Our Tour of Sri Lanka (Part 2)

We then headed from Hatton to Yala, the day was incredibly long due to fitting in Nuwara Eliya and old colonial town the locals refer to as ‘Little England,’ it was a short stop again an old colonial hotel, lots of dark wood panelling, straight out of an Agatha Christie novel. We stopped at Ella, to be shown 5 Arches bridge and then after lunch Madeleine and I climbed ‘Little Adams Peak’ it wasn’t little, it was hot and humid and in that respect it was like climbing Sigirya Rock. Madeleine and I made it, lovely views and sense of achievement just as it started to rain and we descended! We arrived at our hotel for the night at Cinnamon Wild, Yala. A hotel complex set in the National Park of Yala, our lodge was in the trees and was we arrived with our hotel guide bringing our luggage we were met by a troop of monkeys, in the trees next to our lodge. As we got ready for dinner, we could hear their ‘clogs’ on the roof. Next morning was an early start to do a safari, it should have taken 3 hours but we got stuck twice and it took 6 hours to get back to check out of hotel. We continued our trip to Galle, an old Portuguese Fort town, still in use today via, a Turtle Sanctuary. It was explained how the baby turtles are buried by their Mums and the sanctuary collects them to ensure they survive, we saw turtles that the sanctuary look after, one had lost it’s flipper and couldn’t go back in the sea, another was albino and had a deformed shell. We also saw lots of healthy baby turtles all swimming in a pool, until they are old enough to be let loose about 2 weeks after hatching. We continued our journey to Galle. We had lunch but as the time was mid to late afternoon and to his credit Nalinda, still wanted to show us things on the schedule, but we asked to be taken to our final hotel at Cinnamon Bey, near Bentota. By the time we arrived we had been going since 5am and it was about 6.30pm. Arriving at Cinnamon Bey, meant we had reached our final hotel of the trip. Time to relax properly, sitting by the pool taking a dip to cool off, Madeleine enjoyed going snorkelling in the Indian Ocean right on the beach. Madeleine fancied going whale watching, after speaking to hotel reception they arranged for a driver. After a bit of negotiation, we came to an arrangement. Madeleine would leave the following morning at 4.50am to be at the boat to go looking for whales. On returning Madeleine explained the whales had been quite elusive. What she did come back with was a very nice ‘Rainbow sapphire’ ring, we can’t decide if she was pressured, did she pay a fair price? We will only know when we have it evaluated in the UK, we did speak to the gentlemen involved in the transaction and they offered a full refund, but Madeleine likes the ring and it’s a nice keep sake from the trip. We did go for a ride in a Tuk-Tuk with a local man, we met on the beach, he took us to a local village were we bought some extra gifts for some family members