Escape reality at Wijaya Beach in Sri Lanka!

The Wijaya Beach convinces with clear water, beautiful waves, palm trees and a small oasis that is perfect for swimming!

If Sri Lanka stands out for one thing, it’s beautiful beaches. Even if you can’t do so much during the Covid-19 pandemic, a visit to one of the numerous beaches is always a completely different world. One can escape the current situation of closed restaurants, bars and possible ventures for a while by taking a trip to the beach. There, apart from the few restaurants that are open, one hardly notices Corona.

Unlike in the country, on the streets, in the tuktuk or car, or even in the stores, there is no mask requirement here. Whether this is official, I can unfortunately not confirm but I have now often read that you can and may do without the mouth guard on the beach. And since the beaches are natural, they are not closed and can be visited at any time.

We usually try to combine a visit to the beach with a dinner. In the meantime, we have also found a few restaurants that are open. Among them is the Wijaya Beach Restaurant on the beach of the same name. In fact, we already discovered this place during our first week in Galle. At that time we just wanted to test if we could have dinner there and unfortunately we didn’t have a camera with us.

Wijaya Beach Restaurant

By tuktuk we drove to Wijaya Beach Restaurant shortly before sunset and could not believe our eyes. Through the restaurant you get to the beach. The restaurant itself is a wooden terrace, so to speak, right on the beach with seats that make you feel like you are sitting right above the ocean. The view of the beach, the waves and the surroundings is simply breathtaking.

If you look to the right, you will discover some rocks in the water adorned by a large palm tree that reaches far towards the sea. It is a picture like out of a travel guide. Absolutely how one imagines a dream beach. And the whole thing is crowned by the sunset, which dips the whole scenery first in deep orange and finally pink tones. It is simply incredibly beautiful there.

As I said, we unfortunately didn’t have a camera with us on our first visit and could only take a few cell phone pictures. However, since this place has such great scenery to offer, we resolved to come here again without fail. It took us a few weeks but we went there again.

This time we left in the early afternoon. It was actually reported for the whole day rain and thunderstorms but at the sea you never know how the weather will actually be. Through the Wijaya Beach Restaurant we went down to the beach and walked around a bit.

The Turtle Beach

If you look at the sea and then turn left, you will reach the so-called Turtle Beach in a few meters from Wijaya Beach. Here the water is a bit calmer than at Wijaya Beach and there are also some big and small rocks, which make for a very nice picture. The water here is very clear and the beach slopes very flat, so that here has developed the almost perfect oasis for swimming.

On weekends, and especially on Sundays, this place is the destination of many locals who are just frolicking in the water. You really don’t notice anything of Corona here. Unfortunately we had no bathing suits with us but at least this time our camera. So we walked along Turtle Beach, enjoyed the view and the cool water at our feet and took some photos.

Just as we had unpacked the camera and shot the first photos, it then began to rain. From now on, thick drops fell from the sky although the clouds were very far away. But just as quickly as the rain had come, he disappeared again. That’s the way it is at the sea. The weather can change in seconds. We didn’t let the little bit of rain deter us and continued to walk along the beach.

We were surprised a second time by a rain shower and also got well wet. But that is not too bad, because within a few minutes in the sun you are already dried again. It may have looked partly certainly very funny, as we stand wet with the camera on the beach but there are really some beautiful photos.

Sea turtles are also here!

After we had taken some photos, we went a little deeper into the so inviting sea water and finally looked for a place in the Wijaya Beach Restaurant. Directly on the railing there are comfortable chairs and so you have the perfect view of the sea.

Already during our walk we noticed spots in the water every now and then. On closer inspection, we noticed that the spots were large sea turtles moving back and forth in the waves. At first we thought it was at most 2 of the impressive creatures but the closer we looked, the more turtles we spotted.
These swim only few meters away from the bathers in the waves and seem little impressed, from the high visitor rush. Depending on how a wave breaks, you can see a lot of turtles in it and this sight is really indescribable.

Unfortunately, however, they were too far away to take a photo of the turtles but even a photo can not come close to capture or describe this fascination.
We then treated ourselves to a cold beer and a water — yes I had the water of course — and finally headed back. Unfortunately, the palm tree that I thought was so great on our first visit here broke off. We spent the whole time wondering what had changed in the landscape here, and finally realized that the palm tree that had reached so far out into the ocean had unfortunately broken off due to a storm. Nevertheless, Wijaya Beach and also the adjacent Turtle Beach is simply beautiful! We want to come back again with swimwear and plunge into the tides with the sea turtles!