Siguriya

Where to start? Visiting a country for the first time, and the first three days have been a whirlwind.

We started in Negombo, near the airport. We took a quick trip around to look at the fishing industry, with big ones for sale at the market and thousands of little ones spread out to dry in the sun.

Then we headed north-west to Habarana, where we kicked off with a wildlife safari in the Minneriya National Park.

It didn’t start overly well. We came across several elephants, unfortunately surrounded by about a dozen jeeps full of spectators. The traffic jam was horrendous and the elephants were a bit pissed off at all the attention while they chewed their way through kilo after kilo of grass.

Things improved though, when we came upon a couple of groups of elephants that we had almost entirely to ourselves, then a dam with some impressive birdlife. They really do need to reduce the visitor numbers, though.

Next stop was a most touristic combination, beginning with an ox-cart ride. It was slow, unbelievably bumpy and smelly. Not recommended other than for lovers of ox farts - thumbs down.

Our next activity was a boat ride on a quite large man-made lake. Our boatman was very diligent and we saw numerous different birds, egrets, cormorants, pelicans and even some nestlings. Overall a thumbs up.

Next was a cooking display. The food was delicious and the skill and friendliness of the ladies who prepared it quite brilliant - another thumbs up. It poured with rain while we were there, so maybe a small thumbs down for the drips through the palm frond roof.

We later came across the youngest of our cooking ladies, in boxer shorts and t-shirt and playing with her younger brothers - a nice personal insight into the people involved in the family business.

The following day we climbed Siguriya, the famed Lion Rock.

It is a stunning landmark, 200 metres high. What a place for a castle, as King Kashyapa decided in the year 477, taking it away from the Buddhists who had been there for the previous few hundred years.

It was a long, hot, slow climb to the top, in the company of the other few thousand visitors for the day, but the rewards for the sweat and aching legs were magnificent views from all sides and the quite interesting ruins of the fortifications. Thoughtfully they even provided one tree for shade, into which about a hundred people were crowded.

After a jam packed few days were are now moving on to Kandy, slightly cooler weather and some different attractions.Read more