඒ තරම් නරක වචන ඔයා අහල නැතුව අති!

They were tough and quite uncivilized.

Once I was so fed-up with this craziness and decided to leave. Then famous engineer Mr.Kulasinghe came to me and told;

Son, please don’t leave, if you leave today, we will not be able to get this technology to our hands. Please be patience.
පුතා යන්න එපා, ඔයා අද ගියොත් අපිට කවදාවත් මේ ශිල්පෙ මුන්ගෙන් ගන්න වෙන්නෙ නැ, තව පොඩ්ඩක් ඉවසන්න

By the time goes, one day those English rascals started arguing with each other and divided themselves into two groups. This situation was affecting the work as well. This made manager to assign me diving tasks. So that was the start of my journey.

Mr Bandusena in his heydays, while working (Images: taken from internet) 

He also explained me of his accident. Once he was working underwater, constructing a breakwater, huge concrete block collapsed towards him, trapping one of him palms in between two structures. His palm, almost chopped, had been just hanging by a strip of flesh after the terrific hit. Visibility had vanished with debris and particles around and blood was flowing heavily from his palm. While he was in life threatening situation, he realized the danger he was in. Mr.Bandusena pulled his had tearing remaining flesh, released himself from the clutches of the structure, ascend carefully. He had been in very bad shape. Someone had already sent a message to his family telling Mr. Bandusena died in an accident! Luckily enough, he was recovered. Mr.Bandusena didn’t forget to show me his plam without fingers, only remaining physical evidence of the accident.

After listening to such great history, we left Mr.Bandusena’s home on that cold autumn day promising to visit him again.

Myself and Mr Bandusena @ his residence in 2014

Same year, in winter, my second daughter, Vipuli, was born and I ended up being very busy. I couldn’t visit Mr.Bandusena again.

It was a coincident, on 31st December 2015, while everybody in Sydney was getting ready to see the fireworks, I decided to make a dive in Cabbage Tree Aquatic Reserve. After finishing the dive, I checked my mobile phone since I am texting my wife as a habit to ensure her that I have completed diving and  out of water. Then I saw a text message from Kumudu. “Hey Buddy, Bandusena Uncle passed away”

Diving in Bali – A lesson learnt

Though, I was so excited on diving in Bali, I didn’t believe it would be this eventful and memorable for the incident I narrowly escaped from. Anyway, I am safe, learnt the lessons and now able to document what happened that day.

I knew Bali offer both big fish as well as small macro subjects. I was particularly interested in macro subjects and got a new focus light ordered from USA, a new addition to my photography set-up, which arrived on time. Its June,2017 and all set for the next expedition.

My first diving was planned to do in Padang Bay area which got a big reputation on different macro subjects such as Sea Horses, rare Scorpion Fishes species and etc. Diving in murky waters in search of small subjects (Muck Diving) is not for everyone. So I had to charter a vehicle as well as a boat of traditional Balinese style for us to reach the dive sites. Padang Bay is a small fishing village in a Bay and not many divers seemed to have attracted to. Though day was rainy and gloomy, I managed to dive while taking photos of wonderful marine creatures I had never seen anywhere before. I managed to captured the photos of Sea Horses, Devil faced Scorpion fish, Leave fish, Frog Fish and many more.

One thing, I wanted to say about these dives are I used more Oxygen than usual percentage to increase the bottom time. This technique is called Nitrox diving. While this gives benefits to the diver, it comes with another trade-off which is the limitation of depth. Exceeding the depth limits could result Oxygen toxicity; a potential fatal consequence. In other terms, divers who use Nitrox should adhere to the recommended limitations.

Anyway, story was different in my next mission of photographing big fishes which was planned to do near the island called Nusa Penida. I was already advised by dive master Steve about heavy currents we could encounter and I got prepared myself. Anyway, I had a wired feeling when I saw the name of the diving boat, Halloween!

As a classical maritime expedition enthusiast, I knew one of the ships Sir John Franklin sailed and end up with great tragic was called HMS Terror. 

I got in to the diving boat Halloween and sailed with my dive master and another team of Dutch divers lead by a very experienced diving instructor. First we dived in a site full of boulders and strong current going through them making room for a cleaning station for Manta Rays. This place was called Manta Point. Visibility wasn’t great, but I managed to capture few descent pictures of Mantas.

Once I got into the boat for surface interval I felt it was pretty cold and wind was strong, but I hadn’t brought any jacket to warm myself. Mistake number one! Second dive was planned to do in a site called Crystal Bay.

During the dive in Crystal Bay, we had to sneak through a very cold current which made me feel really cold and chilly, but I made my mind thinking it will be fine soon. When we were about to end the dive, all in a sudden a Sun Fish (locals called Mola Mola) appeared from a depth and we all were astonished to see it. Then I thought I should try to take some photos.

What happened to me next was not something I can explain alone, but with Steve’s point of view. As we suspected later on, I may have developed Hypothermia by then, due to exposure to the too much coldness. Trying to take photos of the Sun Fish had brought me to a deep trench alone with the fish itself. I couldn’t observe anything since background of the fish was just blue and seascape was behind me, leaving no physical reference to feel I am moving deeper. My dive computer had beeped repetitively since its fed with information including my Oxygen percentage (33%), but I may have ignored it due to the confusion state resulted by Hypothermia. Even Steve had tried to stop me without any success.

Then all in a sudden some diver reached me and signaled to ascend. This was the fateful moment for me and, for some luck, or good karma, I started to realize everything happened to me including ignoring of dive computer alerts and etc. It was like my consciousness was re-established in 11th hour. I knew I was in danger and I managed to check my air levels and do the needful steps to safely ascend.

What really has happened was, I had ignored my buddy, Steve’s signals and gone down with the fish. Suddenly, Steve had realized he can’t follow me either, since his Oxygen percentage was higher than mine. He could reach the death zone of Oxygen toxicity sooner than me. Then he had searched for Dutch diving instructor who was diving with normal air (20% Oxygen, allow dive deeper, but for a short period of time) and asked him to go and get me. For my great luck, his signal became an eye opener for me.

After all, we three had a lengthy discussion based on each other’s observation and circumstance and tried to understand what may have happened. From my side, I had to assure, I had never been an irresponsible diver; no such history of mine. We had to believe Hypothermia may have affected my consciousness. One lady diver from Dutch team also had witnessed me almost shivering during the surface interval.

When I went back to my family... My elder daughter came to me and ask how was the diving..as usual..

“It was fun!” I said.

That evening, I had a Balinese Beer in the beach looking at the fading sun in horizon…my family was sitting around me. I felt the preciousness of life. It was a kind of universal feeling that was floating above the day-to-day life and entities. I still try to contemplate that unfamiliar feeling.

When I was reading about that area very later on, it came to my notice that worst diving disaster of Bali had occurred in same area. That fateful day of 14th February 2014 the group of 7 Japanese divers had dived exactly the same dive sites I did! Two unfortunate divers lost their lives and others just survived after stranded on the sea for days. Analysis of the incident clearly mention about down currents and thermocline in that area. This account further explains my dark experience too. Did down current played any role to push me deeper than I should have? I don't know. Anyway, I am pretty sure that thermocline played a significant role that made me Hypothermia.