North Western Province

Day 2:
We woke up from our concrete bed feeling somewhat un-refreshed. This was soon improved however by the breakfast spread laid out for us - a Sri Lankan style “English breakfast” complete with a side of Dahl (obviously). We wondered along the coast to get our bearings before hiring a moped and heading to the beach in the hope of having our first kite surfing lesson. The sight of an almost deserted beach quickly made it obvious that this wasn’t going to happen, with two instructors explaining that the wind was ‘no good’ today. With this, we headed into town in the hope of finding some lunch. Cafes/restaurants did not seem to exist so after driving around for 30 minutes covering all roads on the map, we pulled into a very authentic, local street food “cafe”. It only made sense that we witnessed a rat run out of the door of the kitchen just as we were about to walk in. At this point however, they had spotted us and there was no going back, as we were quickly ushered to sit down at the single table in the cafe supplied with a stack of napkins and ketchup. Still to this day it’s a mystery as to what the samosa style item we were served contained. On the positive side, two samosas and a 7up cost only 75p! After some excitement for the day we headed back to the hotel where we spent the afternoon relaxing by/in the pool pretending to be crocodiles. We finished the day with a three course dinner (pumpkin soup, roast chicken, garlic rice, salad and fruit salad and ice cream with “bees nectar” for desert) and an early night.

Day 3:
Up early, we had another amazing breakfast spread - today it was waffles which was of course came complete with Dahl and coconut samba. Having managed to sort out a kite surfing lesson we were collected by the boat from the hotel next door and zoomed across to the beach. Today was a very different picture with around 40 kite surfers already out on the water. We met our instructor and learnt the basics of kite control and then progressed onto body dragging in the water. My bum is still recovering from the heavy exfoliation it was given from the sand and sam certainly brought the style to the team - one look at us and there was no doubt we were beginners! I’d like to say it was only how we looked that gave away the fact that we were beginners, but it was also likely very obvious when I catapulted us across that lagoon before crashing the kite! We called it a day after 4 hours out on the water and some very red faces and headed back to grab some lunch. A quick trip into town left us struggling again to find some basic lunch items as the only shops around were so small and full of flys. So today lunch consisted of cheese triangles, biscuits and peanuts! We finished the day with a lovely dinner (Vegetable soup, Grilled fish, veg and cauliflower cheese and passion fruit sponge cake and ice cream for dessert) and an evening of socializing with our neighbors from Germany/France.

Day 4:
We were up early today to grab the boat back to the beach for the final day of kite surfing following another bowl of Dahl for breakfast. Annoyingly whilst preparing the kite my back decided to “pop” and spasm (a classic Reagan’s back situation) which left me walking like I had pooped my pants. I tried to continue with the lesson but it was a definite no go so Sam soldiered on alone. Today he managed to do a water start and was up for a solid few seconds before the crash landing came. I took on the role of photographer which also featured many dogs on the beach, so I was happy. Sam returned after 2 hours on the water and we headed back to the hotel to shower and pack. We were collected by our driver and commenced the 2.5 hour journey to Wilpattu national park. On route, our driver wanted to treat us to some of our ‘favorite fruits’ and so he selected the best watermelon, mango and something that was a cross between a grapefruit and an orange with a lemony taste, for us! We arrived at the camp in time for ‘tea and coffee’ which i was very happy with as it was my first English breakfast tea since we arrived! Another 3 course dinner in front of the bonfire (although sadly not quite to the same standards) and an early night to prepare for our safari in the morning.Read more