Unawatuna to Tangalle

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So after another taxi ride, surprise surprise, we arrive in Tangalle and we immediately see more effects of the tsunami, as well as the continuous temporary shelters by the coast and the Red Cross aid centers, it's quite easy to see boats simply where they shouldn't be - on land for example - I really cant imagine what it must have been like to have been here when the tsunami hit - absolutely shocking.
Fortunately for us the hotel we arrived at which was nice enough also had a posh hotel across the road, the posh hotel however was designed and built in the seventies and made to look like a boat - it was so tacky you just had to love it - especially the pool with ocean views - all is forgiven...
That night we left the hotel for the main reason for being in Tangalle and headed for a secluded beach to wait for a turtle to come ashore and lay about a hundred or so eggs. So a 30 minute tuk-tuk ride later we arrive at a beach with a few other people in complete darknes and wait until one of the sanctuary workers spies a turtle coming ashore.
A short while later we are ushered down the beach to where a turtle is preparing to lay her eggs, unfortunately the old girl took a few attempts to dig a suitable hole to lay her eggs as these girls are very particular so she took quite a while to prepare, however as we were on a beautiful moon lit beach we weren't complaining obviously. Once she had the hole just as she wanted the turtle then went into a trance like state and proceded to lay egg after egg after egg - I thought she was never going to stop, during this time one of the workers picked up a freshly layed egg and passed it around - very strange if you ask me but then I found out that once the turtle has layed all her eggs and returned to the water, the eggs are moved to a safer place a way from predators so I guess it was all okay - also, during the egg laying session pictures aren't allowed so I had to borrow the picture here - oops.
So with the baby turtles in safe hands we enjoyed a day at the posh hotel relaxing in the pool before we headed off to Yala National Park to see the wildlife there...
PS - I still cant get over how bad the Tsunami must have been...

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