Day 12 Mirissa snorkeling and Sri Lankan cooking

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Our last full day. We'd arranged to do the cooking class in the hotel with the chef and then have the dinner ( which we'd watched / "helped" him cook) - that started at 4 so in the morning we went to a beach where you could rent snorkels so we could have a swim in the Indian Ocean. The undercurrent and waves are strong along the coast so there are only a few sheltered bays where it is safe to swim. I really didn't fancy a boat trip in the very choppy conditions so we opted for an hour swimming in Paradise Beach. Even being in a calm area, I still found the currents strong. So with me clinging onto Pete, we did see quite a few colourful fish and a shoal or two of long thin fish in amongst the coral and rocks.

Later, we had a couple of hours doing our cooking class - it was so interesting to see the different way he used the spices - most of which are in my cupboard at home - but probably well out of date! The chef was lovely and they have built him a great cooking display area in the kitchen. He did a fab dahl curry, aubergine pickle, okra, cocnut samba, butterfish curry - which he then turned into black fish curry by adding spices that he dried fried - the smell was intense. Lastly he did a deep fried stuffed pepper - the stuffing of potato with a wide range of spices, onion and garlic was super yummy. He gave us small tastings along the way.

We had been told there was a very local headland where we could watch the sun go down, so after the class we wondered over the road and along a track to find a beautiful view along the coast - sun setting but again high cloud - some pics below.

We got back to settle down to our lovely meal - he'd added some extra rice with crispy garlic and onions and a rather scrummy panne Cora with passion fruit for pud - it was all rather delicious.

Long journey home tomorrow - taxi picking us up at 4.

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