When we returned to the Amarantha after the Rock Temple, we got a tuk tuk driven by Nihal. He is a nice guy with good English, who wanted to tell us about the area, and offered to take us out on a day trip.
So today he took us out for the best day of our holiday so far. We got up at 7am and he picked us up in his superior three wheeler. It has seat belts, comfy seats and goes reasonably fast for a three wheeled scooter. Our first stop was Sigirya, a ruined fortress that sits on top of a 200 metre rock. The admission cost is as steep as the rock, 4,500 rupees, which is about £25 each. There are two prices at most of the sites, the locals pay a fraction of what foreigners pay, which is fair given the difference in incomes. The approach is along an avenue flanked by ponds and lawns, and foundations of brick buildings, long since gone. It was about 9am when we arrived, and was already heaving with European and Chinese tourists. To reach the top you take metal staircases which are attached to the sheer sides of the rock. The ascent is steep, and in some places a metre wide staircase is shared by people going both up and down the rock. There are 1200 steps, but you can’t go up quickly so it isn’t very taxing. The main hold up was people taking photos of the making views.
The hike is worth is for amazing view at the top, you can see for miles around in all directions. The summit has more foundations of brick buildings, and cisterns for water storage. On the way up are some frescoes painted onto the inside of a rock overhang. They are of either concubines, goddesses or nymphs depending on what you read, and they are very curvaceous, like images of Shiva’s consort Parvati that we saw in the museum in Colombo.
Nihal picked us up at the exit car park and took us to a local cafe for lunch. The rice and curry was delicious, better food than we get in our hotel. Next he took us to meet our safari driver, and we parted with about £65 before climbing into a big Mahindra jeep. We drove to Kadulla National Park, a large area of dense forest surrounding a huge open meadow with a big reservoir and smaller lakes and water holes. In the forest we saw monkeys, peacocks and a monitor lizard. Once we got into the meadow there were elephants, hundreds of them! They were in many family groups of ten or twenty, with some big males away from thegroup on their own. They were grazing, pulling up grass with their trunks in a twisting motion, then sweeping it back an forth to remove the dirt before eating it. A few hundred yards away we saw a herd of wild buffalo, but we didn’t go close.
When we first arrived with the elephants there was one other jeep, by the time we left there were dozens of them, some loaded up with eight or ten people. The elephants behaved like the deer in Richmond Park, they just ignored us and carried on eating.
It was a real privilege to get so close to so many magnificent animals, there was also fox, fish eagles, storks, egrets and many colourful bird I didn’t recognise. On the main road back we had to stop while a big male elephant stamped on some kind of nut on the road.
I must apologise for not looking very cool in the photo below. I needed a “prat hat” to save my head from burning, and sunglasses to keep the dust from my eyes. I don’t think this photo will be published in Vogue.
What great day that was!
timharnesstravels 