The mosquitos feasted on us overnight and by morning we both resembled measles victims. We had breakfast at the hotel and could feel the temperature rising as we boarded our TukTuk, dodging through the army of cows who blocked the road en-route to the dive centre. 'Dive centre' was possibly a slightly generous name for the ramshackle building in the grounds of a budget guesthouse but the staff were fantastic. We met our dive master Asa and got kitted out before meeting the two American girls who were diving with us. After our briefing we scuttled across the roasting beach to where our boat gently bobbed in the waves and loaded all our gear on board. Our first dive site was at Pigeon island, the 200m long Island paradise we had be staring at from our hotel beach the day before. We covered the few km of wind whipped ocean in a whirl of spray and were soon dropping anchor just off the inviting shoreline of what was your stereotypical desert island. Kitted up we back rolled off the boat and descended into the beautifully clear water.

It felt awesome to be diving again and we followed Asa over the coral strewn bottom to around 15m, moving through the schools of iridescent fish, occasionally becoming mesmerised by huge, vibrantly fleshy anenomes and their clown fish hosts flitting through the waving fronds. My debonair facial hair, whilst making me irresistible to members of the opposite sex, did however have the small draw back of compromising the seal of my mask, resulting in a steady stream of saltwater trickling into my nostrils. Never the less I soldiered on as it was a small price to pay for looking dashing and in addition to the myriad of fish and intricate corals we saw lobsters, a grumpy stonefish, moreys and a great plume of black ink freshly left by a squid or octopus who had vanished after expelling its toxic looking cloud. Back in the boat our new friends from Colorado exclaimed how 'awesome' the dive had been and we weighed anchor and headed ashore.

The little sun-baked island was beautiful, if slightly overpopulated by pasty tourists one of whom opted for a very old pair of pale boxer shorts rather than swimming trunks for his paddling attire... We snorkelled over the beautiful corals around shark point and I found myself swimming alongside a 2 metre long (vegetarian) black tipped reef shark for at least 20 nerve-wracking metres. Incredible. We retreated to the scorching shore and Asa took us on a brief tour of island, climbing to its summit and gazing out over the surf hitting the base of the cliffs below us. The pigeons were very much in residence as we returned to the boat and set off through the growing surf to Lionfish Rock.

The swell was significant now and the waves drenched us all as our boat ploughed towards the small rocks just offshore. We back rolled in and descended immediately to the sandy bottom surrounding the rocky pinnacles. There was a beautiful collection of coral but the stars of the show were the schools of fish which swirled in the eddies and the numerous Lionfish who sculled determinedly across the sea floor. I was again mesmerised by the clown fish and their flowing anenomes but we were swept along fairly rapidly by the current whipping around the rocks and after nearly an hour we left the calm of the seabed and returned to the surface where the lumping waves made it rather tricky to get back in the boat gracefully.

The journey back to shore was swift but we filled in our log books and thanked the crew and our diveMaster before heading back to the hotel. Lunch was made so fresh that we had to wait for the ingredients of my Sri lankan vegetable curry to arrive but it was worth the interlude and we enjoyed a post-prandial snooze on the beach watching an old man thatch the parasol next to us.

We were swimming as the sun set and after a quick shower we were invited for gin themed drinks (tonic was replaced with lemonade and soda water with varying levels of success) with the couple staying opposite. We chatted endlessly to the F1 medic and Languages teacher before heading to the restaurant along the beach for a fantastic evening of Sri Lankan food and great conversation. When we were finally evicted from the decadent terrace lit by storm laterns dangling from the swaying trees, we walked back along the dark foreshore and bidding farewell to Alex and Harriet we collapsed into bed, finally feeling the effects of the morning's exertions!