Talalla

Sunrise saw me at the beach watching the fishermen de-netting their catch. No one else in the family gets up at this time, so just see what they missed.

The beach here is beautiful and surprisingly clean sand with coconut palms and a hill on the western side providing shade during the day. The water is aqua green, calm and warm enough for me to enjoy a swim. After a 30 minute walk to the rocks at the other end of the beach I saw hundreds of sea urchins, something I hadn't seen since I was very young and holidayed at Shelley Beach near Gosford.

We had booked for two days but stayed for four. The Talalla Retreat is new and the accommodation is different, my room was open with bamboo blinds for half wall. the bottom half was concrete which allowed for modesty. The shower was open to the sky and stars. The restaurant was traditional Sri Lankan style building with no walls. The food wasn't anything to rave about but did improve with coaching from Christine. The pineapple and red papaya was too die for and the Sri Lankan curry was top class.