Sri Lanka

As it went dark we were invited to witness the actual Buddhist ceremony. I'm not sure we knew exactly what was going on but it was a colourful and noisy spectacle all the same.

a Buddhist monk (who rather spoilt things by then telling us he'd lived in London for 35 years and could recitell every London postcode and location by heart!

Leslie Welch( the memory man) has become a Buddhist monk?

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We had another 5:30 start yesterday for our second jeep safar,  this time in the Bundala National Park. It mainly consists of wetlands and was primarily a bird watching trip.  There was a fantastic variety including several species of kingfishers,  herons and lapwings. Unfortunately my tablet's not up to close up shots but you'll  be able to make out the colony of painted storks in the first photo and the tiny speck in the second is a beautiful blue tailed bee eater which sat posing for several minutes. We ate a picnic breakfast overlooking the Indian Ocean, then, on the way back the driver got very excited when he saw these two male elephants "playing" on the road, though it looked a bit rough to me! Eventually they crashed off back into the forest, literally - there's little finesse with these beasts, they literally trample any plants or treestate in their way. It makes you begin to understand the hostility which some remote villages show towards them as they can literally destroy a whole farm's crops in minutes.

Thanks Moulesy, nice to see the elephants with a lot of freedom to roam.

Cheers M, lots to think about regarding our next trip.

We talked to our guide about that. Apparently over the past 10 years or so the government has been working hard to extend the range of the national parks to reduce the incidents of confrontation between man and beast. They've also been investing with the Born Free foundation to aid the works of centres like the orphanage we saw. It's quite a heartening picture really! 

We've reached our final port of call, Beruwala on the west coast about 50 miles south of Colombo. We stopped off briefly at Galle on our way which has some interesting Dutch buildings and an historic fort. The old fishing area is quite picturesque but otherwise there's not much of distinction that we noticed (apart from the Test Match cricket ground right next to the fort! )

Beruwala is really little more than a beach resort and the hotel is not like any of the others we've used - large,  noisy and very, very busy. But there is a beautiful mile long sandy beach to stroll along and use up the last few rupees at the inevitable tat (sorry, souvenir) stalls!

We fly home tomorrow; it's been a wonderful holiday on an island with so much history, nature, culture and interesting buildings. So much more than just a beach destination,  though having said that,  the long sandy beach here is not a bad memory to take home with us. 

Enjoy your last few hours and a safe journey home. Next??