Busy

What a day! Today went something like this...
Wake, shower, call mum for her birthday (happy birthday mum! 🎂), breakfast and then off in a tuk tuk to a lace seller. Turns out in a bit of a fan of home made lace! I bought a lovely nightgown and a white shirt that took a lot of hand work to make!
After that we left Mirissa for Galle. We made two stops along the way. The first was to see some fisherman on stilts. This form of fishing is quite old, and is no longer in use.. But... You can pay to take photos of three old men sitting on the stilts pending to fish. Its quite hilarious actually as the couple who came to Galle a day early said the fisherman 'caught' exactly the same fish we saw him catch today. Matish, our guide says if these guys catch anything these days, its a complete accident!
After that ten minute stop, we drove to Matish's house where his wife and mother cooked the whole group lunch. It was absolutely delicious! Luckily I had some children's gifts from home that I wasn't supposed to share on our hike, so I passed them on to his two daughters, Aurora and Pollyanna, who had a great hour or two playing with jumbo chalk on the lounge floor (cement) and covering themselves in texts (5.5yrs and 2.5yrs old... As you can guess it was mainly Pollyanna, the younger one who thought it great fun to black texta both her hands!).
After lunch we came to Galle. Where staying at one of the many hotels that are situated inside a fort. Its actually pretty cool. Also, the shops are fancy (normal) and the streets are clean (and the prices are very western... Not what we've been used to!).
Still it was lively to walk around before our fort sunset walk. We walked the perimeter of the fort and watched a bit of a sad sunset as it was quite cloudy tonight. Still I think I took a hundred sunset photos!
Tonight's dinner was a delicious seafood number (Sarah had the most devine fish, like a whole fish, cooked in a lime cream sauce - yum!).
Anyway, ita been a long day and we have a really early start tomorrow on what will be our last day of the tour.
Until then,
A x

Lazy day in the sun

What a lazy day we had today. It was a free day to explore Mirissa, so Sarah and I set off before the heat to explore the area. We ended up walking somewhere between 4-5kms towards what we had hoped was a small village which had some lace makers. No such luck! It was just another little town like any other. So we walked back some of the way via the beach, before finally resting our feet and taking a tuk tuk back to the hotel.
After a quick swim we headed to lunch across the road where we sat and enjoyed the water lapping at our feet (literally, it was high tide and the waiters kept moving the tables and chairs further away from the water while we ate!).
Then it was another swim and a nap for me.
Yep a seriously lazy day in Sri Lanka.
Tomorrow we head to Galle. Our last stop before our final night in Colombo.
Until then,
A x

Transit day

Yesterday saw us leave our lively hotel for a 7hr transfer. While it seems like a long time we had heaps of stops. The first was to a waterfall. Which was lovely, but nothing like those we saw in Scandinavia. The next stop was for a supermarket and atm (important holiday business), then a tea stop (because clearly we haven't already drunk our body weights in tea yet) and then to an elephant orphanage.
The orphanage was really great. We were there for the 12pm feeding session where all the baby elephants and a few of the older ones with issues, come in to a central feeding station for milk and fresh tree leaves. They were also able to splash around in the water to cool down. All up there were about 50 elephants. The oldest one had a stump for one of uts legs as it had been injured by a landmine. They made up a prosthetic for it and it seemed quite happy being the first to be fed for the day :)
After our elephant stop we had a quick lunch at a local bakery (takeaway style) before heading to our destination for the next two nights, Mirissa. This is our last two night stop as the tour is almost over. The beach is lovely, and not nearly as calm as we were told. Its also not as clear, so while I've enjoyed walking along it and sticking my feet in, I've also been just as happy to swim in our rooftop swimming pool which looks out to the ocean.
Today is a free day, so Sarah and I plan to explore the closer villages (on foot or by bike, we haven't yet decided).
Love to all,
A

Up, up and away...

The last two days have seen the group hiking. Yesterday was a 9.5km hike that saw us go from 1600+ meters above sea level and rise to the highest point of our walk at 1950ish meters above sea level. The hike wasn't difficult, it was just humid and warm.. Even though I thought being that high would make it cooler, I was clearly mistaken.
At that high above sea level we were actually walking in the clouds. Which was totally amazing to experience. The views were breath taking.. Unfortunately I didn't take many on my phone, but the good camera managed to capture a lot of it.
Along the walk (on a Saturday) we managed to catch a lot of locals. Unfortunately no tea picking was going on (the tea is planted on the sides of the steep mountains, with workers working from bottom to top). I don't know how the tea pickers manage it as the slope is really steep and the have to be like mountain goats to get to some of the tea plants. Our local guides for the walk Shiva and Dubula were fountains of knowledge and they pointed out many of the local sites. The tea plantation pickers are quite poor and the villages are quite remote. They earn in a good month about 4500 rupees which is somewhere around $40 a month. Their accommodation is provided, but they tend to be in ramshackle buildings that house multiple families. For instance one building will have 7 families in it. They have one room per family for sleeping,with a communal kitchen and bathroom for all 7 families to share, some have two bathrooms if they are lucky.
The children travel around 3km by foot, up a mountain (not barefoot, but close in thongs) to school and then the 3km back. Intrepid asked us not to give the children any gifts, which disappointed me at first as I had packed some things to give them. After doing the walk now, I can see why.most of them would run out to see us (its a weekend) and the first thing they would ask is if we had pens or pencils to give them. Intrepid has noted that its not good to build their expectations, or to encourage them to not work for what they have. Its so saddening to see all their cute little faces asking for coloured pencils. Our guide also mentioned that some of the children were missing school on weekdays so they could 'meet walking groups' who might have something to give them. Not great, so now I can see why it was suggested we don't give them anything. Still it was tough just to say hello and keep walking.
On arrival to our accommodation for the night we had some free time. This saw the group breaking up for some preferred activities. The dorm style accommodation had no WiFi or tv so we made our own fun. One group played cards,another learnt a local game called carrom (a disk flicking game that's played on a small table, similar to pool, but played in teams with your pointer finger), and crossword puzzle solving. By dinner time, 4hrs later we were all starting to feel weary after a long hike. Dinner was fantastic and afterwards the group continued to lightly party on till the late time of 9pm. I myself was in bed by 8:30 after a cold shower, but did manage to enjoy listening to our two local guides playing the drum and singing some local tunes. The guides sounds lively and the group really got into the music, even pushing furniture out of the way to do some dancing... No idea where that energy came from!
The next day (today - Sunday) was an early start. We were on the road by 7:30am for our final 11.5km hike. Todays hike saw us completing the devils' staircase who has been turned from steps to a road.. It's super steep. It was only a short hike up today.. Around 200meters higher up over about 2km, so not that hard. The rest of the morning was spent walking down hill. I can tell you afterwards my calves are hurting and need a good stretch out tomorrow. The hike took us about 5hrs to complete as we had multiple stops for those who were struggling. Impressively one of our group has been diagnosed with MS and she managed to complete the 11.5km by hold Shiva's hand the whole way. She was really impressive and so was he for his patience! By the end of it she was in severe pain, but she made it. She had a few tears at the end,which made me tear up a bit to. Pretty amazing she had the willpower to do it with numbness in one of her legs for half the walk.
After 3pm we had some free time so Sarah and I showered (best shower ever after the two days we had!) and a short walk around town. There isn't much around so we were happy to chill out at the hotel for an hour before dinner. Tonight we treated our selves to a super fancy dinner! 4 courses at a swanky hotel down the road.. It cost us $18.
Tomorrow we head to the beach via a waterfall (I'm sure it wont be that grand compared to Scandinavia) and a elephant orphanage.
Until then,
A x