..... it must be Sigiriya.

Up early for a 07.00 start (after the safe saga) to drive to Sigiriya. This is a rock citadel where the kings moved to after Anuradhapura - say 5AD. They stayed here for a few hundred years before everyone started dying of malaria!

The rock is some 200 metres high. There was a palace on top and, at one point, an entrance through a gateway in the form of an enormous lion. We visited the museum and then commenced the climb. The start is an easy walk through the original water garden, then across the first rampart, across the moat (populated with crocodiles in those times to dissuade attackers) and then over the second ramparts. At one point is the ticket check at which someone with a pair of scissors cuts off the totally unnecessary piece of plastic around your water bottles (presumably helps recycling later?).

Then, it is steps, more steps and more steps. Mostly done at a gentle pace due to the crowds of people (this is a holiday weekend with Monday being Independence Day, a public holiday). Lin, who isn’t good with steps, stopped at a point and said she would wait. I continued to the Lions Foot entrance but because I had left Lin, didn’t feel I could spend the time to get to the top. So I took photos and started on the down steps. This route unfortunately took me lower than Lin and I had to climb the steps back up to where she was so that we could go down again together to the ‘foreigners’ car park where Lionel was waiting for us.

We then carried on towards Kandy, stopping in a very congested city (Matale) - it was Saturday lunchtime - to look at a wonderfully garish Hindu temple before heading to the hotel.

This place - Bougainvillea Retreat - is in a private country club development where, we are informed, ‘ministers and cricketers have homes’. This is more of a guest house but has no signpost and wa difficult to find. It is, however, in a lovely location overlooking a reservoir in the valley. Indeed, the development was built originally to house the engineers who were building the Victoria dam. This was done in the 70’s as a major hydro electric scheme.

Late lunch and relax by the pool!

ADO/LMA xx