An early start hoping to get to Sigiriya before the heat and the crowds. A world heritage site and rightly so. There was no issue with the crowds and was in fact nice to see some westerners at last. The rock itself sits 350m virtually vertical out of the surrounding jungle and was built by an ancient king as his palace. Truely the worlds first bachelor pad. What is astounding is the sheer volume of construction that has taken place on top of this huge rock with little clue as to how everything got up there. Huge gardens including a moat at the bottom then approx 1500 steps, some very narrow and basically strapped onto the side of the near vertical walls of the rock taking you to the top. A couple of flat areas on the way up. The view from the top is spectacular in all directions and there are foundations of the original
Palace including water storage systems on the top. Also evidence of the tiniest steps cut into the rock which I’m guessing were the steps used to cart construction materials up!! Mind blowing in it’s complexity given how old it is. The down was almost as hair raising as the up especially for Mike who is scared of heights at the best of times. It was a good day to have small feet like Isabella. Again at the bottom many of the tourist stalls which would normally be heaving at this time of year were deserted.
After returning to the hotel for a swim and late breakfast we headed to Kaudulla national park for our safari. The following three hours were spent cruising through first the jungle then out onto the grassy plains surrounding a shallow but quite large lake watching approximately 250 elephants of varying ages and sizes. Very pregnant mothers, two week old babies and even a big “Tusker” emerged from the jungle to graze then fill up with water before heading back to the jungle again. There were plenty of other jeeps in the park with us but generally we always got a great viewing spot and plenty of time to watch and observe. It is a fantastic time of the year for watching these animals as water is quite sparse to they need to gather at the watering hole. Not always the case. Back in the air conditioned van for the trip to Trincomalee on the coast. It was fascinating to watch the landscape change from jungle to rice paddies. The towns were bigger and more developed. Actual shops. Also more rubbish when until now we had seen very little. Arrived at our hotel “Trinco Blu by Cinnamon” which was booked after the Easter shootings at about half the usual price. This time we are not alone.
Our second Sri Lankan dinner was an improvement on the last but still far from the “amazing” we were hoping to experience but gave us confidence that the best was yet to come. All tucked up in bed by 8.30....about 3am NZ time.
Awake around 5 again this morning with plenty of time to get up and see the stunning sunrise and a stroll down the beach before breakfast. Our first egg hoppers which were delicious and restored our faith in the Sri Lankan food. A chilled out morning moving between the pool and the sea which must be about 31 degrees. Just what everyone needed. Found our first amazing food at lunch today. Coconut roti with Dahl and coconut sambal. Now we are excited.