Mirissa, Midigama & Ahangama

Mirissa

We stayed in Mirissa for 4 nights, thinking that after over a week of meeting pretty much no other travellers, it would be fun to socialise and have more of a party vibe. The surf wasn’t working at Mirissa Point, so we took the opportunity to relax a little and explore the area. We stayed here, where we got an amazing free breakfast including elusive and delicious coconut pancakes, and happened to be just minutes from the beach. We went to the Doctors House Saturday market (bi-weekly, check their Instagram for upcoming events) where we bumped into some friends from Jersey, drank, chatted, danced then headed back to an afterparty on Mirissa beach.

We woke up feeling hungover, with only one mission of the day: to go to Coconut Tree Hill and see the sunset. I was pretty convinced that this hill wouldn’t be anything special, and that it would be full of tourists… I actually turned out to be wrong, with only a handful of people and a beautiful sunset amongst the tall, skinny, well-spaced palms.

After Mirissa, we moved to Midigama where we thought we’d strike lucky with a choice of breaks, endless surf and good food. We were partially correct, although the weather system that was moving through SL was more akin to the ‘off’ season: so much wind, resulting in a lumpy sea and messy waves.

It was fun to explore the area, though, after hectic Mirissa, and find some great buffets to eat all the curry. Coconut beach is dreamy, plus our accommodation was an amazing space, hosted by a Sri Lankan family who couldn’t speak much English but were so happy to help however they could.

After a couple of nights in Midigama, we headed to Ahangama where once more, we were met by blown-out waves and messy horizons. We ended up surfing back at Weligama most days, where even if the surf is busy and uneven, there is a good atmosphere and it’s fun to practice turning. We stayed in this beautiful Airbnb, where we had one of the best free breakfasts of our whole time in Sri Lanka.

We took the bus to Galle for the afternoon, where we drank delicious coconut & treacle coffees at Poonie’s Kitchen, licked up ice cream at Isle of Gelato and got our first hot, spicy fresh veggie roti. It’s a super fun town to explore for an afternoon, and especially because it happened to be a little overcast, wasn’t too hot to walk around the quaint little streets.

Back in Ahangama, we hung out drinking smoothies and bathing in the pool at Dreamsea, ate local rice and curry, and ended on a high with a practically private surf at Fishermans, where our friend Sam happened to be taking photos. Side note: this surf actually wasn’t chill for me. I dropped in on a girl by mistake (totally my fault, I didn’t even think about looking since there were so few of us in the water) and one of her fins got stuck in my board.

She, rightfully so, got pissy with me, and all of a sudden I found myself back in the deep hole of self-doubt and fear. I couldn’t catch a party wave with Fab, I felt self-conscious about Sam seeing and photographing my mistake, and didn’t want to be out in the water anymore. I recently read someone’s Instagram post, saying that although the ocean can be the happiest place to spend time, it can also feel like the worst and make them cry. Same here! However, after a long chat with the best surfing buddy, I caught a few fun waves and ended the evening with a smile on my face. Just a little reminder that no matter how dreamy things seem in a photo, there’s always an underlying story - happy or sad!

We enjoyed an incredible dinner at Ceylon Sliders; I ate here last year when I stayed at Camp Poe, but Fab has been a long-time follower of CS too, so wanted to see if the hype was as good as their Instagram promised. We messaged and found out that their happy hour was 4-6pm, which fitted into our sunset surf perfectly! We ordered 2-4-1 cocktails which were amazing, then followed up with their veggie burger which, again, exceeded expectation by 1000%.

The atmosphere was warm, welcoming and their service was on point. 10/10! Our last few days in Sri Lanka were such a dream, and we were feeling super sad to leave. After many a conversation, planning and making waves for our future, Fab and I are pretty sure we’ll end up back here next winter at some point - fingers crossed!