Batticaloa

Batticaloa, Sri Lanka's easternmost city, is best known among divers as the gateway to one of the country's most coveted wreck dives: the H.M.S. Hermes, the Royal Navy aircraft carrier sunk by Japanese dive bombers on 9 April 1942, now resting off the Batticaloa coast as one of the great WWII wreck dives in the Indian Ocean.

Getting here is an adventure in itself. The overland route from the ancient city of Polonnaruwa cuts through arid, sparsely populated bushland under fierce blue skies, where sightings of wild elephants grazing beside the road are not unusual — a striking contrast to the deep, historic wreck diving that awaits on arrival.

The diving season runs May to September, drawing both casual reef divers and technical wreck specialists eager to explore the Hermes and the area's other wartime wreckage. Batticaloa also serves as the natural hub between Pasikudah and Vakarai's shallow reefs to the north and Kalmunai's deeper wrecks to the south.