Fishermen lift their catch on Unawatuna beach

As I’m going to move further along the coast tomorrow, I took another early morning walk as far as the big Buddha statue at the western end of the bay of Unawatuna. I’ve enjoyed being at the beach again, and as a first staging post this place has been fine. But I’ve found the general ambience too touristy for me. I’ve booked a cheap room at a guest house some miles further east, sight unseen, but not without some online recommendations.

The beach at Unawatuna has quite a shifting nature with sand being washed up and accumulated into quite high banks between storms, which are eventually washed back down to form a normal beach. The waves are strong at times, much to the delight of surfers, but at the western end the beach remains much more protected and swimming is easier and safer..

Fishermen vie for positions on the sandy beach where they can take their boats out of the water when not in use. They compete for space with owners of boats for tourists to use either for trips along the coast or even some fishing. It seems the fishermen are all relatively old, or at least my age! Like most places now where tourism is accelerating, young men want to be involved with the easier tourism related jobs, either on boats or else in the beach bars and restaurants that are taking over behind the sand.

I’ve watched these fishermen on other days as they bring in their boats early in the morning, and other fishermen gather together to help manhandle them up the beach. Today I took a look into the boat. I expect these fish will be on the menus of the beach restaurants this evening, or maybe they will be sold to local people.