On the southern coastal town of Mirissa we had a few ocean related adventures, including snorkeling with turtles. Who would have thought that just under those waves would be turtles?

Turtles nest along the southern coast of Sri Lanka and there are some protections in place, but there’s also a lot of not-so-great stuff. There’s feeding of these turtles, which we opted out of, but that is a big part of the reason why you can see turtles hanging about. Hopefully, over time, things will improve – there is starting to be more awareness of things like asking people not to touch the turtles for example.

Once in the water, it didn’t take long to spot our first turtle!

We had not snorkeled in a while, and the kids had probably only been once or twice before a few years ago, so we were a bit clueless – things like completely forgetting that you have zero peripheral vision with a mask on. Quite important with people (& turtles) close by. Most of us accidentally touched a turtle due to this – eek! Not to worry though – one turtle did get us back 😜

*A quote from Crush the turtle in Finding Nemo