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Published: November 2nd 2016
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Day 3
We had a meal last night at the King Coconut family restaurant which was nice, and headed up in the pouring rain to the Rodeo bar - we were there until it closed and they were putting up the shutters around us! We had a poor nights sleep, mostly due to the dripping air conditioning unit in the room, which by morning had left a significant puddle on the floor. The barking of stray dogs (prolific as in all Asian countries), and squawking of rook like birds added to our disturbed night.
Indy was waiting for us after breakfast for the 4 or so hour journey to Sigiriya. On the way there were a Number of traffic jams caused by people's visiting the local cemeteries for All Souls Day. They take floral tributes and spend time remembering those that have passed. On the coast, there is quiet a large Christian community as this is where the first settlers from Portugal and Holland landed and tried to covert the locals. Inland, it is mostly Buddhist, and is reflected in the change in roadside statues to worship from our Lady to Buddha. Along the way, we passed through a
couple of larger towns, they had a Pizza Hut, but the rest of the countryside was rice fields, bullocks pulling ploughs and small shacks at the side of the road selling not very much to no one in particular. You wonder how they make enough to eat.
We arrived at the Royal fortress of Sigiriya which was designated a World Heritage Site in 1982. You enter past the 5th century water gardens, which are gravity fed just as they were 1500 years ago.Orginally there would have stood pavillions where Kasyapa used to watch his concubines change. Kasyapa was given the title of bad King after he took the throne from his father by plastering him alive to a wall. 18 years later his half brother returned to kill him, and he rode down from his fortress on an elephant and seeing the army and believing he was outnumbered, he killed himself with his dagger.
As as you climb up the steep steps, you come to the fresco gallery. Unfortunately you are no longer permitted to token photos, even without the flash. Try as we might, we couldn't find the nymph with the three nipples or the one with
three hands! There are just 21 remaining of the original 500 and some are not able to be viewed as the metal platform isnt stable.
From here, it is up again to the Mirror Wall, a 3m high wall of highly polished plaster that has ancient and some modern graffiti on it. It also has verses and poems. You continue up to the Lion Terrace, where the giant plaster covered brick paws of a lion as visible. Originally the entire head and front part of the body would have wowed visitors. The remainder of the structure has disappeared but the size of the paws certainly gives a clue as to how big it would have been. It is from here you climb to the summit, interestingly observing the bees nests and some rather angry looking ones near the rock face. All around there are sings asking you to be quiet to avoid disturbing them and there is a metal cage near the paws in which you can take refuge if they attack!
At the summit there are a number of bathing pools on the 200m high rock as this was where the summer palace was situated. Get great
views from the top across the flat jungle landscape so how he ever saw his brother coming to attack a mystery. There are a couple of caves on the way down, but nothing special except a big lizard.
We were ready for some lunch, so Indy took us to a local place where it was buffet - curry, rice, soup and watermelon for dessert. as we had had rain overnight for the last couple of days, Indy had phoned ahead to see if the elephant safari would be better that afternoon as it was dry. No elephants had been seen the day before so we decided to try our luck.
We met our jeep driver in a hotel car park, and then drove for 3/4 hr to the National Park of Kandulla. Here the elephants should come out of the forest to drink and then go between this and another national park along a corridor. Elephant numbers in Sri Lanka are on the increase, as the younger generation realise that conservation is the way forward. They still have issues with elephants destroying farmers crops and we saw electric fences along some parts of the road.
The drive
started slowly, spotting just one lone male elephant. The group we spied in the distance were on the wrong side of the water for us to drive to. We saw a number of herons, two types of storks, red lapwings and peacocks on the ground And in the water. Our driver made good use of the land rovers 4x4 capability to negotiate some of the more muddy sections, and he speeded off towards another male, but had spotted another oherd in the distance. This was a large herd containing many young calves, and whilst we have lots of elephant pictures from other places, I can't resist taking more photos. The herd were on the move and the driver was doing his best to position the jeep in the best places for us to get pictures. It started with a couple of spots of rain, and our insistence that it wasn't that hard. By the time he stopped to put the roof and side down we were saturated and the driver was so wet he took this shirt off and wrung it out. Not deterred by the pouring rain, we continued to snap away at the elephants who by this point
were rolling around in the mud and flinging it onto themselves.
By the time we set off back, we were already losing the light, and it was another 2 hours before we reached our hotel, so buffet meal again for dinner!
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