We wanted to maintain a fair bit of flexibility in our travels so we had booked our little Sarajevo apartment for 3 x 10 day blocks (27-7 March, 7-17 March, 17-27 March) and by 11 March or so we were starting to get mildly concerned about our travels after Bosnia - supposed to go via car to Tivat, Montenegro on 27 March then onwards to Dubrovnik on 13 April and then fly to Ireland on 7 May for a housesit... for a couple visiting their daughters in the USA... that...

We left Auckland after a pleasant stay in the salubrius surrounds of the Auckland Qantas lounge (quiet corner... tick, shower... tick, champers... tick, tick, tick... a few select nibbles... tick - as we wanted to have an appetite for eating and for flying during the 18+ hour flight up to Qatar). And we did. Rather in the manner of the little ducks who swam and swam all over the dam, we flew and flew, all over the world. 18+ hours is a very long time as it turns...

We left the safari lodge and hit the road for Colombo. Our first chance for a leg stretch was along the side of the road in Ratnapura - one of the most well known gem areas in Sri Lanka. Given that the country is home to 40 of the 85 types of gems in the world, we’d imagined it would be a fairly high-tech and commercial affair. But not so much. Basically, with a licence, you can put up a hut and dig a hole and haul gem bearing dirt up, seive it and find gems...

Standard protocols dictated a 7.30 am departure (the nicer the hotel, the earlier we leave). We had a good breakfast and bid a sad farewell to the Jetwing St Andrews. It was a long (5 hours+) and very bendy drive down the other side of the mountain. I had planned ahead and taken some anti-motion-sickness medication so was fine - others on the coach, despite warnings in advance, were not so lucky. The large breakfasts and late night probably didn’t help. We...

This morning we left Kandy via a stunning scenic viewpoint then took the coach up to Sri Lanka’s most pouplar hill resort - Nuwara Eliya. Why so popular? The invigorating mountain air and the breathtaking scenery of course. We had the option to take the local train up, but took one look at the truly evil spectre of third class carriages (bench seats... you know how we feel about bench seats) and decided taking the coach up - and having it all to ourselves - w...