Sri Lanka & India 23/24

dezembro 2023 - janeiro 2024
  • Geoff Potter
  • Lara Potter
  • Michelle Potter
  • Stanley Potter
Uma 36aventura de um dia na Geoff, Lara, Michelle & Stanley Leia mais
  • Geoff Potter
  • Lara Potter
  • Michelle Potter
  • Stanley Potter

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  • Trying Indian Gooseberries

    29 de dezembro de 2023, Sri Lanka ⋅ 🌧 24 °C

    When we got back to our driver we decided to buy a coconut from the little store and we were encouraged to try an Indian Gooseberry. Oh my gosh was the taste bitter! Mum’s face said it all! Strangely though after a few minutes the taste in the mouth becomes very sweet and fresh. The taste lingered for ages and was really quite amazing. Glad we persevered after that initial bite!

    With all the rain we headed back to Dream Café and had a late lunch and played some pool. Home early again so we could conquer those stairs in daylight, must count them tomorrow! We catch up on journals and photos then a couple of games of Rummikub and it's an early night. We are on the move again tomorrow, looking forward to some drier weather, fingers crossed!
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  • Stopped by the Cops on the way to Kumbuk

    30 de dezembro de 2023, Sri Lanka ⋅ ☁️ 29 °C

    The day didn’t start so well! We had said to the driver to meet us at the local restaurant at 8am. After a flurry of WhatsApp messages and much agitation he arrived at around 8.50am. Not impressed! We were heading to the elephant safari so really wanted to try and get there early while there was no rain and we had the best chance to see the most elephants.

    Our excitement happened when our driver was pulled over by the cops! We didn’t really understand what it might be for but the driver explained there were some lights on his windscreen that were not allowed and these police were very strict. However the Police now thought he had been drinking and wanted him to come to the Police Station.

    After frantically consuming some antacid and another substance from his glove compartment and borrowing Mum’s water bottle to wash it down he headed off to the Police Station. Dad took the opportunity to put the washing on the car to dry it out – It was 31 degrees and wasn’t going to let this opportunity go to get the raincoats dry!

    Our driver insisted he only had 1 cocktail the night before and while the cops didn’t believe him (and nor did we judging by the bags under his eyes) they let him go without a fine or charges. The Policeman came over to apologise for the interruption but we cheerily insisted it was no problem at all and wondered if he would let Mum have a photo with him which he dutifully obliged! Another great story for our travels! Our driver said if he lost his licence it wasn’t really a problem as the Sri Lanka system was not computerised so if they take your licence you go to the next town and say you lost it and get issued a new one. Great system!
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  • Safari Udawalawe National Park

    30 de dezembro de 2023, Sri Lanka ⋅ ☁️ 30 °C

    We eventually made it to Udawalawe National Park. This park is very famous for the Elephants but there are lots of other animals here too. Our driver advised us to say Stanley was 9 and Lara 11 and 9 months (but tall for her age!) so we could get a good discount! We didn’t want to upset the system so we went with it!

    The jeeps were really neat, open aired with elevated seats at the back which Lara and Stanley really appreciated. Some of the ‘roads’ were pretty bumpy but it was an adventure!

    Our driver was great at pointing things out that we had missed like the iguanas sitting in the middle of the road! Along with elephants and iguanas amongst other things we saw some rare Sri Lankan small barbets, kingfishers, greyheaded fish eagle, Sri Lankan sambar deer, white bellied sea eagle and a couple of crocodiles. Fortunately no snakes!
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  • Udawalawe

    30 de dezembro de 2023, Sri Lanka ⋅ ☁️ 31 °C

    Udawalawe National Park is famous for its elephants. We found our first 2 elephants pretty quickly then it was a bit of a mission through many back roads until we found a family of 4 which was very exciting.

    Was incredible how close they came. We were definitely warned to keep the arms inside the jeep and no sudden movements!

    They are just such an amazing animal. Feels very spiritual being this close
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  • On the road to KumbukRiver

    30 de dezembro de 2023, Sri Lanka ⋅ ☁️ 28 °C

    We made a few stops on the way to our hotel. A Lara pose in a rice field - just had to be done! A fruit stand. And one for the only in India (I mean Sri Lanka!) files.

  • The treacherous road to Kumbuk River

    30 de dezembro de 2023, Sri Lanka ⋅ ☁️ 27 °C

    Getting to our Hotel turned out to be an adventure in its own right! Kumbuk River Eco Lodge is very much off the beaten track and a novelty in its own right with the Elephant House being world famous in Sri Lanka. Google Maps took us off the main road but the Hotel had advised not to follow Google Maps as it sent you in the wrong way. Following the Hotel's instructions we made it to a very rural back road and then was an inverted bridge that was too deep for the car to get through. We were worried about the amount of water in it but as we approached the bottom of the car scraped pretty early on and so Aruna aborted and rung the Hotel for help.

    It was persisting down with rain (obviously!) but the Hotel folk were good humoured and insisted the car could do it. We all got out and our luggage too so the car was as light as could be. No problem, he got through with only a small scrape of the underbelly!

    Further down the road was the turn off to the Hotel plus another inverted bridge and a very narrowing muddying path. Aruna put his foot down and said he wasn’t driving there with his car. The Hotel guys thought he was pretty soft but they went back and got their little Subaru and loaded all 4 of us and all our luggage and set off. It did seem pretty crazy but as they promised we got there safe and sound!
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  • Tree house - Kumbuk River

    30 de dezembro de 2023, Sri Lanka ⋅ ☁️ 26 °C

    We chose Kumbuk River Eco Lodge because it was totally unique! There are 4 units on the property and each has unique qualities with the Elephant House being the most iconic. We decided to stay in the Tree House but the Truck looked pretty cool too. The Hotel Manager informed us it had the biggest bed in Sri Lanka and we think he might be right! Room for all 4 of us to fit across! We decided given the messy sleepers that our kids can be that we would get the sofa bed made up to give us a little more room.

    As we were so isolated Dinner and Breakfast were included in the price. Boy was dinner spectacular! The meal prepared was a total feast and everything tasted so incredibly good. There was so much food we couldn’t finish it all but we were totally satisfied.

    What a beautiful place! We look forward to exploring it tomorrow, fingers crossed the rain cuts us a break!

    We all slept pretty well! The river was very swollen from all the rain, the Manager said it was under the Treehouse yesterday, but the noise was soothing rather than keeping us awake. When we were shown our room there were a few leaks here and there and the water filtration system for the running water was broken so it was brown water. We totally understood given what we had seen from the amount of rain that had fallen.

    Breakfast was as spectacular as dinner was! No toast and eggs here. We asked for western and local foods as we know how fussy Lara can be! The waffles with chocolate sauce were a winner as were the coconut patties. The freshly squeezed juices were to die for and it was the best coffee we had had in Sri Lanka. A great way to start the day, just sad we will miss breakfast on the last day as we leave super early to get to the safari in time.
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  • Kumbuk River Nature Walk

    31 de dezembro de 2023, Sri Lanka ⋅ ☁️ 28 °C

    There were plenty of things advertised to do but a few were not possible with the swing bridge wiped out and the river uncrossable so we decided to do the nature walk. Now this wasn’t a nature walk like we had ever done before! We wondered why there were two guides needed but it became apparent fairly soon. There were wild elephants around and there was one who had been through that morning that was a lone elephant and was attacking humans. An angry elephant is not something you want to encounter!

    One of the guides went further out in front and asked us to not talk so that he could listen out for signs of elephants. The other guide stayed close to us. He explained the escape routes should we encounter an elephant. Basically run and duck under the electric fence. If that was too far away then run up a bank or climb a tree. The lead guide would stay and ward off the elephant while we made our dash. All of this wasn’t hugely reassuring but it was an adventure we reasoned!

    On our way we saw some pretty significantly sized elephant footprints and we were shown where an elephant had broken through a fence to reach a farmer's crops. On every farm there was a tree house where the farmer would sleep at night to protect his crops by warding off the elephant. First protection is the electric fence, second is fire crackers and thirdly a gun (they would shoot over the top of the elephant to scare it).

    Then we were shown a footprint of a leopard. There weren’t many outside of the National Park but there was at least one living near us! We managed to navigate the trails without any encounters with life threatening animals and made it to the lake where the guide found a crocodile egg. Had to have been dead given it had been abandoned and not eaten, interesting all the same.
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  • Kumbuk River village tour

    31 de dezembro de 2023, Sri Lanka ⋅ 🌧 29 °C

    Next we were taken to the home of a woman who was widowed when her husband was murdered a few years ago. Without a husband, life was pretty tough in the village and, as she was not a local, she had no other family around and so was ostracised a bit. The staff of Kumbuk River had decided to help her a little by including her on the stop where they would use her oven to cook corn and harvest some coconuts so we could try both as part of the tour.

    It really made for quite a unique experience and so we felt good about leaving her some money. 5,000 rupees is pretty significant to villagers and you could tell from the look on her face that we really had made a huge difference to her which made us feel good.

    On the walk home we went through the village. People stood in doorways and kids played and everyone noticed us and smiled and waved. Was very sweet. We tried to nail that photo with the whole family standing in the doorway but everyone moved really quick once we got the camera out!
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