Surf and Safari at Arugam Bay

Intro

Sydney Nimble Tours encourages employees to travel overseas as it helps improve our perspective of traveling and touring generally. It is interesting being taken on a tour as opposed to providing one!

This year’s annual trip was to Arugam Bay and surrounds, located on the South East Coast of Sri Lanka.

It takes between six to seven hours to drive to Arugam Bay from the main entry point to Sri Lanka, Colombo.

Surfing

Arugam Bay becomes a surfing mecca when the swells arrive from May to September.

We stayed in this area for 12 days in early June and found the main break lived up to all the hype being a classic fast peeling right with several sections. The downside is that everyone else knows this and it is an intensively competitive environment for catching a wave.

There are plenty of other breaks in the area including Lighthouse Beach, Peanuts, Elephant Rock, Pottuvil and Panama Beach.

The two breaks we liked the most were Elephant rock (on a large swell day) and Peanuts outer break as opposed to the break near the beach. Bare in mind Peanuts is exposed to the wind and best ridden when the swell is a reasonable size.

Panama Street

Panama Street is the main road into and out of Arugam Bay. The shopping strip located on this road, just behind the beach, is a concoction of restaurants, bars, clothes shops, board shops, ice cream outlets, small general stores and coffee shops.

It is a vibrant strip with varied food offerings and travelers from all over the world can be seen enjoying them.

The road itself has plenty of activity with tuk tuks, push bikes, motor bikes, cars and even the odd cow making their way along it.

For non-surfers a few days at Arugam Bay is probably sufficient, whilst surfers can easily spend a week or two weeks in this area.

Kumana National Park

The other activity we enjoyed was driving in a jeep around the Kumana National Park which is an hours drive from Arugan Bay.

Kumana is easily booked with a number of shops offering tours. It is described as an eco tourism attraction and bird sanctuary.

The park has a broad range of animals and we had the good luck of coming across a leopard only a handful of metres from our vehicle.

The leopard didn’t stay long but it was still a thrill to encounter a large cat!

The bird life in Kumana which includes wetlands areas was plentiful and highly interesting.

Some of the more outstanding feathered friends that we encountered included: Malabar Pied Hornbill, Crested Serpent Eagle, Painted Stork, Little Green Bee Eater and the Red Wattled Lapwing.

The Malabar Pied Hornbill is an exotic bird with a most unusual beak, whilst the Crested Serpent Eagle was spotted low on the trunk of a tree waiting for a chance to greet and eat new and interesting local snakes.

Crocodiles, elephants, lace monitors, mongoose, water buffalo, were all spotted throughout the day although the sloth bear did not appear. We were advised that the bear is more likely to be seen in the morning.

Environment

The weather we experienced whilst in Arugam Bay in June can only be described as intensely hot from mid morning to late afternoon. June is one of the hottest driest months whilst the area gets most of its rain from October to February.

Arugam Bay along with the areas further south have a desert feel and heat to match with a lot of sand dunes and sandy soil.

The ocean water is amazingly warm (late 20’s celcius) and after surfing in the morning you come out of the water with a solid thirst.

We had a refreshing and fun stay in Arugam Bay and recommend it be included as part of any trip to Sri Lanka in the dry season.

Favourite restaurants: Dosa Station, Gecko, Hopper Man, Bambini’s Café, Wayside Thai and the Bay Vista Hotel restaurant for tasty pasta and a delicious ginger lime cheesecake.

Favourite coffee shop: Kaffi

Best decision: using Deyo Tours to get around; we spent 16 days with Chaminda whose service and commitment exceeded all expectations

Best clothing: Slow days shop and the caravan T shirt at the Squeeze Me cafe

Let downs: Sri Lanka needs a wider range of beers!