Rafting, Rainforests and Ravished by leeches!

---

Woke at 5. Chanting tape on. Couldn't get back to sleep. It is 8am as I write this. I'm having my bed tea and I'm bloody knackered! All the other guests are leaving today - we're the lucky ones staying here for three nights. I wonder if there'll be new arrivals?

Today we've asked Seelan to take us white water rafting. I'm apprehensive now as I'm tired, slightly hungover and it looks quite strenous from photos I saw up in the Summerville office yesterday. In fact, a sign said that you should only go if you are of "good fitness level". Yeah, right - that'd be me. Not. Still not sure if the road is open yet. The manager here has discussed an alternative plan where they can boat us across the lake to Summerville and Seelan can pick us up there. I hoped to do that but apparently the road has been reopened.

Breakfast of fruit, juice, eggs and croissant. And tea. We're committed tea drinkers now after our tour yesterday. Afterwards, we waited for Seelan in our garden. He was late - held up in traffic he said. It was after 10 when we set off. The 90 minute journey to Kithulgala felt like 180 minutes. It is hot today and the road goes round a huge valley and then another one. It seems to take forever - up and down, twisting and turning. The sun was on the back of my head and with that, plus last nights over-indulgence, I was feeling a bit sickly by the time we pulled in to Rafter's Retreat. This is a fabulous but horrendously run down old, white building.
[url=http://http://www.raftersretreat.com/

We traipsed through to the bar area and were given lemonade. I left most of mine as it didn't taste right. As we sit there, overlooking the Kelani River, I was feeling very hot, bothered and sick. The owner discussed rates with us (about a third of what we'd paid had we gone on an excursion organised by Tea Trails) and bundled us in to the back of a pick up truck. Seelan is in the front with the driver and another guy. We were driven back through the village and 9km upriver. By now, as we bounced around through the village of Kithulgala, the rotting smell of durian fruit wafting everywhere, I'm starting to wonder just what on earth we'd let ourselves in for. We've left the luxury of Castlereagh for a whole day for this! Suddenly the truck screeched over to a halt on the opposite side of the road. We got out and were handed life jackets, helmets and a paddle. Hmmm - last rafting trip we did (in Canada) was a huge raft and the guide did all the work, we just sat and floated along (it was only a grade 2).

Kitted up, and feeling like Mr Blobby, we made our way down to the riverside. Rajah, our guide, had carried the boat down and inspected us before we got in. Tutting, he refastened my lifejacket properly and pointed out to Roy that he'd got his helmet on back to front. Then we were given instructions on how to get into the boat, where to sit, how to position our legs. Then a quick run down on how to paddle and what to expect: 7 drops, including those named "buttercrunch", "killer fall" and my personal favourite - "head chopper". Hmmm.. off we go.

Shortly after setting off, Rajah called a stop. "Madam, you are rowing too gently" he admonished. And then gave me a quick reminder of what I was supposed to be doing. Basically, when he called "for-ward" we both rowed forward, and coming in to the rapids we were supposed to do "hard forward" which basically meant paddle your whatsits off. From that point, I really put my back into it - to the extent that I could barely move my shoulders the next day!

Off we went again. "For-ward... For-ward... For-ward" cried Rajah, from the back. The louder he called, the harder we were expected to paddle. It was quite funny as often the order would change to "Aaaaallll for-ward" or "Everybody for-ward" which made us giggle as there were only the two of us in the raft. Very soon we were at the first rapid. We got a quick update that we had to paddle hard when we got into the white water. It was a fair sized fall, and we got through it fine - great fun. Rapid 2 soon appeared. This time, Rajah was a lot more specific with his pre-rapid instructions, in a nutshell, what he told us was "If you feel that you're going to fall out, lean back in the boat and jam your feet in hard to the front of the raft". This one was Butter Crunch, I think, and a pretty big drop. Within seconds of hitting it, both Roy and I were lying flat on our backs in the raft! I was first to go. "Get up, Get up" yelled Rajah. I'd have loved to, but I was soaking wet, slipping and couldn't get any leverage to pull or push myself up! And we had one more drop to go on this fall. I took it full force and was entirely wet through - water had gone up my nose and everywhere! After we got into still water, Rajah moved forward and with one hand on each shoulder he heaved me back upright! Just as well as I'd been starting to panic as the helmet strap and lifejacket were starting to wedge in to my windpipe and I felt I was about to choke. I'd flipped a bit, saying to Roy "I can't breathe, I can't breathe"!

Up and ready for number 3. This time, Rajah informed me that "sometimes the boat topples over and the person on the right hand side (that'd be me) falls in. Don't worry, after the rapid, the water is still. Lie on your back and float". Now I was worried! When we got the "hard for-ward" command, I felt myself wobbling and so decided to stop paddling and just grip on to the rope. Worked a treat - no falling in, no falling backwards this time. All the other drops were either gentle or without drama. Head Chopper is so called because the water races you toward a tree - with low reaching branches. You need to duck to get under it but it's not dangerous (I don't think!).


We felt that, as novices, we'd done quite well. We had a long spell of just drifting or gently paddling along. Rajah said we could get out and swim but we declined. It was a beautiful, peaceful place. Calm water with jungle rising up on either side. We also passed the spot where Bridge over the River Kwai was filmed, but there is no trace of said Bridge. All along the river, people were out washing their clothes and themselves. Some of them fully lathered up from head to toe! At one place there was a huge party going on - with drums, music and dancing. Boys were all over the rocks in the middle of the river and were waving and calling out to us "hello - how are you?". A very typical Sri Lankan greeting. In fact, all along the river we were greeted with waves and smiles and occasionally a long stare of curiosity. For some drops we had an audience cheering us over! And even tourists taking pictures of us from the banks.

We later found out that the party was a group of pilgrims about to climb Sri Pada (Adam's Peak). They go to wash before making the climb to the top of this holy mountain. It has a holy footprint at the summit - depending on which religion you follow, the footprint belongs to Buddha, Mohammed or Adam!

Soon we were back at the Rafter's Retreat. We pulled on to shore and took a steep, stony path up to the hotel. Seelan came to meet us with our shoes and showed us to a table where our picnic (supplied by Castlereagh) had been left. Rajah skipped up the hill with the boat on his head and all our paddles! We trailed in someway behind him.... We ate cheese sandwiches, potato salad and chicken legs (well the Rafter's dog got my chicken leg). We also had some fruit and water. Monkeys were running about but surprisingly, didn't bother us. What a great experience the rafting was - really enjoyed it. Apart from the "changing room" where we got changed in to our dry clothes. It was really grotty - damp, dark, smelly - and with a colony of ants crawling up the loo.

Our next adventure started shortly after lunch with a short drive out of the village and up 8km of windy hill track through a vast rubber plantation. Another road that seemed never ending... Finally, we passed through a small village with a tiny, pothole ridden bridge in the middle, and up a rough track. Where the track ended a big boulder marked the point beyond which no cars could go! We got out and began what Seelan promised would be a "short trek, Madam". It was quite short, but uphill, through the rain forest, with the track changing to steep and uneven steps and boulders toward the top. My favourite type of terrain! At the top, were the Beli-lena caves. Evidence of man living here 12000 years BC exists. Seelan said it was a very important place, it was certainly interesting. Out of nowhere, just as we got to within 30 yards of the cave, an old man appeared to walk around with us. Ahhh... another "guide". He didn't even make much effort to point at stuff! Although he did point out a huge hornet's nest in the rocks above us. As we were about to descend, Roy spotted a dead scorpion on the track. I still wonder if it belonged to the old guy - maybe he was about to pull the scorpion scam on us!

We were hotter than hot up there. When we got back to the car we were like wet rags - even Roy was struggling with the heat on this walk. After a very tricky ten point turn to get the car round and facing in the right direction, we were back in the luxury of air-conditioning. However, we'd not gone very far when disaster struck!

Just coming out of Beli-lena village, we'd got out of the car to make it easier for Seelan to cross the horrible bridge. This, in reality was just a track crossing a ditch, but full of holes and with a very sharp left turn. He asked us to keep an eye out as he crossed the bridge but my concentration slipped and in the split second it would have taken to shout "Stop!", I didn't. I just watched as his front left wheel went over the edge of the track and into the ditch. Shit. What was going to happen now?

What happened next was that men started to appear from all over the village, some young lads sauntered out with towels around their necks and toothbrushes hanging out of their mouths. Some had come to have a nosey, but most had come to offer help. Various other villagers came out to watch. With a big wooden stick, lots of big rocks, a jack and some manpower, the car was out of the ditch within half an hour. Seelan said that Sri Lankans are very helpful like that. They didn't expect or ask for anything but Roy "tipped" them anyway.

So - finally back to Tea Trails. We had an uneventful but long, twisty drive back round the same awesome valley. The main thing to catch my eye were the huge and majestic trees, backed by misty mountains in the late afternoon sun. We were well ready for high tea - today we wolfed down the lot! Cucumber, mint, yogurt and onion sandwiches, scones with jam and cream, lemon tart, butter cake and banana cake. We decided on our favourite Uda Watte tea. Uda Watte means High Garden and this tea is grown at 4-5000 feet - it is said to have a full, rounded flavour.

After tea I lounged on the bed for a while, reading. When I got up to run a bath, Roy noticed blood on the white linen sheets. I realised that both my ankles were bleeding and didn't stop - even after the bath. I couldn't figure out what happened... then I picked up my trainers and noticed blood on those too. I came to the conclusion that leeches had crawled up my trainers and socks and bitten me (one on each ankle) just above the sock line! Must have picked them up in the rainforest, or standing around in the grass, watching the car saga unfold. Next day Seelan confirmed this - he'd found the leeches when cleaning the car out! Roy was very jealous about this - kept saying I'd just scratched my leg!! I stuck plasters on and prayed that no infection would take hold - I didn't have any antibiotics left..

Before we knew it we were back out for dinner! Fish balls and chilli dip for appetizers. Goat cheese, pear and walnut salad to start. Green bean and asparagus soup. Pork chop, mustard and orange sauce, garlic mash, veg. Crepe with blueberries and orange syrup. As good as all the food we've eaten here. We had no friends tonight as the new arrivals are a french couple who speak no english, and two young couples who didn't socialise. So, an early night. We've a walk planned for 6.30am and so bed tea is ordered for 6am.

---