"Twelve days to experience the splendid temples, wildlife parks, ancient monuments & palaces, exotic spicy food, breathtaking scenery and stunning southern beaches. Where do you start ? "
Colombo international airport was packed with the humid hustle and bustle of Sri Lankans and tourists as we navigated our way through to the airport exit to find our driver, Joseph for the drive north. A big personality, passionate cricket lover (as are all Sri Lankans) and big story teller, he regaled us with stories and histories as we speeded north, weaving in and out of the chaotic traffic.
TEMPLES, PALACES AND CITIES - THE CULTURAL TRIANGLE
Our first destination was up to the “cultural triangle” where our first stop was the iconic 5th century fortress and palace at Sigiriya which is set on top of a 200m high rock which dominates the local countryside. Not for the faint hearted ! there are precarious walkways and vertical steps set into the rock leading up to amazing frescos, carvings and the spectular palace, gardens and bathing pool carved into the top of the rock will views all around.
After a night in Sigirya water gardens, we set off to explore the palace and vertigo inducing climbs. Luckily Joseph knew the “off the beaten track” walks and we had an early morning visit free of crowds.
Our next destination was the Dambulla cave temple complex - the world heritage site and
largest and best preserved cave temple complex in Sri Lanka.
Finally to Polonnaruwa, an ancient city and temple complex that was the capital of Sri Lanka for three hundred years up to the 13th century and incredibly preserved.
The next stop was to brave the traffic of bustling Kandy to visit the Temple of the Sacred Tooth. The Temple of the Tooth (Dalada Maligawa) is a vibrant bustling active buddhist temple which is said to hold the tooth of Buddha – one of the most important Buddhist relics. Centuries old,
anyone for tea ? - plantation bungalow on the Rosyth Tea Estate
Rosyth is located up in the hills with the most stunning views of the surrounding countryside, visiting the tea plantation and tea factory and learning about the different grades including the highly valuable "silver tips". We also visited the rubber plantations which are slowly falling into disuse without people working there.
"MINNERIYA TANK AND UDAWALAWE NATIONAL PARKS - YOU CAN HAVE THE PARK TO YOURSELF IF YOU PLAN CAREFULLY"
Sri Lanka has a number of incredible national parks which are home to a wide range of animals including elephants, leopards, deer, wild buffalo/boar, crocodiles and a vibrant variety of birds.
We first visited the Minneriya Tank – central national park with a huge reservoir/lake which is host to large populations of elephants during dry season and great place for elephant spotting.
Our guide, Joseph, made sure we didn’t go into the park with the crowds and we were lucky enough to only see one other jeep for the duration of our safari. We saw over 60 elephants and got stuck there for an hour as we were surrounded by elephants and couldn’t go anywhere!
The huge lake is host to an amazing ecosystem including large fish eagles scanning the lake for their next meal.
At Udawalawe National Park we ventured out on early morning and evening safaris in search of deer, elephants, water buffalo, wild boar, birdlife, leopard, the Sri Lankan sloth and the unusual looking mugger crocodile with it's short, wide snout and protruding teeth.
Finally, after days of bouncing around in safari jeeps, we retired to the stunning south western coastline and beaches, visiting Galle, a traditional port city in the south west which was formerly occupied by the portuguese and then the dutch during colonial times and for several hundred years was the main port for shipping spice from Sri Lanka. In 2004 it was sadly hit by the Tsunami resulting in thousands of deaths in the city alone.
Galle, with it's large stone fort, old town white washed buildings and restaurants and cafes is a great place to wander and relax.
And on to our final stop - Weligama for some surfing and beach time before the bustle back to Colombo and - yes - the bustling International airport for the flight home.
We left lots of unfinished business, and friends in Sri Lanka and it won't be long before we return !
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