A long drive today taking in the Portuguese port of Galle and a wonderful turtle sanctuary. Arrival late at the hotel led on to a cocktail party and an offer (negotiated by me) of 20% off at the a la carte for the evening meal. fabulous. Oops, left a donation at the turtle sanctuary and Ruth tells me she has been bitten by bugs there. Better keep quiet! The hotel has live music, a huge pool and if the food is anything to go by will look good in daylight. What to ...

No story as such. Baby elephant feeding and another safari in Udawalawe National Park. Spot the one with the false leg. Take care R&D

After a bit of a heavy night this morning found us heading down the mountain passes trying to hang on to our breakfasts. Once again our driver was in rally mode swerving here, there and everywhere. We stopped for a break at Ella Waterfall and watched monkeys grooming sleeping dogs by the side of the road. The views were breathtaking and after 4hours we were once again at about 200 meters having dropped some 1600 during the morning. After a late lunch we entered Y...

After a wonderful drive up winding roads we arrived at a tea plantation and visited a tea factory. Watching the process take place we arrived at the and of the production line and had confirmed that they use the dust from the process to make teabags! Continuing our drive even higher we reached Nuwara Eliya and the wonderful Grand Hotel built for the colonists and little changed. High tea followed by a walk in the towns markets where we bought vanilla pods. We end...

Have sent this again as wifi was rubbish this morning. Having trogged around many temples and stupa (I'm stupafied!) during the day, the magic moments often occur in the evenings when we seem to congregate together and swap stories of previous adventures and amusing moments. There is rarely a moment of silence before someone chips in with a new dimension, joke or anecdote which has us all in stitches. We leave each other to attend to sore feet, bites and aches an...