Trincomalee offers some of the best beaches in Sri Lanka and probably also in the world. The sand is perfectly white and coconut trees provide shade to completely relax. It is famous for great sea food, whale watching and snorkeling.
After a full day of relaxing at the beach we felt ready for the next adventure and booked a private snorkeling trip. The best spots to snorkel are Pigeon Island, Pigeon Rock and Corral Garden. Because the majority of the tourists go to Pigeon Island and step on the corrals when entering from the shore, we decided for the other two spots. Also is Pigeon Island the only spot where you have to pay an entrance fee of approx. USD 15. Without this entrance fee the tour was only about 50 USD for the four of us.
Pigeon Rock is right in front of Pigeon Island and is a wonderful spot to snorkel. The reef is full of healthy soft and hard corrals and countless marine life. We managed to see a Boxfish, Parrotfishes, Moorish Idols, Trumpet Fishes, Titan Triggerfishes and many other colorful reef fishes.
For us snorkeling is as easy as a walk in the park but Edith and Judith haven’t been snorkeling in decades. We helped them as good as we could but the biggest help was our captain/guide. He carried Edith all around pigeon rock and gave her the best snorkeling experience possible.
Corral Garden is way shallower and completely covered with beautiful corrals. We had to be careful not to touch any, especially when we were looking out for baby reef sharks. It didn’t take long until the first baby blacktip arrived. They were so small and shy that we actually considered them as cute.
Everything worked out perfectly, except when our captain had to fight higher waves on his way and the sun cover started to break down. But with some string and a knife everything could be fixed and we returned only about 30min later than expected.
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