Greg and Deb's Travel Blog

Our bird watching began today, so it was an early start, 6am pick-up.

The high priority this morning was Flamingos, a must have for Deb. With her good camera primed for the occasion we set out on a bird hunt, shooting only with a camera.

We left just before 6am, a very quiet car, I think everyone is still waking. A naturalist from our hotel joined us to share his local knowledge.

At 6:20 we were in the sanctuary, our naturalist and Hiru got out of our car and went to look for Flamingos. Sadly there weren’t any to be seen.

Sri Lanka has the largest flamingos, they come from India with a wing span of up to 1.9m Continue reading →

We had checked out and on the road by 9:30am.
Our destination, Mannar, has been described as a future Dubai of Sri Lanka. It has the potential to become an economic hub for Sri Lanka because of its significant natural resources, as long as they are developed and managed diligently.
Mannar harbour was the gateway to the Roman Empire due to its past where it was a 1500 year international trading centre for 400 years from the 1st century bc. This was driven by trade in pearls, gems and spices. The area has the most abundant pearling in Sri Lanka.

Along the way we stopped Kaludiya Pokuna, ot otherwise known as The Black Water Pond
It was built around 900ad and is said to be one of the first Buddhist monastery in Sri Lanka. Continue reading →

I apologise in advance for the length of this days blog, we did so much and it didnt seem right to take a short cut on any of it. Our dinner to finish the day was a true highlight. And so I begin …….
It was a slowish start to our day, we both woke early, Deb much earlier than me. After breakfast we stayed up at the main building, its too far to go back to our villa and return. We were picked up at 9:30 for another day of Enlightenment. (Jenni, I think we have crossed your temple moment  )
Fun fact: the area we are travelling through is part of the Sri Lankan Dry Zone, it contains over 30,000 man-made reservoirs.
The area we are in is the Cradle of Buddhism in Sri Lanka, and our day reflected that theme.
Continue reading →

10Sri LankaWe were awake around 5am, Deb a bit/lot earlier than that. We were at the resort front gate by 5:40am ready for our 6am pickup.

It’s Sigiriya Rock Fortress or Lion Rock morning. It’s time for a hike, 1300+ steps up, 1300+ steps back down.
We arrived at the base of the rock at about 6:15am, ready to do a bit of climbing.
Sigiriya Rock Fortress is the 8th wonder of the world. We were told it was the first U ESCO World Heritage Site, it was built in the 5th century and is truly an engineering marvel. It has separated underground water and waste systems, there are fountains that still work, apparently they had a hydro system , and engineering systems to lift large very heavy rocks to extreme heights and so much more. We were told many of their systems predated Rome and European civilisations.
The site was used for many things, as a fortress, a place of peace for royalty, and international trade centre, poetry and the arts. Continue reading →

We left our “resort” at 9am on the road to Polonnaruwa the second capital of Sri Lanka ruled by King Vijayabahu after the destruction of Anuradhapura by the Southern Indians, it was the longest serving capital city of Sri Lanka in 993

This part of Sri Lanka is a climatic dry zone, it receives little rain.

On the way we saw our first car accident! I’m perplexed at how it took this long to see one, the driving is crazy here. Anyway, it seems the police are avoided at all costs if an accident occurs. The legal system is unbelievably bureaucratic and it can take a very very long time to get any resolution. So car insurance companies sort it out. They have mobile assessors that go to accidents and approve repairs, much quicker and simpler, as long as everyone has comprehensive insurance, it gets tricky when some one only has 3rd party insurance.

We learnt that there are 4 wild life parks in the area, and about 3000 to 4000 elephants in the area. In August it is the time of the gathering of the elephants. You can see over 1000 elephants in one close area. Elephants come from all around, they can travel between 10km and 50km per day. They can travel up to half the length of the country to get to the gathering.
They are Asian elephants, it goes that they were good mountain climbers, and moved easily through the highlands. This didn’t fit well with the British, they killed all the elephants in the southern Highlands. One commander killed over 1700, same guy was killed by a lightening strike, some say it was karma. Elephants are now concentrated in 3 or 4 areas across the country. Continue reading →

We started our day with a leisurely breakfast over looking a valley. It was a cool morning, fresh is a good word.

We checked out and headed to the Kandy Royal Botanical Gardens, the largest botanical gardens in Sri Lanka at over 60 hectares. The gardens are very well laid out with large grassed areas separating different sections. The park sits in a horseshoe bend of the River Mahaweli, Sri Lanka’s longest river. We spent a couple of hours in the garden, just long enough to get an appreciation of how special it is. Continue reading →

We checked out and as part of a ritual of the resort we received a blessing wishing us a good future. We both chose to have the Buddhist blessing. We were both given a piece of white cord tied around our right wrist.
We were on the road by 8:05, another longish drive.
As we got higher into the mountains, Ella was at around 1000m, the highlands were around 2500m, it got cooler. The British found this climate similar to England, its so much cooler than the coastal areas, and they started highland farms producing vegetables familiar to them. Leeks, beans, strawberries, etc. They establish towns in the highlands that to this day have a very British look about them. Continue reading →

We were picked up at 8:30am and driven into town and stopped at Ella Railway Station. Deb and I got some great “Ella” photos.
After that bit of fun we walked about 500m to the start of our mornings adventure, Stage 16 of The Pekoe Trail. It’s a 8.74km trail reaching a maximum height of 1066m above sea level with a rise of 393m and decline of 524m
We started off walking through a pine forest and followed a creek to the “famous” Nine Arches Bridge”. Continue reading →

We had an early breakfast, 8am lol, check out and we’re on the road by 8:35am on our way to Ella.
I haven’t mentioned this before but our transport for our trip is 10 seater Toyota van, plenty of room to spread out.
On the freeway we saw a sign saying “Beware of Peacocks”, they are the road hazard equivalent of kangaroos at home. Colourful pieces of roadkill. Later there were elephant warning signs!
The country side for the first part of the drive was mainly forest with a lot of palm trees broken up with rice fields on the lower flat grounds. The rice is dried on low mounds next to the fields, we saw people winnowing the chaff from the grain. The farmers isra biological control to protect their crops from mice. The place poles around their fields, during the night owls use them to hunt mice from, helping to minimise crop losses. Continue reading →