It appeared that Kitulgala did not really have a main town but was a stretch of road with a few expensive hotels dotted along it and many wooden huts offering white water rafting. This was exactly why Chris and I had decided to backtrack and stop off for the night, as white water rafting was something we had been keen to participate in throughout our trip.
The bus literally dropped us at the side of the road with nothing in sight. Luckily we had the Internet available on Chris' phone, so we were able to find the phone number of a rated adventure company and ask them for help with regards to accommodation. It seemed as though our budget would just about stretch to afford a tent for one night. By chance, the manager of the company we had called spotted us on the side of the road as he was passing by, so we clambered into the back of the pickup truck and he drove us to one of his camping sites.
'Kumbuk Savana' was located along the river with tents pitched on wooden platforms raised above the ground. It was much more inviting than I had imagined and the setting was lovely and peaceful. We agreed to spend the night there and booked up to go white water rafting the following morning.
The afternoon was spent relaxing by the river and for Chris a swim and wash in the river. We had carried a Wood Apple with us from Dalhousie and were intrigued to try it. Usually Chris' pen knife does the trick but the outer layer on this fruit was comparable to a Brazil nut! Eventually, after much persuasion, Chris managed to cut open the Wood Apple, but we weren't impressed. The smell was foul. Hesitantly we picked out some of the flesh to try and that was more than enough. This was not a fruit we would buy ever again!
Unfortunately our dinner options seemed somewhat limited, but we had been pointed in the direction of a small group of buildings. Only one was serving food, which happened to be hoppers. Unsure if this was all we would find, we tucked into several each, dipping the hoppers into a delicious homemade spicy sambal. It had a similar to taste to Tabasco and went perfectly with the crispy edge of the hoppers. We decided to walk a little further along the road in hope of finding something more substantial, but it did not appear promising.
Unexpectedly a local man cycling by stopped for a quick chat and was curious as to where we were heading. When we asked him if he knew of any close by hotels he zipped off and said he would be right back. We continued walking in the same direction and a few minutes later he returned saying that just around the corner was a small hotel serving rice and curry. The nice, helpful man took us into the family run hotel which definitely did not look open for food. However a welcoming lady encouraged us to sit down and hurried around to present us with a plate piled high with rice and curry. The lady and elderly mother watched as we tucked into their home cooked food, and appreciated our compliments in their mother tongue. They seemed delighted to have English visitors and wanted to know all about us. It was a surreal but interesting evening.
Climbing into a sweat box of a tent was not ideal. Obviously there were no fans in the tent and we decided having the two small "windows" open was worth battling against the mosquitos for some "fresh" air. Not that it made the slightest bit of difference as there was no breeze because we were quite sheltered under the hut.

Needless to say it was not the best nights sleep, but being tired from climbing Adam's peak massively helped us get some sleep. After breakfast we were collected in a tuk tuk and driven along the road heading upstream to meet the rafting team. We were kitted up with a life jacket and helmet and watched as the guys balanced the raft on top of the tuk tuk! Amazingly they did not strap it down and two of them just held onto it as we drove 10 minutes further upstream.
It was a short walk down a rocky pathway to reach our starting point on the river. We had a very short briefing before we were off down the river. It was just the two of us sat on the front of the raft, one guy sat in the middle, and the main guide sat at the back.
The rapids have been graded level 2-3 (out of 6), so perfect for beginners. But with the low water level it appeared quite dangerous as there were loads of potential rocks to fall onto. However we tackled the rapids with ease and despite the lack of information given to us, our guide appeared extremely capable and filled us with confidence.
At one point he asked if either of us wore contact lenses, which of course I did, so he told Chris to give me his sunglasses. A little confused we were instructed to paddle towards a heavy flowing section of water and soon enough the raft was filling up and we were submerged. The sunglasses were pointless as they flew off within seconds of the water hitting us, but luckily I managed to grab hold of them.
With our guide trying his best to capsize us, both Chris and I did extremely well to defeat him. At one point Chris was flung at me and our shins smacked into each other's which was not particularly pleasant. But apart from that incident the rafting was great fun. Even more so, the scenery and our surroundings were breathtaking. It was definitely the most picturesque location I have been rafting in (my 4th time white water rafting).
Interestingly, the river we were rafting on, the Kelani River, was where the film 'The River Kwai' was filmed. In fact our guide pointed out the foundations of the bridge that was blown up in the film.
Our session finished off with a leisurely swim down the river, which actually was more us floating on our backs down the river. Sadly we didn't float back to the campsite and had to take the tuk tuk the remainder of the way.
We quickly packed up our bags and waited out on the main road to catch the bus back to Hatton...