Day One Sri Lanka

Landed in Colombo at 3.30 totally knackered. Were met my our 'agent' and driver who told us we had a 4/5 hour drive ahead of us.  Luckily one of us remembered the schedule (Howard) and said we had a local hotel for the night. Checked into local hotel at 5am and left at 9am. Both very tired, not excited by the prospect of a 5 hour journey but our guide/driver, Mahesh, was very encouraging and pumped us full of information.  

Stopped at a lakeside for a drink.  Stopped for lunch, with guide hurrying us that we had to be  'somewhere' for 3.00pm. Checked into hotel for 10mins and then back out on Jeep Wildlife Safari!  

Drove for a long time thinking we were on Jeep Safari with driver practising for Sri Lankan Grand Prix, wondering if there was any wildlife about. Jeep stopped abruptly for single adult male elephant, hiding in the shrubbery.

Awesome! But our guide and driver didn't seem too bothered! Drove on to the plains and in the distance saw the elephants drinking at the lake!

The Watched

The Watchers

Photos don't do justice to how serene it was. You'll have to come and see the slide show, folks! 

Drove in the wildlife enclosure for about three hours. Saw loads of birds - egrets, heron, black headed ibis, pelicans, lapwings, white lapwings - have photos of them all for you twitchers. 

Back to hotel at 6.30pm, showered, dinner at 7.30pm - bed by 9.30. Alarm set for 7pm as we're off at 8.30am. Asked Howard to read me itinerary of Day Two .....  Never heard anything after "Tomorrow ..... Zzzzzzzzzzzz