Visited the temple today. No idea how many steps but last nights beer made it hard work for us all. Soaked through by the time we got to the top and it was only 9.30! Barefoot time again, padding over the hot stones, hatless, showing respect to some 138 Buddha's. Shod again we began our way down when one of our party went over on her ankle and fell. It looked broken but after being carried down and a visit to the hospital Jeanette rejoined the party with a bad sp...

A visit to the ancient city of Polonnaruwa built on the edge of a huge man made lake started our day this morning. Some of the lakes date back to their 11c construction and are absolutely huge. They feed the surrounding paddy fields and supply irrigation for miles around through largely original canals. The jungle claimed the City in the Middle Ages and it was rediscovered by the Brits in the 1930s. We trekked around in the heat of the day like mad dogs (well, ha...

Fabulous Hotel set in a garden setting of fruit trees and paddy fields. Woken up by monkeys fighting on the roof and more brilliant sunshine. More ancient monuments and Buddhist Stupas lots of walking and climbing, some of it bare foot! Enough said- apparently I was grumpy. I pointed out to Ruth that I am only grumpy when I am in pain or on a diet. I am not on a diet. Since being pulled over yesterday our driver seems to be slightly less enthusiastic with his rig...

An early start and long drive inland has taken us to the region of Sigiriya where we visited two different Forts going back 1600 years and both on the top of rocky mountains, well several hundred meter climbs. Arriving blue faced at the top and having shaken off the helping hands of our Sherpers, (Yes literally, it felt like being in a care home. ) we were rewarded with spectacular views a sense of achievement and a good excuse to have a beer. Not too sure about ...

After a lazy day around the pool yesterday were I stayed under an umbrella and still managed to burn we met up with other members of the group and went to a fish restaurant for dinner. Kingsly our guide immediately purchased a bottle of coconut whisky, shared it out between us and left us to explore the menu for our selves. The huge prawns we had were so tasty and discovering the whiskey bottle empty we started on the local beer. By 9 o'clock local time we had dr...