India, Sri Lanka and The Maldives - Days 63 to 65 - Ruwan Eliya to Koggala Beach, Sri Lanka

Two little puppies took precedence over the waterfall when we stopped

Day 63

Started off fairly gently, just as well as it took Brian till 23.30 to post the last blog which is about 2 hours after normal bedtime (we are such exciting people). A bit of a scenic drive to look at a waterfall and some carvings of Buddha, including a 51' image. Very reminiscent of Petra, we liked these.

Ravana waterfall. Better today as there had been recent rain. LtoR: Jackie, Brian, Lucie, Grant, Richelle, Robena, Catherine and Peter

The highlight however was Udawalawe National Park. We stopped en route to view a couple of elephants in the park, the other side of the electric fence, who obviously knew where the fruit stalls were on the other side of the road. In theory it's illegal to feed them but...! (I didn't, just to let you know!)

The snail seemed to be enjoying the trickle of water over it

After lunch we had to rush across the field to the elephant transit camp arriving just in time for the feeding of the orphan baby elephants. The first group came running in, first to the milk station where they willingly swallowed the tube with the funnel on to get their milk, then to the grain station which only seemed good for the first few elephants as they threw it all over the place and finally the leaf station which was obviously the most boring, but probably the most necessary! These elephants will be released back in to the wild.

Next stop, pottery demonstration in a small shack at the side of the road. They even had their own make-shift furnace powered by straw and wood

Out to the safari vehicles then, I decided we hadn't been in the front yet so went there where we were joined by Richelle and Grant which was fab as we haven't been on safari with them either. Our driver was the first one who has interacted and he even had a book of wildlife in the park which he made the mistake of giving to me! This safari was much more varied with a good selection of bird life as well as the deer, water buffalo and crocodiles. We saw a jackal which sadly the other jeep didn't, but I think we shared everything else. I had asked the guide for pangolin, leopard and forest cat which he hadn't managed to oblige on, so it was quite impressive when with less than half an hour to go I said we needed some goodbye elephants and he found us some. We enjoyed this safari for the mix, and the guide.

16m high carved Buddha in solid rock (George said 16m, but it seems to be 51 feet, which isn't quite the same, but near enough)

For some reason our accommodation today was tents, big and comfortable, but with mosquito nets and only a fan, so very very clammy. We arrived just as sun was setting so couldn't really appreciate the setting, though did enjoy dinner once they'd brought me a fan.

And then an elephant (closely followed by another one) at the side of the road, but the other side of an electric fence to stop them wandering into the road. They were there of their own free will, the forest is behind them. They just wanted to have a look at us humans (what a weird bunch we are!)

Didn't appreciate the spider just inside the tent on our return however!

The elephant at the side of the road had come to have a look at us humans (or more probably hoping to get some food)

Day 64

I actually slept better than expected, but it was warm and a bit uncomfortable. I had a nice little saunter by the river, but as I said to George I'm not sure why they put us in tents for the sake of it. We weren't in the park, we couldn't appreciate the setting arriving after dark and leaving at 08.30 so we just seemed to get the unpleasant bits without the good bits.

Orphaned elephant milk feeding through a tube

A long drive today, using a bit of motorway which seemed quite exciting to George. A couple of stops the stilt fishing men which looked jolly uncomfortable and although we did see one man catch a couple of small fish we felt they were really fishing for tourists. A walk down a pier to see a turtle who obligingly said hello, and especially for Brian, an extra stop. The southernmost point, down a narrow street, I'm not sure the driver wanted to go down, but he did. We have the photos to prove we were there, though looking at the map it actually appears that the real southernmost point was very close by, but probably on private property. He'll just have to cope!

We got to the beach hotel in time for lunch, and in theory to enjoy the beach/pool but by the time we'd eaten and all done washing. We'd waited for new pillows as the ones we had smelt a bit damp which added to the slightly funny smell in the room it was time to go out again.

While the Yellow Submarine (our bus) took our luggage to our tents, we got into these two safari vehicles. They are six seaters and we were four in each so plenty of room to move around in. We saw lots of things, so there's going to be lots of photos following this!

Fort Galle, very interesting, built by the Dutch but taken over by the British. Two churches, the old hospital, walls and bastions complete with fibreglass cannons. A shorter visit than we'd have liked due to the big black rain clouds that were very threatening. We walked, followed by the driver in the 'yellow submarine' our group pet name for the bus which was a bit weird but we were grateful when the rain started. We were all begging for the rain it was so humid, and loved the wind preceding it. The relief didn't last long however. A good dinner and walk through the town to get ice-cream before back for bed. We are such lightweights.

Peacocks do seem to be quite dumb birds. This one waited until we almost upon him before deciding to run across our path at great speed

Day 65

A good night's sleep, because our AC is a bit rubbish it meant we didn't wake up in the night cold. The down side to that is the clothes haven't all quite dried. We've put away what has and done some more in preparation for limited facilities (including WiFi) on the boat in the Maldives.

And another one quite comfortable in a tree

Just waiting for 09.30 for our 'surprise activity '

We had an excellent spotter/driver for this safari, how he spotted this turtle on a rock almost at the extent of the 40:1 zoom on my camera we don't know (except that when we came back 3 hours later he was still there in the same position - Jackie asked him whether it was nailed to the rock!)

It was great, we were all taken just along the beach where there were 5 holes and 5 young coconut plants so to replace trees that were lost in the tsunami and to lower our carbon footprint each couple of individual had a tree to plant. With the help of the local dog!

I like this picture. It's a little heron sitting on a submerged water buffalo, a whole group of which were cooling off in a lake

Having been responsible grown ups, Brian and I, Pete and Richelle and Grant spent the best part of an hour behaving like children in the waves, getting shouted at by the lifeguards and having a whale of a time.

Here they are, enjoying a quiet cooling soak

An eagle? He had a bit of a headdress, not visible in this photo. Jackie's just trying to identify it.... She says its a Changeable Hawk Eagle

This was the Honey Jackal that crossed our path and then tried to hide as we went past. I got this one photo before he turned and disappeared into the undergrowth. The others in the next jeep didn't see it

Our eagle eyed spotter/driver picked this out too deep under a tree. We think its a.....Jackies just looking....Indian Pitta

We loved these, they are so brilliantly coloured. This is a side view to see his beak.  We thinks its a little green bee eater

And this is him looking straight at the camera, which I quite like, There were so many of them flying around with such vibrant colours that these photos just don't show

This chap was sitting on top of a tall dead tree a long way away, at the extent of my zoom. It's a white bellied fish eagle

Two Malabar Pied Hornbills in a tree not speaking to each other! 

No explanation needed, except the Peahen wasn't impressed and eventually walked off leaving the Peacock a little deflated (he's probably got a inferiority complex now!)

This Chestnut Headed Bee Eater was standing on the roadway we were going along  so I got this photo by zooming in. Its not the best angle but he flew off just after I'd taken in. They are quite difficult to spot we were told, so our spotter was quite pleased to see one

Then we saw some elephants wandering around by a lake

But in and around that lake were a lot of crocodiles. This one had just crawled out and was just settling down

This one's just cruising around looking for lunch

Taking an afternoon nap

And another large one cruising around. There were a lot!

Leopard fast food, I mean, deer. Didn't see any leopard though

Onto our tented camp for the night

Just a fan and a mosquito net which is knotted up in this photo. There was an en-suite through that door, but it was open to the air at the top so bugs were able to come and go as they pleased

Next day on our drive we stopped to photograph trees full of flying foxes (big bats)

And as we sped along the new Chinese built motorway (that has left the country deeply in debt) we passed numerous paddy fields with people working hard planting rice

While George was giving us a talk about Sri Lankan customs. Here he was explaining the makeup of their flag and their National Anthem (we were told in India that the Indian Rahindranath Tagore wrote it but George disagreed saying it was a Sri Lankan. Google says that it's unclear whether it was the Sri Lankan (who's name I've forgotten) alone, Tagore alone or the two working together

It wasn't on the programme to visit the southernmost point of Sri Lanka, but when I saw we were going very close I asked George if we could go there. The bus driver got us down some pretty narrow lanes to get here, but he did it!

Here's Jackie on the last rocks of Sri Lanka

Group photo at the southernmost point. LtoR: Peter, Catherine, Richelle, Grant, Jackie, Brian (look at that T-shirt), Robena and Lucie

Jackie and Richelle want to go! Definitely going to split those two up, together they are trouble!

We stopped a little bit further on at a jetty with some fishing boats. Everyone else got a good photo of this boat being repainted, but Peter just had to walk in front and spoil my photo!

And then I missed the turtle. I'd seen its dark shape beneath the water and followed it along the jetty, but it poked its head above the water only for a brief moment and by the time I'd zoomed in and got a focus he'd already started to go down again 

I had better luck with the stilt fishermen, but only because they didn't move so fast! They seemed to only be here for tourists as we only saw little tiddlers being caught

You're not really going to get fat eating that - and really it should be thrown back in as too small

Meanwhile the tourists didn't venture too far onto the beach, preferring to stay in the shade

When you can photo bomb a picture, you should!

The second oldest Dutch church in Sri Lanka, built inside the very impressive Dutch fort in Galle. Built in 1755

The white christening robe on the wall on the left was worn by the first baby christened here in 1755

The Anglican church next door built by the British wasn't open

Originally there was just one entrance into the fort and, when the British took over they widened it to this size

A model of the fort. Too difficult to explain here, but its large and impressive

From one of the towers you can  see the outer battlements with repro fibreglass cannons and, beyond the test match cricket pitch, the only place where the backdrop of an international cricket match is a UNESCO listed Dutch fort. The cricket pitch has just been covered as, in the distance are the black clouds of a gathering storm that hit us about 90 minutes later (when we were safely inside a restaurant having dinner)

Looking out to sea from the fort. On Boxing Day in 2004 a tsunami came barreling in here from across the sea, sweeping across that bay and around this fort and inland up to 1km beyond, destroying everything in its wake. Behind is a bus station in which many people were killed. Hd you been here you would have been safe, but all around was carnage 

A Peahen with her babies in the grass alongside

Those clouds are getting closer

This monitor lizard decided to head straight down the wall. It was almost vertical and we felt it was trying to escape the harassing crowds 

Amazingly it climber straight down an almost vertical wall, got onto the beach where it stayed for a while until the crowds had dispersed and then climbed back up again

Here it is climbing back up again

Nearly there...

Over the top

And away

Off for our meal and we were very impressed with how this waiter could tilt our glasses and correctly pour our drinks with one hand while holding a tray full of drinks in the other

Catherine's drink choice. Frozen margueritta. She had to drink it quickly before it melted!

Todays surprise activity was planting five coconut trees too help offset our carbon footprint, something we were all keen to do

The local dog was also keen to help Richelle and Grant plant theirs

There's ours beautifully planted

Peter carefully tending his

A proud Robena looks at hers

Grant and Richelle display theirs

After tree planting we had free time so dashed straight for the sea where we had a good workout amongst the waves. At least it was cooler in there, unlike the swimming pool that we went in afterwards that was like a warm bath!. That's it for now, we're off in a short while to the turtle hatchery followed by a river cruise and evening meal somewhere. Tomorrow is our last full day in Sri Lanka before we fly to the Maldives on Sunday for our final week

This final photo is of my daughters cat Oscar who died this morning aged 14.5 years. He was a great cat and the whole family adored him. He will be sadly missed by us all. RIP Oscar xx