In a previous post I mentioned how I was stranded in Australia since federal government imposed a law stopping Australians from going out of the country during the Covid-19 pandemic. At last I was able to get a special permission to leave the country mainly through a letter provided by the management of the project I was working. It was a happy moment and my team mates were equally excited. So I had quite a number of farewells.
Western Australia was managing pandemic comparatively well at that time. Travel to Sri Lanka required a number of documents such as Negative Covid test, permission letter from Australia, landing approval from Civil Aviation Authority of Sri Lanka etc. When I prepare the documents, it reminded me of my first job interview which I carried all I could, starting from birth certificate.
Murali and Karen drew me to the Air port and we had coffee on the way. There were only few international flights out of the country and I had to first go to Sydney to board into international flight. It was quite surreal to see deserted Sydney airport. There wasn't any shop or restaurant open. I had to fetch a water bottle and a chocolate bar from a vending machine as my lunch.
Back in Sri Lanka
I landed in Sri Lanka in March 2021 in the midst of pandemic. From the airport I was taken to a hotel located at Anuradhapura for ten days of quarantine. I had the most extra ordinary birthday encapsulated within a hotel room.
I started working remotely to my client in WA and had all the flexibility of the world for my disposal. While staying with the warmth of the family, I had the chance to enjoying all I wanted: hiking, diving and of course partying!
Like cherry on the cake, one of my photos taken in Busselton, won a merit award in State festival of photography held in BMICH. That was the first time underwater photography was considered as a separate genre in a competition in Sri Lanka.
When talking of partying, one party ended up unforgettable for a wrong reason. It was held in a nice beach villa called Villa 69 at Ahungalla, owned by one of my friends. Party was on and everything went well. ..until alcohol influenced me jumping into the pool but to the shallow end! If you see my face carefully, you can see the scar even today in upper nose, just below the forehead.
My last dive in Australia was eventful. That day I was in my usual diving boat, called Blue Destiny, planned to explore a site called Opera House close to Rottnest Island. Highlight of the dive was cave of sharks. Ocean currents was extreme at that day. I was so eager to photograph Sharks so I was determined to dive any way. Once I enter the water, I simply felt like I am drowning. I quickly inflated the jacket which was the obvious thing to do, still I am being dragged towards the bottom. It was scary! While ocean currents were so strong, I couldn't reach the boat either. Others couldn't realize what's going on. Somehow I got into the boat. Though I was in panic state, I tried to contemplate what's going on. I wanted to try again. I left my camera gear, plunged again and same thing happened. I scrolled up onboard again. Boat captain noticed my puzzled situation, inspected my gear and found hose used to inflate air to the BCD jacket is not sealed. I was terrified.
Can someone be that irresponsible? Ian was the Dive Master sent by dive operator I hired the gear. He was just taking it very lightly.. honestly, this kind of equipment failures are unheard of these modern days. I still cant understand, how I controlled myself without giving him a punch! Diving was not for me that day. In addition, it gave me sort of PTSD (Post-traumatic stress disorder) which I had to do many shallow dives back in Sri Lanka to get over. Anyway, that day was eventful for others too. Most of the divers were drifted away by the current. Tender (small powered boat usually attached the main boat as a backup) had to be dispatched to recover them. Anyway, it was a day I will not forget.
WOMBAT shipwreck
Back in Sri Lanka I had a great diving season. Apart from usual south western destinations, I dived in Tangalle and Kalpitiya for the first time and both offered some outstanding experiences. Most importantly, I started liking everything about Kalpitiya. It is no-rush place. More than anything, people of Kalpitiya were so friendly and helpful. This is a far cry from South where money is everything. I had a quick mental note this is going to be a place I am coming again and again.
Tangalle too offered great diving. I managed to shoot few good images of a nice shipwreck. Later on I posted one of those images in social media which attracted quite an audience. Interestingly, within the audience was the first person to dive the wreck, none other than Rex I de Silva. I knew Rex for a while and he is like an living encyclopedia on history of diving and wildlife. Actually, I wasn't able to answer some of the questions asked by Rex. Anyway, Dharshana Jayawardena (Shipwreck Explorer) who joined the conversation helped positively identify the wreck as WOMBAT ship wreck.
Here is the story as said by Rex I de Silva;
"This is the story of the WOMBAT. The “Wombat was under tow from Singapore with a load of mining equipment. In early 1975 it was off the south coast of Sri Lanka when, at night in heavy rain and rough weather, it was boarded by local fishermen who stole the waterproof canvas hatch covers. The barge slowly took on water and sank off Nilwella. The captain of the towing tug, a Korean, was armed and fired a few shots in the air, but the thieves got away. In early 1975 diver Maxwell Parsons and I were hired by the insurers to locate the wreck, which we did in a couple of days. In late March 1975 a Singapore salvage company arrived in their salvage tug to recover the cargo. Diver Howard Dias and I were hired to assist in the diving operations. However, salvage operations were abandoned in early April with the onset of bad weather. Only a part of the cargo was recovered. It was on the WOMBAT that I honed my skills in the use of an oxy-arc cutting torch. It is indeed thrilling to see the old “Wombat” after the lapse of almost a half-century."
After a couple of months, I met Rex at Sub Aqua Club talk. Actually, we had communicated with each other for many years yet hadn't met. I could also remember I contacted him from Sydney long ago just to identify a shark which I photographed in north of Great Barrier Reef. Later on I managed to secure a signed copy of Sharks of Sri Lanka book authored by Rex without meeting him in person.
Economic crisis and fuel shortage
By early 2022 Sri Lanka was badly hit by an Economic crisis lead by lack of foreign exchange and a set of usual stupid decisions by government. This pushed ordinary life to an edge. Twin brother of this crisis is energy crisis: A lengthy power cuts and shortage of fuel. This changed my life a lot. I had to go to different places searching for uninterrupted power supply, to complete my official assignments. Once I was supposed to support an important system deployment during a power cut which forced me to complete at a medical center as only place with generated power at the time! I started leaving home early to the co-worker space at Shangri-la hotel to perform my office duties which was a hectic travel. My comfortable life in Sri Lanka was derailing.
Fuel shortage was one of the biggest headaches. This forced an average person to stay up to 24 hours in a queue to get fuel for the car. Fun part is you may also come empty handed after staying 10 - 20 hours! These queues started to have its own character to sustain the lives of people who stay in the queue. People started to share a tea. One will have to trust the "Stranger" next to you and keep your valuable vehicle with him if need a break.
Most interestingly, people get to gather and started talking in groups. Main subjects are essentially, "What happened to Sri Lanka..", "Will IMF help.." and "How to migrate to a developed country to secure the future". Last topic was paramount. It was a time irrespective of young or old, men or women, everybody tried their best to leave the country. Once in a while, during those lengthy conversations in fuel queues, I mentioned that I do have the citizenship of Australia in a very casual manner. Then people were staring at me like they saw a crazy beast. Not to say what kind of comments were thrown at me.. :-)
Such a fool.. we are stuck here without a way to jump out of this country
තෝ වගේ පිස්සෙක්..අපි මේ රටින් පැනගන්න බැරුව ඉන්නවා..
So I just laughed saying some people are different and I am that some people!
My gypsy life continued!
My job was shaken when the semi-government agency of Western Australia, where I worked, sold its IP of the project to a big auditing firm. Auditing firms are full of shit, so called Processes. They reached out to me and sent an offer letter to continue the job, but didn't allow me working from Sri Lanka. Hence, I had to leave that engagement. Then I joined another consultancy firm who provide technical consultancy to WA government, who agreed to give me some flexibility, yet travel was inevitable. Given the situation in Sri Lanka, giving up a chance of earning $$ was not I would give-up. so I ended up in Perth again by August 2022! Anyway, landing into winter after spending great sunny time under the equatorial sun was a nightmare.
Now I am in Australia and its winter! When I left last time, WA was keeping its community safe from COVID, yet story was far different this time. Covid was spreading everywhere and my office was no difference. So I knew its matter of time. On 16th July I found my RAT test positive for Covid-19! I was living in a place belong a young Australian musician called Nethan. He was helpful and provided me a self-contained section of a house with my own attached bathroom and a kitchen. Thankfully, I recovered pretty fast and in two weeks time I was back with my routine jogging as well. I didn't forget to complement Nethan's help by sending a hamper of beer in my next pay day.
While I didn't plan any adventures or diving this time, decided to spend more time reading. I ended up spending most weekends in Perth City library and its coffee shop. I was bit worried thinking, perhaps, my adventure gene is dying since its not my character to spend time this lazy. I realized that I had two pains that distracted me from the peace of mind which is essential to capitalize ones ideas. One is, I knew most of my friends and collogues living in Sri Lanka are going through a tough life. Secondly, my job demanded a lot of new learning.
I visited my beloved places like Rottnest Island, Fremantle and Hillarys boat harbor once weather improved. Whenever I go to Perth I usually visit Shipwreck Museum and contemplate the tragic of Batavia wreck where replica is made of real remnants.
Other usual place I visit without fail is Prasanna's (i.e. Gonsa) home. Prasanna is my university batch mate and to be honest, we were not close as friends at that time because he got a bad mouth which I wasn't that pleased with. Anyway, Prasanna's home became one of the few places I visit since started to come to Perth. His wife Anoma and kids too always warmly welcomed me. We usually spent time in patio, drinking and talking about good old days.
As I write this, I am looking forward to go back to Sri Lanka.. by now, more changes may have taken place due to difficult economic situation.. Whatever said and done I am pretty sure, Sri Lankans are capable of making a joke out of any damn life or death situation!
