Habarana: not an exotic cocktail but the centre of Sri Lanka

Tuesday 21st October

We were rather horrified to discover as we emerged from our rooms for breakfast that there were hundreds of other people staying there.  As there is about 25 of us we expect to outnumber all of the  other tourists. This time there were so many buses  it was difficult to work, out which might be ours: fortunately no one ended up on a bus of Spaniards.

First stop was a visit to a tiny village primary school with only 14 students. To get there we had to decant into some jeeps as village roads don't cope well with large buses.

When we arrived all 14 of the students,  dressed in their best white school uniforms, their parents and their teachers were there  to greet us. They had never had a tour group visit and it had taken our Tour Company some time to work out with the local guides which school was in need of some support.

We had a wonderful time chatting to the children, being shown their school library ( three bookcases) of which they were very proud, and presenting them with some laptops and sports equipment. They were very excited and soon there were frisbees flying, skipping ropes swinging  and shuttlecocks disappearing! We were exhausted but they were very happy.

Then, drinking coconut juice straight from the coconut, we sat in the shade of a large tree and watched them perform some of their songs and dances. Everyone participated although some were a little overawed by all of us! We reciprocated by singing 'Kookaburra sits on the old gum tree' in a round. It actually sounded a lot better than we thought it would as we had not done any practice, as opposed to the children who had obviously been rehearsing for ages. Heaven knows what they thought of it!

Finally the mothers of the children,  all dressed in their best, answered our questions using Thushara, one of our guides, as an interpreter. It was fascinating to hear how they value exactly the same goals for their children: education is prized highly ( 91.8% literacy rate in SL),  the availability of health services even in their isolated village seemed good, and all of us agreed we worked too hard whether it be with our brains or physical work! They work in the fields every day producing  vegetables and 'big onions'. They were concerned about the lack of a standard price for their produce and at times the cost of production outweighs the income gained.
We asked them to describe their favourite local dish which is a sweet pudding consisting of a pancake wrapped in a large green leaf and steamed. We've yet to try it. It was a lovely experience for all of us and we hope they get plenty of use for the gifts and cash we gave them. Apparently access to the Internet is a challenge but some of the local guides are working on it.

As the heat was building we spent a few very hot hours at Polonnaruva: another UNESCO world heritage site . It was created with the renaissance of Buddhism in the 11th Century but buildings and gardens had been added to it over the centuries as three kings lived there, including the addition of some Hindu monuments as well.

The complex consisted of a number of buildings in a state of ruin and extensive gardens and dams that again had been uncovered by the British after they took over SL in the early 1800's.

 The buildings included a beautiful roofless Citadel with 4 serene Buddhas and extensive carvings of elephants lions and foxes on semicircular moonstones leading up the steps to the Buddhas. Again the workmanship in the walls of the dams and in the remains of the buildings was remarkable. 
The next stop was to see a simple stone buddha standing 6.5 metres tall and a beautiful stone reclining buddha. We had to cover ourselves to visit all of these sites and were provided with  white sarongs to cover our legs or shoulders and white socks so that we could stand the heat of the rocks. Quite a fashion statement especially with our sandals over the top of the socks! (Sue I. commented that she has calabresi blood so it's expected that she wears socks with her sandals!)

To recuperate from the heat we set off for the Lake Hotel  for a swim and lunch. It looks out over the Habarana Lake which is 12 kms long, and on the opposite bank we had our first sighting of a few elephants!

Finally the big event of the day was upon us: an elephant jeep safari.

From the extreme heat and humidity of the morning the weather changed completely to a monsoonal downpour whilst we were in the bus.  It wasn't looking good for any open jeep trips but just as we reached the jeeps the rain stopped so we all piled in determined to go. When it does rain it's not cold so we were quite glad of a few drops.

We bumped mercilessly along some muddy slippery dirt roads through the jungle, spying a couple of peacock along the way.

 Then the open space on the banks of the river appeared and we saw a group of more than 60 elephants quietly grazing. It was a family group of mothers and some very small babies led by one giant matriach. She started to get a bit edgy and flapped her ears and made some trumpeting noises and came towards us , so we moved away. At one point one of the elephants actually chased a jeep away when it came too close. You can see the smiles on those who escaped below.......!

  There was much bouncing around as the driver skilfully negotiated the increasingly slippery tracks and the ruts and potholes. At one point our jeep ran into one of the others as we were overtaking, but there were smiles all round and no one seemed very upset.

The sight of the sunset over the lake was beautiful as we drove towards another group of animals including a male 'tusker'. They are very rare apparently and it's huge white tusks were very impressive. The asian elephants are much smaller than their african counterparts but just as fascinating.

Feeling very happy despite speckles of mud everywhere, we piled back into the bus and after dinner and a swim piled contentedly into bed.

your impressed correspondent

Dianne