Hear about my time volunteering and exploring Sri Lanka!
I recently volunteered in the small town of Akurala, Sri Lanka and there was so much to offer it was an incredible experience! It was firstly such an eye opening experience living within the same area as Ayomi and her lovely family who were all so warm and loved helping us with anything we needed!
I signed up to the Sea Turtle Conservation Program for two weeks which was an incredible experience and was so ethical. It was so lovely to see how the ethics were handled and the prevention of poachers.
"I will always remember the first time seeing a turtle laying on the beach...it was so crazy to see one up close for the first time."
When we first arrived in Sri Lanka, we were picked up in smaller groups of 4/5 people, which I really liked. In this way you got to know some people before meeting the others joining that week which was then followed by people who had been there for longer and were away on the weekends! It made settling in so easy and you always felt welcomed by the staff. There were a lot of volunteers there all volunteering on different projects so you were never alone.
The day started with a beach clean to protect marine life but also free time spent any way you wanted: swimming and relaxing on the beach. They even organised some fishing trips or helping with the other programs such as the kindergarten which was so eye opening and all the children were so friendly. In the evening it was turtle duties consisting of turtle watch where I saw so many turtles coming up the beach to lay and then we collected the eggs personally ready to be sent to the hatchery where you spent the second half of the night waiting for baby turtles to hatch. It was so magical seeing them just pop through the sand!
Weekends were completely free from turtle duties so we went on the ‘Cultural triangle and safari’ weekend trip which was so well organised and packed with amazing memories and the incredible sunset safari where we saw multiple elephants- including baby ones!!
The accommodation was more than expected alongside the catering which was incredible Sri Lankan food (not too spicy though!).
I will always remember the first time seeing a turtle laying on the beach and we were all sat above it in an abandoned building, it was so crazy to see one up close for the first time.
It was overall a great experience and would definitely recommend this!
