Day 9 - Coconut Tree Hill, walking, wading and shopping!

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I feel well rested today; I have had a good nights sleep! I got up at about 8am to have a coffee and a catch up with Ella. I was going to say, before the start of the day, but that’s not quite true. It is before the start of my day, but Ella was up and about at 5:30, doing jobs!

The first person I actually saw this morning was Creshanta, she is one of the cooks at Basecamp. She brought Ella and I white lotus flowers. The white lotus flowers are said to represent a state of spiritual perfection and total mental purification. Ella explained to me that it is considered an honour to be given the flowers. The only other time that she would normally give flowers is when she takes them to the temple, as an offering.

Breakfast was really good today. It was chick pea and vegetable omelette, with shredded salad and roasted pumpkin, accompanied on all the daily extras, a healthy shot and a fruit smoothie….And then…. Banana cake fresh out of the oven arrived at the table! We were advised to spread the homemade chocolate spread on it! WOW! A great breakfast!!!

We left for Mirissa by tuk tuk at about 12:00, when Ella had completed check ins, and check outs. The tuk tuk arrived to take us. The plan is to go up Coconut Hill. It is exactly as it name says… a hill with coconut trees on it. Only, Ella left out the word, ‘up!’ OMG…. I did eventually make it up the orange, dusty, disintegrating, trek type… loosely described, path! Although when I did, the scenery was amazing… and dare I say, worth the climb!

I felt that going up the hill was difficult, but it was a breeze compared to coming back down! How I didn’t land on my backside was a miracle. When we finally made it down, I was exhausted!! Ella did say, she didn’t remember it being that difficult that last time she came. I’m sure it has disintegrated, and deteriorated since her last visit.

When we made it safely down the hill, and along the diminishing path, we took a table in the shade at a cafe at the bottom of the hill, to gather ourselves back together…. Well, maybe I’m just talking for myself! Ha ha. I had, or more likely, needed an iced coffee, Ella had a beer. It took a good 45 minutes to get back to normal, relaxed state!

We decided to walk on along the beach. Sadly, things didn’t really improve for me! I have got a blister under my toe from the flip flops. The skin has separated, so it is completely raw, and open. As we started the walk, it soon became clear that it was going to be another assault course! Ella piped up that she hadn’t actually been this way before! I had to go barefoot as parts of the walk was in the sea. Then at one point, Ella was laughing at me as I had to hold my bag and shoes above my head!!! She had clearly underestimated my lack of height, compared to her!! The water came up to her thighs, for me it was near my waist!!! So I was soaking wet through as well. I know, it’s boiling hot, I will soon dry!

My other issue was my toe. Walking over the cobble path, then in the gravelly sand and rocks was killing me, and Ella was getting further away from me with not a care in the world! About 15 minutes later, which felt a lot longer!!!, we took another refuge stop in a restaurant called Petti Petti. Pheww, I was pleased to arrive there! I was battered by the sea , the sand and the gravel rocks!!!!

We decided to make that out stop for the day, so we set ourselves up at a table with bean bags to lay on….. and laughed about what had occurred so far!! We had a simple lunch of tuna salad and fries.

We stayed there until around 4:45pm then headed off from the beach to go into the town area to look in a few shops. I managed to get Thea and Ava some baggy elephant pants, and a few bits. I don’t really do major shopping, so that filled my need for today. We pulled off the main road and walked to a cafe bar called Salt, for a much needed cappuccino.

As we were sitting Ella noticed a bit of activity on the beach. The Sri Lankan Navy are acting lifeguards at this spot… the waiter told Ella that they are having a party! That made her smile! But we left it at that!

Nilu came to pick us up at 6pm to take us to Ice in Weligama. Ella had a session. She always asks me if I want to have a go, as she gets a free pass…. I can’t believe she even bothers to ask me! Ha ha. It simply isn’t happening!

We are going to walk from here to one if Ella’s favourite eating places. It’s called Dulneetha. It’s basically all about the rice and curry, which is a Sri Lankan staple. We had the 5 vegetable curry, rice and hoppers. You get 5 bowls of vegetables- fried potatoes, beetroot, green beans, chick pea curry sauce, and I can’t remember what the last one was! You select your amounts of each vegetable from each dish, add your rice and curry, and you’re away. The hoppers are like a pancake type of food that you can use to mop up the curry once you have put it together on your plate. I enjoyed it, and I’m not particularly a curry fan!

We got back to base camp at about 8:30. Then it was straight to bed for us both. We’ve both had a bit too much sun today! Although just before I went to my bedroom, Ella did give me one of her bikinis to fix for tomorrow, she said it will give me something to do in bed!!! Cheeky beggar!!!

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