We had booked train tickets from Ella to Nanu Oya, so after breakfast, we got a lift to the station with the owner of the hotel.

The only tickets that had been available at the time of booking them were the first class tickets, which meant we had a lovely air-conditioned carriage.

Once we had dumped our cases in the luggage stand and found our seats, we settled down for the journey. The views out of the windows were amazing – of tea plantations, mountains, and small villages. Everything was really green.

We also soon realised that the doors at the end of the carriage were wide open so you could hang out of the door and get a much better view. Luckily, the train doesn’t go very fast. Although you had to be careful and keep an eye out for what was coming the other way. And it did say ot wad unsafe.

The views were always changing, of mountains, waterfalls, woodland, small villages, tea plantations etc.

When the train stopped at a station, vendors would board the train to sell you their wares. It was mainly different types of food. Sometimes, they would sell their products through the windows.

Around three quarters of the journey in, it started to rain, so I didn’t take quite as many pictures.

We had a lovely train guard in our carriage.

Over the course of the 65km journey, we climb around 800m before arriving in Nanu Oya.

I was still at the door taking photos as I didn’t realise it was our stop, but luckily, the others did, and we got off on time. Unfortunately, in the chaos, Karen left her water bottle behind.

A kind man helped us get the cases off the train, but he had an ulterior motive as he was a driver. We were heading to Nallathanniya, which was around a 2 hour drive away. He offered us a price, which we accepted. The car was only just big enough as it was a struggle to get all our cases in the boot.

Shortly into our car journey, we came across the Somerset Estate, a tea plantation that was established in 1880. This whole area of Sri Lanka is well known for its tea plantations and this particular estate covers 460 hectares and processes upwards of 40,000 kilograms of grain leaf each year.

The driver then stopped to let us take a picture of the Devon Waterfalls. The waterfall is named after a pioneer English coffee planter called Devon, whose plantation was situated nearby and is also known as ‘Viel of the valley’. It is the 19th highest waterfall in Sri Lanka.

We continued on our journey and drove into Hatton, a town that is a major part of the Srilankan tea industry.  On the day we passed through, there was a Hindu festival being celebrated – shukla pasha shashthi festival. Shukla Paksha means the period of the waxing moon. During this time, the Moon’s illumination increases as it moves away from the position of the New Moon. This phase symbolizes growth, expansion, and positive energy. It is considered an auspicious time for new beginnings, initiating projects, and manifesting intentions. It is a day of great blessings for Hindus belonging to the Tamil community. The town was very busy and very colourful.

As we drove on, we came across another large tea estate, the Norwood Estate. This was the first tea estate in Sri Lanka. It was started in 1867 by a Scotsman called James Taylor. Sri Lanka is the fourth largest producer of tea globally. It has mainly prospered because of the ideal climate conditions but was also successful due to the coffee blight and the emergence of the Industrial Revolution in Great Britain, which enabled locomotives to operate in the tea regions.

We stopped to take some pictures of the women picking the tea leaves. Whilst the tea plantations are tended by men, it is the women who undertake the daily task of picking the tender leaves.

We carried on past the Maskeliya Reservoir. During the rainy season, which was just beginning, the water gets right to the top of the banks.

And our last viewing spot was of the Mohine waterfalls. This is quite a small waterfall just close to the reservoir. It is about 30m high, and the water flows under the road and into the reservoir. The locals believe there is a female devil inhabiting the surrounding area. This female devil is referred as Mohini.

Just after the waterfall, we arrived in Nallathanniya. The car we were in was not allowed to cross the small bridge in the village – and we needed to get across to get to our accommodation. So our driver rang the hotel and they sent a couple of tuk tuks to pick us up from the main parking area. We managed to fit two passengers and two cases into the tuk tuk.

At the hotel, which was quite basic, we were sharing one room, but it had loads of room.

As we had been sitting down for a lot of the day, we thought it would be a good idea to go for a walk and also find out where the trail started for the climb to Adam’s Peak. We found the start of the trail, which was literally a minutes walk from our front door.

We passed a small temple and walked across the narrow bridge. There were quite a few people bathing in the river as we walked past.

We walked past another massive statue. This one had a beehive hanging from her arm.

There were also lots of birds using the candle holders as perches.

We continued walking to the archway into the town.

As we were wandering back, it started to rain, but we had come prepared with our umbrellas.

We passed quite a few shops selling Watalappam. This is a traditional Sri Lankan dessert made with coconut milk, jaggery (palm sugar), and spices. It’s steamed and served chilled, with a jelly-like texture. Karen and I tried some, and it wasn’t as sweet as I thought it was going to be – but still not great.

We headed back to the hotel and dried off before dinner. We had requested an early dinner at 6pm as we were going to be up at 2am the next morning to walk Adam’s Peak.

Dinner was traditional chicken curry with both boiled rice and butter rice, as well as some side dishes. It was all really tasty, but the amount of food was way too much.

We had a furry friend during dinner too.

We were in bed by 830pm, and surprisingly, I went to sleep pretty quickly.

We woke up and went for breakfast in Java Cafe. I had a really nice coffee and almond croissant.

You could see our hotel from the cafe and some police horse guards also came to direct the traffic.

After breakfast we packed up and headed down to the lobby.

We had originally planned to get the train from Kandy to Ella, but there were no train tickets available – the only ones we could get were from Elka to Nanu Oya. So we booked a driver via the hotel. The first car that turned up wasn’t very big and we couldn’t fit all of the suitcases in the boot. We had to wait around 45 minutes for another car to turn up. This wasn’t really suitable either, but I sat in the back with the cases, and we set off. The journey was around 4-5 hours.

Zoe was still feeling quite poorly, so we had to stop a couple of times. At one point, she fainted, and we were all really worried. We stopped at a pharmacy to get some rehydration sachets.

Some of the views along the way were really nice.

Unfortunately, as we got to Ella, it started to rain.

Our hotel was right at the top of a hill, and from our balcony and from the viewing point upstairs, we had great views of Ella Rock and Little Adams Peak. (Ella Rock on the right and Little Adams Peak on the left).

You could also see the small Rawana waterfall.

As it was raining, we decided to get a tuk tuk into the town and do some shopping.

I bought a few bits, as did Mandy and Karen, and then we decided it was time for some lunch. We went to Chill Cafe as it had been recommended to us by the dive instructor in Kalpitiya. We had some delicious bruschetta and wine.

We were hoping to do a small hike of some sort in Ella, but it was continuously raining. We went back to the hotel to check on Zoe, who still wasn’t feeling great. She had mainly been sleeping whilst we were out.

After a freshen up, we headed back to Chill Cafe for some dinner. Zoe stayed behind.

Mandy and I tried Lumprais. This is a Srilankan dish, which is rice, chicken curry, deep fried hard boiled egg, deep fried sweet aubergine, and all wrapped in banana leaf. It didn’t look great but tasted really nice.

After dinner we had another small walk before heading back to the hotel and to bed.

It was a lovely sunny morning when we woke up so we took some pictures on our balcony.

We headed out for breakfast and decided to try a local Srilankan cafe. I had a cheese dosa. This is a savoury type of crepe made from a fermented batter of ground white gram and rice. It tasted quite nice, but it was a little bit greasy. I had a black coffee to go with it, which was really sweet.

The cafe looked out over one of the main roads, which was quite busy.

After breakfast, Mandy and I ordered a tuk tuk to take us to the Sri Maha Bodhi Viharaya, the big Buddha statue looking out over the city.

The statue is of Buddha in the posture of meditation associated with his first Enlightenment and can be seen from almost everywhere in Kandy. It stands at 26.83m high and is one of the tallest Buddha statues in Sri Lanka.

The construction of the statue started in the 1980s and was completed in 1992 and officially opened in 1993.

The temple and statue are on the top of Bahirawakanda hill. Bahirawakanda means “Gnome Mountain”, and this name harks back to the legends surrounding the temple’s hill. The villagers who lived in the surrounding areas once believed that the hill was the home of an evil gnome that devoured unsuspecting humans. In an effort to appease it, the villagers would sacrifice a virgin girl (or several virgins) to the hill. Over time, the fear of the hill and the superstition of the villagers faded.

You have to take your shoes off at the bottom of the steps, and the ground is really hot. I had bought some socks and tried stepping in puddles to cool my feet down.

There was a lovely monk’s garden, and we did see some monks working in the garden, too.

You can climb part way up the statue, and the views from up there were amazing.

Kandy got its name from the Sinhala term “Kanda”, which translates to ‘mountain’, due to its geographical location amongst the mountains. Kandy dates back to 1476 and operated as a semi-independent kingdom within Sri Lanka. The city resisted invasion by both the Portuguese and the Dutch. On 14 February 1815, the last King of Kandy was captured by the British with the help of some of the Kandy ministers. The Kandyan people continued to fight for their freedom, which played a significant part in gaining total freedom for the entire country in 1948. Kandy remains the capital of the Central Province and is both an administrative and religious city.

As we were walking down, we went into one of the temple areas.

Further on, down the steps, I could hear some chanting, and it sounded like children. One of the guides asked if we wanted to go inside and watch what was happening. It was some young monks chanting, aged around 10 or 11. Their families were in the room, too. The guide told us that the family bring the young boy of 9 to the monastery, after which they never leave, although their families are allowed to come and visit them. They grow up as Buddha would have with no worldly goods. They are also not allowed to touch women. We did try and find out if they could leave the monastery if they were unhappy, but that didn’t seem to be the case.

The room they were in was where the Chief Monk comes to meditate, so it was quite a privilege being invited in there.

Our tuk tuk driver had waited for us at the bottom.

We met Karen and Zoe back at the hotel, they had been out to buy train tickets. Shortly after we got back it started to rain so we decided to explore the indoor shopping centre and we also stopped for frappes and milkshakes.

The indoor shopping centre was not that interesting so we went to explore the local market instead – Kandy Central Market. There were lots of interesting stalls with souvenirs, spices, crafts, meat, and fruit. There are 269 stalls within the market, although not all of them were open.

The present building’s site has a history traceable to the 19th century. It is located exactly where Kandy had its old market beginning in 1874. The new market was opened to the public in 1959.

The market belongs to the people of Kandy, and they help to maintain it. Every day, three tractor loads of rubbish are discarded from the market. It is open from 6am to 9pm with the fishmongers receiving the daily catch at 4am.

Just outside the market area were a couple of statues and a war memorial. One statue was of George E de Silva, who was a lawyer and politician. During his time at the Municipal Council, he introduced several municipal reforms, including the slum clearance scheme and the Peradeniya river pumping scheme.

Another staue was of General Anuruddha Ratwatte, who was a Srilankan soldier and politician. He opposed the Kandy Municipal Council and led the Srilankan Freedom Party.

The war memorial commemorated those who died in the First World War. Over  a million South Asian men served in the Indian Army during this time, and more than 400 Srilankan soldiers lost their lives during this conflict.

We walked back to the hotel, and then Mandy, Karen, and I went for a walk around Kandy Lake. The lake is an artificial lake that was built in 1807. Over the years, it has reduced in size, and the shore length is now 3.4km. The lake is known as Sea of Milk as formerly there used to be a small pond there called the same. The rest of the area was originally paddy fields.

There is an island in the middle of the lake that the king used for relaxation. It is also said that this island was used by the king’s harem for bathing and was connected to the palace by a secret tunnel. It is currently used as a police post.

There are a lot of different birds on the lake, including some ugly looking ducks, nicer looking ducks, cormorants, egret cranes, herons,  storks and I spotted a kingfisher too.

There are a variety of different trees planted around the lake, including Nuga trees, palm trees, fruit trees, Sal trees, and Mara trees. Some of the trees are about 74 years old.

The lake is surrounded by a wall called Walakulu Bamma, or Cloud Wall, which was built to enhance the beauty of the lake. The wall only extends around half of the lake because the architect was unable to complete the wall before the city was captured by the British. The triangular shaped holes in the wall are used for lighting oil lamps on festival days. So you have the milky, cloudy lake, the ‘stars’ caused by the lights above that, and the palace sits above all of this in a ‘heavenly realm’.

You could see our hotel from the other side of the lake, and we also found an old British post box.

After we walked around the lake, I left Mandy and Karen at the hotel and went to visit Sri Dalada Maligawa, the Temple of the Sacred Tooth Relic. It is where the left  tooth of Gautama Buddha is enshrined.

The relic was historically held by Sinhalese kings and kept in various shrines within the palaces. It is believed that whoever holds the relic holds the governance of the country.

I entered the temple complex through one of the side entrances and had to immediately take off my shoes. I visited the stupa and statues around the temple grounds.

I didn’t actually go into the temple itself as I had heard you can’t actually see the relic as it is encased in a casket. But lots of people were going in to pay their respects.

All along the side roads to the temple were stalls selling offerings.

Right next to the temple is an Anglican church, the church of St Paul. This was built in 1852. The church houses the only pipe organ in Kandy and potentially, the largest pipe organ in regular use in Sri Lanka. Unfortunately it wasn’t open so I couldn’t see it.

Once I got back to the hotel, I met the ladies in the bar for a drink. There were a couple of gentlemen in the bar looking very smart in their suits. We got chatting to them, and it turned out they were pharmacists, and they had just attended the AGM of the Srilankan pharmaceutical society. So obviously, we discussed how pharmacy was going in Sri Lanka and in England.

After a quick drink, we got ready to go out for dinner. We had decided to go to Fab Ceylon as it had really good reviews.

The menu was written on the wall, and I tried some Mongolian chicken rice. It was quite spicy but tasted really nice.

One of the other tables ordered a different dish. It was served on a shovel directly onto paper on the table.

After dinner, we headed back to the bar at our hotel for a nightcap. Zoe wasn’t feeling great, so she went up to bed.

The Queens Hotel was a former governor’s residence and is one of the oldest hotels in Sri Lanka with a history of over 160 years.  During its history, it has been used as barracks for the Ceylon Rifle Regiment, a hostel, and a boarding house. In 1869, it became the Queens Hotel. The Pub Royal in the hotel is the only British Pub in the city that offers service with an old colonial flavour.

Mandy and I had another earlyish start as we had booked to go snorkelling at 8am. We walked down to the dive centre and were fitted with flippers. Although I had my own snorkel and mask, I ended up borrowing one of their masks as they were glass, so don’t steam up so easily.

The guys had to do the whole routine with the boat again to get it in the water. This time, it was only Mandy and myself, along with the dive instructor and the driver.

This photo is looking back to Uppuveli Beach.

We motored out to Navy Island, which was only about 15 minutes from where we were staying. Mandy and I immediately got into the water and started snorkelling.

My underwater camera wasn’t working, so I put my phone in a day bag and tried taking photos and video on that. It kind of worked.

We saw lots of different colourful fish, and there was some really pretty coral as well.

We were in the water for quite a long time. At one point, I went too far around the rock and got called back.

Once we were back on the boat, we had some water and watermelon and headed to Angel Reef, which was quite close by. On the way, the dive instructor spotted a turtle, so we all jumped in the water. I saw him from above the water but not actually in it. Mandy jumped in the other side to me and actually managed to see the turtle in the sea.

We then swam to the reef where we saw a lot more fish and coral. The dive instructor dove down and picked up a starfish.

From the water, you could see Seruwila Raja Maha Vihara temple. This is an acient temple and is amongst the sixteen holiest buddhist shrines in Sri Lanka. The stupa was originally built  in the 2nd century BC and was restored in the 1920s. It is said that the frontal bone of the Buddha, as the sscred relic, is enshrined in the stupa.

The Seruwila region used to be a vast swamp or villu where the flood waters of the Mahaweli Ganga collected. This villu was the home of large flocks of teals (seru) during the migratory period. That perhaps was how the place came to be known as Seruwawila.

After around another hour of snorkelling, it was time to head home.

On the way back, we were quite close to the rock where the Koneswaram temple is situated. This is a classical medieval Hindu temple complex on top of the promontory overlooking the Indian Ocean and the Trincomalee district. It was originally built around 1580 BC.

We had a similar beach landing with the boat as the previous day, and this time, I took a video of it.

We met Karen and Zoe at Cafe on the Eighteenth for breakfast. This time, I had the poached eggs on avocado toast. It was delicious.

We were originally going to stay another night in Trincomalee, but as we had already done everything we wanted to do in the area, we decided to move on.  I meant to have a kettle shower on the beach but never got round to it.

So after breakfast, we packed up and organised a driver to take us to Kandy. We said goodbye to the lovely family who had looked after us.

It was a good four to five hour drive from Trincomalee to Kandy. On the way, we saw an elephant on the road.

When we got to Kandy, we had to sort out the rooms as we had made separate bookings for the two different nights, which caused some confusion. We were given an executive suite for four,which was very spacious. We were staying at the Queens Hotel, which must have been amazing in its time, but was now moe like faded grandeur. It had a very old-fashioned lift in it.

It was raining quite heavily so we decided to go somewhere quite close for dinner. The hotel staff recommended a place called ‘Delight’ so we headed there.

We had a mixture of chicken kottu, seafood kottu, and a house special, which wasn’t so spicy. Kottu looks like fried rice but is actually made from broken up flatbreads, roti. It was quite spicy but very tasty, the chicken was better than the seafood. The house special was really nice too.

We had heard about a place called ‘Slightly chilled lounge bar and restaurant’ so after dinner we walked to it. It was about a 15-minute walk, and it was raining quite heavily. I completely soaked my feet, through my trainers, in a massive puddle – it’s really hard to see where you’re going as there are no street lights.

Eventually, we made it to the bar, which was also not easy to find as it was up a hill down a side road.

We had some cocktails, but they weren’t that great. But the bar had live music and they were really good.

I tried to take some night time views of the city from the bar and on the way home.

Once we got back to our hotel and into the dry, we decided to call it a night.

This was an early morning for all of us. We were up at 530am to go dolphin watching. We walked down to the beach to catch the boat.

The guys from the dive shop had to swivel the boat round and then drag it down to the beach – it looked like hard work.

There were the four of us and another couple from Vienna. As we motored out into the sea, we passed ‘Lover’s Leap’.  This is a true story attested by an inscription on a pillar on Swami Rock. It follows Francina van Reed, the daughter of a gentleman of rank in the civil service of Holland. She was engaged to a young Dutch officer who broke off the engagement upon the end of his foreign service and returned to Holland. Forsaken and distraught, she watched atop Swami Rock as the vessel carrying her faithless lover passed beyond the horizon. Overcome by sorrow, she flung herself from the rock into the violent sea below – a sheer drop of 400 feet. A pillar set up on the promontory records the fateful date of the tragedy that has since propelled the location to notoriety – 24 April, 1687. Now, the authorities have taken measures to build a protective fence for the protection of visitors.

The cleft in the rock also has a tale behind it. King Ravana and his mother had worshipped Siva at the shrine. The King wanted to remove the temple of Koneswaram when his mother was in ill health around 2000 BC and take it to her.  The literature says that as the king was heaving the rock, Lord Siva made him drop his sword. As a result of this, a cleft was created on the rock, today called Ravana Vettu – meaning Ravana’s Cleft.

Not long after we made our way out of the bay, we started to see pods of dolphins. There were a few boats around, but there were lots of different pods, so it didn’t get too busy most of the time.

We were all looking out and spotting the dolphins, and then we would motor over to where they were so we could get close to them and take pictures. The dolphins were very playful, and a couple of times, they jumped right out of the water and spun around. They were the bottle- nosed dolphins.

It was really amazing seeing all the dolphins and being that close to them. Sometimes you can see whales in the sea too, but it wasn’t really the right time of year, so we didn’t spot any. We did see some local fishermen out in the sea. These small boats can only use fishing rods and not nets.

As the boat approached the beach, we were all told to hold on tight. The boat then accelerated onto the beach and came to an abrupt stop, it was really funny.

And then it was time for breakfast. I had a raspberry smoothie bowl, which was delicious.

The lattes all came out with different animals on top.

After breakfast, we went back to the rooms to dump our bits.

Then we walked down the beach to the sunloungers with umbrellas.

A lot of the stray dogs dig holes under the sunloungers and go to sleep in the shade.

We laid on the beach, swam in the sea, and I had a little sleep. Around 3pm we were a little peckish, so we just walked up to Blue Sands restaurant to have some lunch.

I had a delicious Greek salad, and we shared a bottle of white wine.

We had a furry friend for company too and I gave her some chicken that Mandy couldn’t finish.

Mandy also had some leftover sausage, so I took this and fed it to some of the dogs.

We headed back to our rooms, had a quick shower, and then headed put into the town. We all needed to get some more cash, so we headed to the main street. There was a pretty church right next to the ATM.

On the way back to the beach, we stopped at a reggae bar for a cocktail.

Outside the reggae bar they had a small fish selection.

We had such a lovely meal at Waves the previous night that we decided to go there again. The fish of the day was red snapper, white snapper or parrot fish.

They all looked a bit big, so I settled for the tuna steak, which was very tasty.

As we were waiting, Raj came back with some fish he had caught.

Ian, Raj, the local diver, Brun, and a couple of other guys all got chatting to us, so we sat around having a few drinks.

On the way home, we stopped at Fernando’s bar as there was a party going on, and we actually recognised the music.  We were all on the dance floor (sand) having a boogie, and the local guys were teaching us a few moves. We also had some fun on the swings. The photos got more blurry as the night went on!

We went home around midnight.

Mandy was up earlier than the rest of us and took some pictures of sunrise at the beach.

It was a relaxing start to the day. We wandered back to Cafe on the 18th for breakfast. I had a Srilankan omlette, and it tasted really good.

As we eating breakfast, the fishermen were pulling their nets along the sea.

After breakfast, we made ourselves comfortable on some sun loungers on the beach.

It was really hot, around 35⁰C and there were no umbrellas for shade, so we had to keep getting in the sea to cool down.

We also went and sat in the swing chair in the shade.

Around lunchtime we went to the open cafe area and had a beer.

We had decided we wanted to go dolphin watching the next morning so we went to the shop next door on the beach to book it. While we were there, Mandy and I booked to go snorkelling the day after, too.

We were all getting very hot lying on the beach, so we decided to walk along the beach into town – it’s around a 3-mile walk.

We passed the temple on the beach, which is really colourful, and lots of fishing boats.

Around an hour and a half later, we made it to the town. We walked up a little side ally to get onto the main street and walked along this for a bit.

We were all quite thirsty, so we managed to find a locals cafe for a drink. I had a passionfruit milkshake.

Trincomalee has been one of the main centres of Sri Lankan Tamil speaking culture on the island for nearly a millennium. Trincomalee is sacred to SrilankanTamils and Hindus around the world. The city has many Hindu sites of historical importance. These sites are sacred to the Hindus, and some Buddhists also worship at these Hindu sites.

The harbour in Trincomalee is renowned for its large size and security; unlike any other in the Indian Ocean, it is accessible in all weathers to all craft. It has one of the largest Dutch forts, which is now used by the Srilankan navy.

We wandered around the town for a while before deciding to head back home.

It was a long, hot walk back along the beach, but we did spot a pretty bird.

As we were walking down to our hotel, we decided to stop off and have dome refreshment on the beach.

As we were walking back to the hotel, the sun was starting to go down.

We walked back to the hotel. I say hotel, but it’s more like a b&b without the breakfast.

After a refreshing shower, we noticed a couple of cockroaches in the room. Mandy and I managed to catch the one under the bed in a glass, scoot it over to the door, and chuck it out. The second one was in the bathroom, and we just left it under the glass as there was a step up to the bedroom, and we couldn’t scoot it along the floor without it escaping.

For dinner, we walked down the beach to a restaurant called Waves. It had loads of fish and seafood, and we decided to share the garlic prawns and fries. They tasted really good.

We got chatting to the owner, Raj, who has recently undergone a hip operation. We also chatted to a welsh guy called Ian, who was teaching diving for the dive shop that Raj owned. It was interesting chatting to them both.

We had a couple of drinks with dinner and I tried some of the Red Rum, it was really nice.

We had a lovely evening chatting with everyone, but after a while, we decided to head home.

There was a DJ night going on at Fernando’s bar, so we stopped for a quick drink. But we didn’t recognise any of the music, so we headed home.

For Zoe and I, it was another early wake-up call at 5am. I slept much better, though, as we had asked for a couple of blankets to keep us warm during the night.

We were the first jeep at the park, so we had a wander around and took a few photos. At the entrance to the park is an old Buddha statue which was found in the park around 2000 years ago.

There was also a swing with some angel wings, so we took some photos there, too.

Almost as soon as we got in the park, we saw a male peacock displaying his tail!

Shortly after that, we saw an Indian star tortoise. This is one of the most symmetrical animals in the world.

And then something amazing happened – a sloth bear was walking righting in front of our jeep. He was just slowly ambling along without any worries. You could really see his claws and hear him snuffle out the grubs and seeds. They have padded and webbed feet, and they can close off their nostrils when they are searching through the sand. They make a snuffle sound as they blow the sand off the food they are about to eat. They can live for around 29-35 years.

I did take quite a lot of photos as it is really rare to get that close to a sloth bear.

After watching the sloth bear, named Grylls, for quite a while, we decided to move on. We spotted a green bee eater and stopped to take some photos.

We drove back to the middle of the park to the villus to try and spot the leopard.

We didn’t see a leopard but we did see some more spotted deer.

And then we got the information we wanted to hear. There was a leopard sighting not too far from where we were, along the main road. So we quickly headed back down there.

The park has around 250-300 leopards living in it, but only 14% of the park is accessible to the public.  The male leopards have around a 16km² area as their territory. Once leopards are around 4 years old, they go off on their own, and this is also around the age when they start having cubs. It is hard to tell when the females are pregnant as they don’t have a baby bump as this would make it difficult for them to hunt. Gestation is around 90 – 100 days, and the mother needs to eat before giving birth. It has been known that if the mother is hungry when she gives birth, she may eat one of the cubs.  A leopard can have up to 6 cubs, but the average is 2-3 per litter.Leopards can swim, but it is not something they do very often. They lick themselves to try and hide their scent and not just for cleaning purposes.

The leopard we saw was an 8 month old female, and when we first saw her, she was quite high up in a tree. We waited a while, and eventually, she made her way back down onto the ground. My photos were not particularly clear, but Malmi took some really good ones. We used the binoculars to see her close-up.

That was the best bit for me.

We drove down the road a little bit to have some breakfast and to let other people in jeeps to see what was going on.

In 1987 the entrance to the park was moved from whete it used to be (a bit further in) to whete it is now, to improve the security levels. As part of the Srilankan civil war, terrorists got into the park and shot around 26 people.

Sri Lanka used to be part of the British Empire from 1815 to 1948, when they gained independence. However, from 1983 to 2009, there was a civil war in Sri Lanka. After they gained independence, Sinhalese was recognised as the sole official language of the nation. The Tamil Tigers wanted to create an independent Tamil state in the northeast of the country. It is estimated 80,000 – 100,000 people died over the 26 years of civil war.

As we came out of the park, we saw another hornbill.

When we got back, we showed Mandy and Karen our photos, had a quick shower, and packed up the last bits. It has been an amazing experience with Leopard Trails.

Alam, our driver, came to pick us up at 11 am, and we set off for Anuradhapura. This used to be the capital city of Sri Lanka, and it is a very spiritual area as well as a world heritage site. The founding of the city was in 437 BCEB but it has been inhabited for much longer, making it a major human settlement on the island for almost three millennia and one of the oldest continuously occupied cities in Asia

Alam dropped us off at the biggest stupa / dagobas known as Thuparama vihara. This is the largest brick structure in the city. All dagobas contain the remains of a sacred person that the Buddhists pray to, and this one is believed to contain the collarbone of the Buddha.  It is also the earliest documented buddhist temple. It is 59ft tall and was built in the 3rd century BC. While we were there, it was being painted, which was quite fascinating to watch in itself. The paint went on blue but dried to white.

We walked around the dagobas, it is not something you can go inside. There was a sanctum that we did go inside. This contains the five statues of Lord Samma Sambuddha.

Our next stop was the Jaya Sri Maha Bodhi. This is believed to be a tree grown from a cutting of the southern branch from the historical sacred bo tree, Sri Maha Buddha, under which Buddha obtained enlightenment.  At more than 2,300 years old, it is the oldest living human-planted tree in the world with a known planting date.

The tree is situated on a high terrace, about 6.5 meters above the ground, and surrounded by 4 other lower-level terraces with Bo trees called “Parivara Bodhi” planted for its protection.

As it was a sacred site, we had to take our shoes off, and the ground was really hot, so we quickly walked from one shady area to another.

And then it was back to the car for another 2 hour journey to our accommodation on Uppuveli Beach in Trincomalee. In one area, we saw loads of bats in the trees, there were 100s of them.

We left our bags in the room, changed into our beachwear, and headed down to the beach, which is literally a couple of minutes walk away.

We went for a paddle in the water, which was really warm. There were a lot of stray dogs on the beach, but the majority of them looked ok and pretty well fed.

And then it was time for a beer and bar snacks.

Once we had relaxed for a little while, we went for a wander down the beach, passing a small church on the way.

We found another little bar and stopped for a bear and used their facilities.

On the way back, the sun was just starting to set. Some of the local fishermen were taking in their nets.

We decided to have dinner at the Cafe on the eighteen, which was just down from our hotel. I had a tuna poki bowl and it was delicious

We stayed down by the beach for a while before heading to bed.

It was a very early start with our alarms going off at 4:45 in the morning. The ‘tent’ we were staying in was air conditioned and the unit was quite close to my bed so in the early hours of the morning, both Zoe and I woke up because we were too cold. I didn’t really get back to sleep after that as I couldn’t get warm.

We had coffee and tea delivered to our tent at 5am to help us wake up.

At 5:30am we were on the jeep and headed towards the park and it was already much lighter.

At the entrance, we had a quick look around the small museum, which had quite a bit of information about various animals and birds in the park. It had a stuffed leopard, which was a young male, most likely killed by an adult male for wandering into his territory.

They also had a Dugong, which are the largest herbivorous marine mammals in the world. I had never heard of this mammal before.

We paid a quick visit to the toilet where we saw a little frog.

And then, at 6am, it was time to go into the park. We were the second Jeep going in.

The forest / jungle is actually a secondary forest  as earlier on there had been human inhabitants.

As you drive into the park, you can smell something like marujana, which is actually water hyacinth.

The first thing we saw were the peacocks. The blue colour you see on their bodies is actually light refraction on keratin, which is why it shimmers and changes colour. 

Next was a herd of water buffalo crossing the road in front of our jeep.

We then got news of a leopard sighting by a watering hole, but unfortunately, when we got there, he had disappeared into the undergrowth. But there was a little emerald dove by the water, and we also saw a black naped monarch dive plunge into the pool.

There are a lot of twisted trees in the park, and the phenomenon is known as spiral brain. The sapling trees start to twist around each other to make themselves stronger. When the outer and inner bark separate, this is known as spinal snap. A lot of the trees look very red. This is because the tree produces sap and the red dust from the road sticks to it.

As we were spending the whole day in the park, we made our way into the centre part, which is a good 90 minute drive from the entrance. The jeeps are only allowed to go a maximum of 25km/ hrs in the park – most of the time this isn’t possible anyway, especially as the paths get really narrow.

Within the park, there are around 40 -50 villus. These are natural sand rimmed water basins that fill with rain water. Some of them are freshwater, but others are very salty. They range from 300m to 2km in diameter.

We saw some elephant tracks on the side of the road. If you take the diameter of the front foot and times it by 2.5, this is the height of the elephant from the floor to its shoulder.

And then a peacock decided to show off and give us a colourful display.

There were a few red rattled lapwing around, but they move quite quickly, so it was hard to get a photo of them. We also saw a little grebe in the water.

On the ground, we saw a crocodile track. When the crocodiles walk, they tend to walk a few steps and then take a little break, but they can easily walk 2-3km.

The next tracks we saw were leopard tracks with bear tracks on top, but they were a few hours old.

One of the trees that is quite common in the central area of the park is the red beech tree. The red leaves are a result of anticholinergic pigmentation. To a lot of animals, the red leaves look like dead leaves, so they don’t eat them.

We moved on to another area known as the lotus pond to try and pick up a phone signal to get some information from other guides. The water looks salty, but it is actually very high in mineral content. Because of this, the trees can’t survive, and they die.

Here, we saw a grey heron and a small egret, as well as a cormorant drying its wings.

We didn’t find out any useful information, so we drove round a few more paths in the search for a leopard.

After a while, we reached the rest place, so we  decided to get out and stretch our legs.

We walked to the viewing point area and looked out over another large villus.

In the water, we could see a couple of crocodiles, and then one came up onto the land. This species of crocodile is 240 million years old. The spines on its back are all hollow bones, and the warm blood comes up theses and cools down.

Some of the trees around the villus are kumbuk trees. People believe that this tree can cure heart disease. The roots go down into the water and deionise it. In Theravada Buddhism, kumbuk is said to have been used as the tree for achieved enlightenment,or Bodhi by the tenth Buddha.

After our break, we headed to another villus. In the dry season, this whole area completely dries up apart from a very small watering hole.

Throughout the jungle, there are loads of termite mounds, and some of them are huge. The termite queen can actually live for 35 years.

We passed some more spotted deer, and then we saw another medicinal tree known as the ‘birthing tree’. The bark of this tree is stripped off and used to clean the room in which a mother will give birth. The bark is left in the room for around a week, and the  essential oils detoxify the environment.

We drove to another villus known as the Kumutu villus, or water-lily lake, and there was a great egret there.

As we drove along, we saw some grey langur monkeys in the trees. They’ve got really black faces and you almost can’t see their eyes.

The next thing we spotted was a land monitor climbing up a tree. They either climb the tree to get more sun and warm up or to raid a birds nest.

On the tree was a black termite mound. These are the only processional termites found in Sri Lanka, i.e., they walk in a line like ants.

And then it was time for lunch, we had already had breakfast in the Jeep earlier in the day. For lunch, we went back to the rest place so we could get out and stretch our legs. Lunch was another delicious mixture of traditional dishes – dahl, aubergine, potato, chicken, mixed vegetable fried rice and poppdoms.

As we were inside having lunch, the macaque monkeys were having fun outside in our jeep.

They were very inquisitive, mischievous, and very sweet.

There were a few jungle fowl walking around the rest area, too. This bird is the national bird of Sri Lanka. They are the largest endemic bird of Sri Lanka, and it also captures all the  colours of the Srilankan flag.

After lunch, we drove back around some of the villus in the hope of seeing leopards by the water. The area is very sandy. It used to be under water, the tectonic plates rose up and bought the sand with them. The plants all have quite shallow roots, they drop leaves which decompose, and basically they recycle themselves.

We saw a snake bird in the water and then one also sitting on a pole. It has a really long neck, which looks like a snake gliding through the water. They don’t have waterproof feathers. While that may seem like a disadvantage for their watery lifestyle, their wet feathers and dense bones help them slowly submerge their bodies under the water so they can stalk fish. We also saw an eagle soaring above us, but it was too far away for a photo.

As we drove around, we came across some water buffalo cooling off in the water. They dip their muzzles in the water to get rid of the flies. Once they have cooled down in the water, they then have a mud bath to get rid of parasites and also to create a physical barrier against the sun and insects. As the mud hardens, it also has a cooling effect. There were a few cattle egrets with the water buffalo. They eat the parasites on the buffalo and also the insects that are disturbed by the path of the buffalo.

Shortly after, we did hear that there had been a glimpse of a leopard, but when we got to the area, he had gone. We drove down a road behind the undergrowth, which he had gone into, and waited for a while, hoping he would come out. But unfortunately, he didn’t appear.

At the next villus, we finally saw an elephant. It was a lone male elephant. He was eating the water grass, pulling it out and shaking it to get rid of the sand and mud before eating it. He does this to protect his teeth.  Elephant molars grind down and are replaced only 5 times in a lifetime. As elephants get older, they go to areas where soft grass grows, and eventually, they pass away here – elephant graveyards. The elephants dont really have any predators to be worried about, although water buffalo will protect their territory. Elephants have a 22-month pregnancy, and their calves stay with them until they are 9 years old. They can live until they are around 70 years old. They are only fertile every 4 years.

There was a stork in the water, too.

We saw a wild boar family on the other side of one of the villus.  These were a couple of woolly necked stork near them, too.

A large stick insect landed on Zoe’s shoulder as we were driving along.

Just as we were leaving the park, we saw a black naped hare.

It had been a long day, and we were all quite tired, and although we hadn’t caught sight of the elusive leopard, we saw a lot of other animals.

Back at the camp, we were welcomed with a refreshing cool towel and a drink.

After a lovely shower to wash away all the red grime, we were ready for our pre-dinner drinks.

We had pumpkin soup and garlic bread to start and then delicious barbecued chicken, pork, and chicken sausages along with coleslaw and salad.

As always, the food was delicious. We had a couple of bottles of wine alongside.

Zoe and I headed to bed and left Karen and Mandy with the wine as they had decided not to do the early morning drive tomorrow.

We had a relaxing start to the day, apart from Mandy, who got up and did a 2 mile run. I did most of my packing before heading to breakfast.

This morning, I had a delicious Sri Lankan omlette.

And then it was time to say goodbye to our lovely room by the beach. As we were the only guests there apart from one other guy, we felt very special.

Alam came and picked us up around 10:30am and drove us to the Leopard Trails pick-up point, which was around a 2 hour drive.

Malmi, our Leopard Trails guide, met us at the pick-up point and took us to the reception area. We were provided with cold, lemony flannels, which act as a bit of insect repellent as well as cooling you down. We also had a refreshing fruit juice as Malmi went through the paperwork with us.

The accommodation is amazing, very luxurious.

Not long after our arrival, we had lunch. Lunch was traditional Sri Lankan dishes of spicy pork, loofah (which was also a little bit spicy), okra, gord (a type of superfood), beetroot, salad (leafy veg and coconut), fried coconut and pepper poppdom, all with rice. It was all really delicious and not too much heat.

Malmi told us a story about an ancient king who used to want 32 dishes served with his rice. The belief was that you had 32 taste receptors in your mouth, and the king wanted to satisfy them all.

For dessert, we had the King of Srilankan dessert. This is made from curd, which comes from buffalo milk and is like a thick yoghurt. The honey is made from fishtail palm sap, and the juggery is a more solid version of the sap.

With dessert, we got another good story. Only court jesters can make fun of the king. At one time, the king asked the jester to have dessert, but the jester was full up. The jester eventually said he could fit some dessert in to please the king. The king thought the jester was lying and accused him as such and asked how he would manage it. The jester got everyone who was in the court to stand in a small room and told them that if they touched the king, they would be killed. The king walked around the room and managed not to touch anyone. The jester said that is how he would fit in dessert

Malmi’s grandfather was a medicine man, so we talked about how all medicine should be food and how all food should be medicine.

After lunch, we headed off on safari in our jeep.

Wilpattu National Park is only a short drive from Leopard Trails accomodation, probably around 10 minutes.

The park itself is around 131,000 hectares and is the oldest and largest park in Sri Lanka.

It is a jungle safari, so the drive is through trees with not very many open areas. The first 15 ft or so by the side of the road are kept clearer of trees, so it increases the chance of spotting the animals.

The first animal we saw was a water buffalo in one of the water holes.

There was also a stork and a snake bird on the water. We saw a mini- kite flying overhead. These birds are scavengers as they snatch food from other animals.

Shortly after seeing the buffalo, we came across some spotted deer. These deer have disruptive markings (the spots) and counter shading (dark on top and light underneath) to cause confusion to predators. They are beautiful and very graceful.

The herd we saw was a bachelor herd of young males. A couple of them had antlers that were fairly new as they were still quite velvety. These deer, like elephants, live in herds of adult females and their young – as the young males grow, they form their bachelor herds.

There are a lot of peafowl walking through the park, and their call is very distinctive. A lot of the peacocks we saw had started to lose their tail feathers as mating season was over. However, new feathers grow back in around 6 months’ time.

Our next spot was a colourful kingfisher. He really stood out against the background.

We saw some more water buffalo grazing near the road.

Most of the trees in the ark are Indian ironwood or Indian boxwood. The tree saplings grow close to each other, and quite often, they merge to form one big tree.

As we drove on, we saw a Sambar deer. It was quite far away. This is the largest deer in the park, and they quite often live alone or in small groups.

Our next sighting was really lucky as we saw a sloth bear, just inside the thicket. These are the second smallest bears in the world, the smallest being the sun bear. They are also the deadliest bear as they have caused the most human casualties. The bear is named after its long sharp claws (like a sloth), which are around 4 inches long. It also has a long tail for a bear, around 15cm in length. The bears mainly eat termites, ants, grubs, and fruit. They are scavengers and will eat decaying meat. They also love honey and will climb trees to knock the beehives to the ground. They don’t have great eyesight or hearing, so rely on their sense of smell.

We drove on a bit further and saw a ruddy mongoose, which is one of the animals endemic to india and Sri Lanka. These animals are carnivores and eat birds, snakes, lizards, and rodents. They are very intelligent, and if they are bitten by a cobra, they know which plant to eat to self – medicate. They are also very loyal and have been used by the Sri Lankan army in the bomb disposal unit.

We drove past another watering hole and saw the painted stork, which have a splash of pink on their backs.

As we drove towards the exit, we saw a hornbill with its bright yellow beak. These are the only birds in which the first and second neck vertebrae are fused together, which provides a more stable platform for carrying the large bill.

And just before we left the park, we saw a barking deer or muntjac. These are the smallest deer in the park, and they have overgrown canines. They are scavengers.

We had driven about 3 hours in the park and seen quite a lot already, so we were very happy.

As we drove back to the camp,Malmi placed our drinks order so when we arrived we were greeted with a lovely cold towel and a lovely cold drink.

After a shower and freshen up, we went for dinner, which was served in a beautiful location.

I had a Srilankan whisky, old arrack, with lime and ginger beer, which was a really nice drink.

For starter, we had lentil soup with deep fried prawn and dahl badey.

For the main course, we had another lovely mixture of traditional dishes – string hoppers, parrata, coconut and turmeric and veg sauce, prawn curry with coconut and red chilli, sombal, and fried chicken.

We had some refreshing white wine to go with our meal.

And dessert was creme caramel, which was also very tasty.

We went to bed around 10pm as we have an early start in the morning.

We all slept really well, so woke up feeling refreshed. I had about 10 hours of sleep. After a shower and catching up on social media, we went for breakfast. The WiFi only really works in the rooms.

Breakfast was delicious and unexpectedly massive. We had a plate of fruit to start, and then I had a smoothie bowl, which was delicious. Karen and Mandy had pancakes, which were also really nice. The coffee was good too.

As we had been sitting down for most of yesterday, we decided we would walk into the town centre. The Sri Lankan hotel staff thought we were mad as the temperature was about 32⁰C.  They did tell us which was to go though.

Our hotel is at the end of a lagoon, so it’s around 3 miles away from the town centre.

The roads were red and dry, but we met a few people and animals along the way. Some young boys asked for a photo with us.

The town was quite busy, lots of people were out and about as it was a Sunday.

We visited the Dutch Reformed Church. Unfortunately we couldn’t go in as there was a service going on. The church was built in 1706 and is one of the oldest protestant churches in the country.

Sri Lanka was occupied by the Portuguese in the early 16th century. At the time, the King of Kandy turned to the Dutch to help get his land back. The Dutch conquered the area in 1659 but refused to give it back to the king. They built a fort and a church here. The British occupied the island at the end of the 18th century and found the fort abandoned except from one Dutch administer officer who surrendered to them.

As we walked down to the fishery harbour, we passed the Kalpitiya Budhu Pilimaya statue. The statue is near the naval base (part of the old fort) and is where the navy personnel pay homage to Buddha. The statue was completed in  2017.

At the fishery harbour, we took some shelter in the shade.

After seeing the sights and wandering around the town for a little bit, we decided it was time to head home.

It was way too hot to walk the 3 miles back, so we decided to take a tuk tuk.

It was a bumpy journey home, but we all made it safely.

It was then time for a quick change – our clothes were wringing wet – before  we headed to the pool to cool down.

After some time relaxing by the pool, we decided to take the kayaks out and see if we could get over to the other side of the lagoon.

It was about half a mile to the other side, so it wasn’t too far, although the water was quite choppy at times.

On the other side, we got chatting to the guys doing the kite surfing. They were amazing to watch.

We wandered over the sand to the other side to see the Laccadive Sea. It was really rough so we didn’t go for a swim here.

Apparently, the wind was around 12- 15 knots, but over the next few weeks, it will increase to 20-30 knots, so more kite surfers will come to the area.

It was then time to head back to the hotel.

As we walked back to our rooms, we passed a small Buddha. Around 70% of the Sri Lankan population are buddhist, the rest being Hindu, Muslim, or Christian.

After another shower, we wandered down to the end of the pier to watch the sunset with a glass of wine or beer.

The dogs came to join us, so we made a bit of a fuss of them. They seem to be well fed but are constantly scratching, so I think they need a good bath.

And then it was time for dinner. I had a seafood platter with garlic bread, and it was delicious.

We managed to stay up a bit later and headed to bed around 930pm.