There are several beach lines in Galle, the most famous being the Unavatuna.
This is a photo taken from the nearby hill. I took this from the temple towards the north-east end of the beach. Popular entrance via the vehicles to beach is nead the vally you see at the far end of the picture.
It's a bay area, and water is very shallow. You can see it from the color of water.
Here, a closer look. You can see the boats that carry tourists for small trips, small cabanas along the beach, and people swimming. You can even see (at top corner of the 'diamond' formed by people in the water) an 'oruwa', a small vessel that is used by traditional fishermen used for fishing.
It was a calm day, with a hot sun. We would have been roasted it it weren't for the sea breeze. :)
This is the beach, shadowed by the coconut palm trees. You can see the other side of the bay as well. And the clouds, and the reef where the waves break.....
It is this reaf that makes the water this calm near the beach. The white wall and the tree belongs to the temple premises that I mentioned above.
This is the more populated area of the beach, where there are cabanas and small pubs and restaurents and hotels and what not. Tourists rest here, reading, sleeping ... or just gazing at the sea, enjoying the clumsy waves that break under their feet under the tropical trees. Its nice to have a sleep while indian ocean waves sweep under your deck chair. Hotel scene is somewhat relaxed in this area -- nothing is too formal, once you make friends with the staff.
another view of the same area ...
The beach line here isn't permanent; I guess these pictures were taken somewhere between low and high tides. On holidays, it could get a bit more crowded than this.
Most of the tourists team up with locals in swimming and playing. That gives them an idea of the locals, and gives a side income for the locals as unofficial guides as well.
A worker at a local pub enjoys a piece of waraka, a local fruit.
These people have a cool life style; they work, play in the beach, sing, have a beer in the evening .... and take things easy.
Two local boys, having fun with waves.
These guys spend half of their life in sea. You can see their skin color ... toned very dark in the combination of sun and water, and NEVER any sunscreen!
The wave at the other side of the hill from we took the first photo. You can imagine the force, the hill is more than six meters high, and same is the wave.