Sri Lanka’s Got Galle

Galle is a major city in the southern province of Sri Lanka. It takes roughly two and half hours to drive there from Colombo, and most consider Galle a must-see while in Sri Lanka. Kunal, Meadows and I made the trip on Friday evening to our resort in Unawatuna, a beach town neighboring Galle.

We ate dinner at the resort when we got in. We dined next to these giant rocks, which were the only things separating us from the crashing waves of the Indian Ocean.

Galle’s main attraction is its fortification structures. The Portuguese settled in Galle in the 16^th century, but the Dutch fortified the area when they arrived in the 18^th century. The entire town is surrounded by fort walls!

We explored the fort on Saturday morning. It’s quite a lot of walking, so I was too busy melting to get any decent photos. Thanks to my Internet friends for these awesome photos of what we saw!

First off, the gates are incredible. This particular entryway is now beautifully overgrown and overlooks the nearby port. Photo credit: Audley Travel

We also visited a Dutch church that was built in 1755. We accidentally arrived during a worship service, so we walked the grounds. The cemetery area contains some original and some relocated headstones dating back to 1700! Photo credit: Moore Travel Tips

We walked through the local spice and tea markets – Galle is such a cute town! The streets are very small, but they are lined with adorable restaurants and shops. We finished our walk around Galle at the lighthouse. The breeze and the view gave new life to three very hot tourists!

We left Galle and headed for the Sea Turtle Hatchery! Here, we saw where turtle eggs had been saved from the beach and moved to a safe area. Sea turtles are so fascinating – mother sea turtles return to the exact beach where they were born to lay their eggs. And they all do it at the same time! It’s a defense mechanism; like any numbers game, the likelihood of turtle survival increases as the number of turtles hatching increases. Predators get their fill on turtle eggs, and the others have a chance to make it to the water!

The hatchery monitors the eggs and keeps the turtles for two days after hatching. Then, they release the turtles on the beach in the night. While we were there, one latecomer egg hatched (the rest of his friends hatched the previous day)! This is what <2 day old sea turtles look like – so cute!

Of the seven species of sea turtles, five of them can be found in Sri Lanka. And all five of these species are endangered: hawksbill, leatherback, loggerhead, olive ridley and green turtles. The endangered status of these species proves the necessity for facilities like this hatchery! They also had some adult turtles they were caring for, so I obviously documented them as well 🙂

When we left the turtle hatchery, we lounged at our resort’s private beach. The beach is a manufactured area with an awesome tide pool. There is nothing more relaxing than an empty beach with the sound of waves crashing. It’s difficult to explain the setup, so I’ll let the photos do the talking!

We freshened up in the evening and headed out for the sunset. Kunal, Meadows and I witnessed one of the most awe-inspiring sunsets ever! We climbed the giant rocks (remember the ones from dinner Friday night?) and took it all in. It was simply magical.

In the evening, we walked to a different resort for a true beachfront dinner. Everything about dinner was fabulous: great food, great wine, great company. The three of us deemed ourselves the rickshaw gang!

We took advantage of the private beach one more time on Sunday before leaving. Meadows displayed his typical water-loving behavior, which I have coined as “MedManning.” So world, this is the definition of MedManning:

Some really awesome sea turtle facts:

• No one knows how sea turtles are able to return to the same breeding site to lay eggs.
• Turtle eggs look JUST like ping pong balls!
• The temperature of the nest determines the gender of an egg. Warmer nests produce females, and cooler nests produce males.