An early morning on Mirissa beach

From my bed at the guest house I could just hear the waves breaking on the beach, about hundred yards away down the track. As soon as it was light I would get up to explore, as only then was it relatively cool enough for walking and exploring.

The track lead past the dried up river bed to the bridge over the southern coast road from Galle to Matara. As it wasn’t a rainy season the river was blocked by the sand pushed up the beach by the waves. The first big rains would force the water to break through the mini dune under the bridge and the river would flow out to sea again.

Here I’m standing about thirty yards from the little bridge where the palm trees fringe the beach. The waves today were quite small although surfers were already riding other waves a few hundred yards away behind me, where the small reef is exposed.

In a few hours the beach would fill up, but in the meantime the yoga practitioners would enjoy peace and space, though a few joggers, runners, walkers and swimmers would find their own spots.

I’ve always loved beaches ever since I was born and grew up by the Thames estuary. Whenever I travel around the world I like to spend the first few weeks of my trips acclimatising and living as quietly as possible very close to the beach. My first impressions of Mirissa were that it would be a good place to make the transition and get my body ready for longer journeys in this wonderful place and its hot climate. Enough people to have some company but not too developed. We shall see. I’m going to spend over a week in this area.