NEGOMBO TO DAMBULLA

Got picked up today at 8.00am to go to Dambulla. (Approx. 4 hours driving.) On the way,  after two and half hours we stopped to visit Pinnawala. the Pinnawala Elephant Orphanage which provided us with the best chance of seeing a large number of elephants at close quarters. We were told the most interesting part was to see the baby elephants being bottle fed and the entire herd taken for a bath thereafter to a river nearby. Unfortunately we were too late to see the babies been fed as we had two and half hours driving to get there and they were fed at 9.30am so we missed out.  After this we arrived at our next hotel at about 1.00pm. Rest of the day at leisure at the hotel which was very nice after our long drive. Caught up with washing then walked around the grounds.

We have now stopped at the Pinnawala Elephant Orpanage. We saw this chap first, he is out in the fields with some of the larger elephants in the background.

All the different  area of the park have gates like this to go through ( three posts set in a triangle )so the elephants can't get through if they got out of their areas. PT demonstrating that he has to breath in to get through so he must be 'as big as an elephant' as the saying goes.

We now had to walk across the road to a different area down by the river to watch the herd bathing.

I love the position of this little one. He is the right hand one lying down in the above picture. What better way to cool off on a hot day than to keep your head under the water and just have the end of your trunk just out of the water using it as a snorkel. Very clever.

Just down across the river these ones were being cooled down with a hose held by one of the keepers.

Hose time is over.

Zoomed in for a close up. Over 40 in all.

As we were driving along took this shot through the windscreen just to show how  tropical it looks, green and lush. It's been like this right from the coast to where we are now.  One would gather that this means lots of rain. We hear all different stories re weather patterns here. It's meant to be quite different in the different areas. They have their monsoon season at all different times. Supposedly it's meant to be monsoon time where we are and going to but if it's anything like Malaysia the rains only come late afternoon and evenings. Hope this will be the case for us if it does rain.  No rain yet but perhaps I shouldn't have said that!! The surface of the roads have been excellent although windy, but after all we are now climbing over the mountain areas. Far better than India's roads and so different to India's dry countryside. In Sri Lanka the skies are clear not like India with all their dust and haze. A big contrast between countries. Also here you don't see any rubbish anywhere like in India.

After five hours since leaving Negombo we arrived at our hotel at Dambulla called Amaya Lake.  What a amazing  place set in these huge grounds on the edge of the lake. Our split level room. Bathroom to the left of the bedroom. Very nice a complete separate villa. The only negative is that the seat in the lounge is very uncomfortable as just bare wood no cushion to sit on. This is the only seating.

Our Villa no. 56. This photo makes it look smaller than it is. We are about 200ms from the reception area. Which you wind down paths through the trees. All beautifully laid out. Bit far for a couple of oldies to walk every time we go for meal, breakfast swim. I thought that they could have put us closer as also up hill.

After settling in we went for a walk around the complex. This is the track down to the lake edge which is about 150m from the main complex and probably our room.

A fisherman paddling out to do some fishing. A Canoe shaped boat with an outrigger.



This is the area down on the lake edge where you can sit and relax as per PT very peaceful away from the hotel.I think that they have BBQ's down here in the evenings sometimes.

A close up of the above photo

How about this for a tree hut. Our grandkids would love this.

The reception desk and foyer. Very impressive.



Standing on the steps looking over the bar and swimming pool outside.

From the swimming pool looking back up to the bar area.

Looking over to the pool. Nice big pool going from 3ft to 8ft deep. Our five grandkids would love this also.  After we had our walk around the estate we had a refreshing swim after our hot day. Now we are in the middle of Sri Lanka, so no more sea breeze which we had on the coast on our arrival. Inland again like the whole time we were in India.

We have two nights here and another day of sightseeing tomorrow in a place called Sigiriya 16kms away then back to this hotel for the night. It's going to be very hard work so I will tell you all about it tomorrow. After our meal tonight and walking back to our room there were flashes of lightning and also glow worms flying through the air. Quite an amazing sight cos at first we thought we were seeing exotic animals in front of us. Like crocodiles!!!!

Guess who wrote this last sentence.!!!