Blue whale-spotting in Sri Lanka 'impossibly alluring'

Non-fiction author and whale enthusiast took a trip to the island nation

Spotting blue whales off the coast of Sri Lanka is one of the most "impossibly alluring" things to do on an adventure holiday, according to an expert on the subject.

Philip Hoare, whose book about the sea mammal Leviathan or, The Whale, won the Samuel Johnson Prize for Non-Fiction in 2009, travelled to the island nation for a Daily Telegraph article.

Mr Hoare - a self-confessed "whalehead" - ventured to the nation on the Indian sub-continent to try and see one of the most magnificent animals on earth.

"The southern tip of the island is surprisingly close to the deep waters of the continental shelf, and here swim giants: blue whales, the largest animals that ever lived," he writes.

"It is a unique situation: nowhere else do these whales come in so close to land, or are so reliably seen."

The writer also recommended taking adventure holidays to the island for other reasons, such as its "verdant" landscape and beautiful beaches.

Mr Hoare is well-known as a writer of non-fiction books, some of which include Serious Pleasures: The Life of Stephen Tennant, Wilde's Last Stand: Decadence, Consipiracy and the First World War and England’s Lost Eden: Adventures in a Victorian Utopia.