Last two diving seasons in Trincomalee were manageable but coditions were not great. Rough seas limited the opportunities of shooting and overall enjoyment of diving. Ocean conditions in Trinco, even during the season, can vary without notice. This time I tried something simple: scheduled our diving away from Full moon Poya day. Whatever the real reason might be, it worked like a charm this time. We got the perfect conditions at last!
This is contrasting to my usual unluck with ocean conditions. As Shanaka of Kaplitipya says if sumedha comes ocean gets rough! (සුමේධ ආවා කියන්නෙ මුහුද රෆ් තමයි ඉතිං!)
Though we were advised to catch a luxury bus, we jumped into the train from Colombo on our way. Soon we realised why no one advised us catching the train. It was going forever. It stops so many undesignated places to unload meterials and dispatch labourers for railway maintenance. There were so many foreginers who were enjoying this leangthy and odd train journey. It was fine with us, as our plan from the very beginning was simply to reach Trinco and settle in.
Trincomalee Rest house - a place with a long history
This time I booked Trincomalee Rest House for accommodation since it was close to Taprobane Divers station. More than anything I liked staying in old Rest houses with plety of history, some goes back to colonial times. Rest houses in Sri Lanka are old, not so fancy but usually spacious and in great locations. Their colonial architecture got some unexplained character. Trino Rest house is nor difference, we loved the atmosphere though it just got basic facilities.
So many remarkable people, both locals and foregers, had visited this place and this has an amazing history. Among many historical evets, what came to my mind was the most humerous event of Tony Buxton as explained in his book A Charmed life in Ceylon.
Read it from Tonys' words;
"We stayed at the government rest house in the centre of town. It was a simple, rundown place, stifling hot by day and not much cooler at night. It had about twenty rooms; each had a cold shower and toilet, but no fans or hot water. Mangy dogs lay about the covered concrete walkaway, seeking a fresh spot. The odd cow munched the unkempt grass. The generator shut down at 10.00 PM, so there were no lights at this time. The place catered to government employees on business, travelling salespeople and visiting family members.
After a couple of days spearfishing, I went out with Joseph at twilight in the nearby lagoon. We peered about with underwater flashlights. There were giant crabs under the rocks, which we poked with a stick. When they came out, we cought them in a hand net, and I put them in a large sack that Joseph carried, The water was only a few feet deep so we could stand. We had to be very careful of the massiveclaws on the crabs, which were so powerful that they could break the bones in your finger. The crabs were around 12 inches wide. After about two hours, the sack was full, and we had about seventy crabs. I intended to take them back to Colombo and put them in one of my large ponds so I could have fresh seafood to eat anytime. There was nothing I liked more, so I was very pleased with my large catch.
We returned about midnight to the rest house, which was in complete darkness, and everyone was sound asleep. It was incredibly hot night, so most of guests had left their doors open to let the air circulate. There was no worry about theft as the guests were mostly poor and possessed little of value. There were dogs stretched out everywhere, and even a cow was asleep on the porch. I made my way to my room with the aid of my torch and put the crabs in the sack under my bed. I too left my door open, hoping to catch a bit of breeze. I then fell sound asleep.
I suddenly woke up to a tremendous commotion. People were screeming and running everywhere. and dogs were yelping in pain. There were no lights, and I could not for the life of me understand what was going on. I shone my troch, and to my horror, I saw the reason for all the confusion. My crabs had escaped from the sack beneth my bed and had crawled into the guests' rooms and well as the servants' quarters. They had attacked the many sleeping dogs, which were running around yelping in pain with huge crabs attached to their legs and tails. The guests were terrified. Some had been bitten by the crabs. Women were screeming while they tried to hold up their sarongs secured across their bosoms.
I was at a loss what to do. There was complete panic. The resthouse keeper appeared, a stalwart old Ceylonese, and managed to get the generator started and suddenly all the lights came on. This made matters worse. Now all the crabs with their huge menacing claws confronted the guests, and they became even more terrified. I saw one Tamil lady cowering on her bed menaced by a foot long crab. Finally, the police came to investigate all the commotion. The policemen in Ceylon typically wore oversized khaki shorts and no shoes, so they had to hop to it. With the help of the staff, they went around clubbing the crabs to deaths with their batons. One policeman, sergeant in charge who wore long trousers and carried a revolver, shot a few crabs, adding greater panic. The first rays of light were just emerging over the Bay of Bengal when the last crab was accounted for."
Mission: Frog fish
Our diving station this time was Taprobane Divers run by a good friend of mine Supun, but he was away since his little son had been sick. So all the diving was to be conducted by a young diver called Rajeenthan who I have dived with at Marawila long ago. What made me amazed was recent sighting of a Frog fish. Immediately, I made our mission to chase for the Frog fish. Frogfish is a rare and well camerfaldged fish that doest move, but walk using pectoral fins. Last known sighting or photographing of this fish in Sri Lanka was records atleast decade ago in Colombo, within a shipwreck, by Dr. Nishan Perera.
Witness Million doller phenomena
Conditions seemed great on the very frist day of diving. Devana wasn't very enthusiastic about diving, but I somehow managed to convince him to come with me. My prediction was spot on. The ocean conditions were outstanding, and the visibility was unbelievable. It was like a dream condition, the kind I hadn't encountered in many years.
All in a sudden a Hawksbill turtle appeared in front of us and didn't show any shyness. Then a second one joined and they started going in circles around each other, in a rthemic pattern. This was a rare courtship behaviour. We just reached sandy botton and wintnessed a phenomena usually only seen in BBC documentries with David Attenboroughs' unique commentry. I knew this is a seen I would rather watch and have the experiance than shooting. Top on that my camera was all set for macro shooting. Two trutles were not worried about our presence but carrying on with their ritual for few minutes before wanishing to deep blue water. Anyway, I took few shots when they came so close to me.
After this great start we dived a couple of days with such an enthsiasm. Ocean was full of life and I enjoyed all the dives. I had never seen such a great collection of colourful nudibranches.
Rajeenthan and the rest of the crew were super helpful and organised everything according to our expectations. It felt like we had chartered our own boat with a dedicated team. They were that flexible and attentive.
There was one dive site that they keep as a well-guarded secret, and it was full of macro subjects. Since they didn't want other diving operators or ornamental fish collectors to discover this spot, they would drop the divers at the location and move the boat away. The divers were then expected to release a buoy once they had completed their dive.
Like the cherry on top of the cake, I finally achieved our prized goal of seeing a frogfish. I had seen one before in Bali Islands, but this was my first time spotting one in Sri Lanka. It was yellow and well hidden among the sun corals. My poor eyesight couldn't spot it at first. I even took photos of the sun corals and moved on, until Rajeenthan pointed it out to me. Luckily, it wasn't tucked away inside a difficult crevice, so getting some shots was possible. I managed to take a couple of good photos, and I genuinely felt a great sense of achievement.
Well spent few days in Trincomalee
One of the great things about Rest house is that they are happy to prepare meals according to our requests at very reasonable prices, which was amazing. After a day of diving, I could eat an elephant! They always prepared a lovely lunch with plenty of vegetables, fish or dried fish, which is a real delicacy.
On most evenings, we walked to town and ended up having dinner at the famous Arafa Muslim Hotel. They always welcomed us so warmly. Most memorable of all was a waiter who remembered us from our previous visits and was incredibly friendly and helpful. He was quite remarkable to us for another reason too: his brown-coloured hair made him stand out, which was rather unique! We also loved having their milk made with condensed milk (ටින්කිරි තේ). It was one of those little things that made our stay even more enjoyable.
Given Supun wasn't available we couldnt do usual after party with some drinks etc. Last evening we just had a beer at Rest house.
We didnt want to spend all the time in the world on our return journey. Henced we jumped into an Air conditioned Luxary bus which took off from Trincomalee and landed in Colombo like an aeroplane.
This is called happy ending!
