Normally I dislike lumping days together, because often it isn’t possible to do all of the days events justice, plus I could write on and on about every single day that I have spent in this marvellous country. I am however very far behind on my writing schedule, so the next two days of my Sri Lanka holiday are going to be grouped together and hopefully it remains an interesting read.
On the morning of the 7th day of our trip I woke up extra early to go visit a tea factory up near the peak called Lipton’s seat (Of Lipton’s tea fame) our hotel included 50 acres of tea plantation so we were definitely in tea growing country, and I wanted to see the process of it turning from leaf to the magical black powder that gives me the energy to face each day. The factory itself was rather small in comparison to the behemoths I’ve seen in Europe, but it was packed to the brim with all sorts of drying and sorting machines. I was not allowed to film or take pictures, but it was truly a sight to behold. The range of tea being produced went from very fine powder that was the best quality to large twiggy bits that are used as fertiliser. We also learned that only the top bud and two or three leaves are picked, and still they produce about 20 tons of tea on a weekly basis. The smell alone drove me crazy, and I wanted to take the entire warehouse back with me to Belgium. We did buy some tea of course, I would never baulk at a chance to indulge in my addiction but I left with a sense of longing. The final bit of information we learnt from our tour was that this factory was built by sir Thomas Lipton himself, and his picture hung in the offices of the factory. It must have been a different time because that moustache made me feel most inadequate.
The my mother and brother did not share in my father and myself’s passion for tea so they politely listened to us while we ate what must be the food that they serve to gods. It was like a cross between a pancake and a birds nest with an egg in the middle, and it tasted divine. I wanted to stay for longer at that lovely hotel but we had to move on, so we piled into a van to take us down to Yala national park. We learnt to our dismay en route that there was no air conditioning in said van, and the further down the mountains we went the more unpleasant it became. Were it not for a nice waterfall and an amusing road block in the form of an elephant begging for food it would have been one of the worst journeys I had been on. It didn’t help that our driver drove like a possessed man. Word to the wise, travel by train as much as you can in Sri Lanka because the roads are at best tense and at worst pants soiling terrifying. On the positive side the hotel had a nice pool where we were able to cool down and rest after the long journey, and that is pretty much all we did for the rest of the day.
On the second day we woke up at 5:20 to go on a safari. The aim was to see leopards and sloth bears so we left with great anticipation. Just like Minneriya there were almost as many jeeps as there were animals, so it wasn’t too surprising that the elusive predators didn’t show up. There are only about 50 or so leopards in an area covering 4000 acres, so spotting their tracks was all that we could hope for. It was the same with sloth bears, but we did see almost everything else. Deer, Water Buffalo, crocodiles, Peacocks, wild Boar and even a small heard of shy elephants made the early rise worth every bit of lost sleep. We even saw a monitor lizard that was about a foot long and a few hornbills, and that was more than enough for us. On our return the owner of the hotel said that he was going back into the park in the afternoon and asked if we wanted to join him, but we declined in favour of rest and swimming a bit longer in the pool. Much as I love seeing animals in the wild, I do not love them enough to sit in an open jeep for five hours waiting for something that might or might not happen.
That is just about everything that happened over these two days. We did briefly look at a temple in Yala but it was one of those horrible new ones that was nothing special. There was also a tent for the upcoming full moon festival and I got a giggle out of seeing a charge point for mobile phones, but again it wasn’t really something to write home about.
The problem with holidays is that as you reach the end the days start getting shorter and shorter. It is always nice to go home but I am going to miss this wonderful country. There is so much to do here and even though we have had a busy week it feels like I’m missing out of many other lovely cities and brilliant vistas, but that will be for the next time I come to Sri Lanka, and there most definitely will be a next time. My next entry will probably be another double day bonanza because we spent a lot for the first day travelling, but was just as much fun as these two days. So until then