The road to Jaffna

Time to leave Wilpattu Safari Camp and with mixed feelings. We'd had some wonderful experiences here and enjoyed spending time with the other guests and especially Namal. But we were looking forward to a 'proper' hotel room for the next few nights, and to making our own decisions about mealtimes and what to eat.

The others had all gone out on safari by the time we got up. Namal had arranged for us to be served breakfast at 8.00 so we had the luxury of a lie-in. We enjoyed a fruit plate, omelette, toast and jam. We then finished packing and were given a lift down the track to the park gate where Champi was waiting for us.

Isurumuni Rock Temple

We drove for about an hour to the outskirts of Anuradhapura. Champi escorted us to several of the sights there. The first was Isurumuni Rock Temple. This complex dates back to around 300 BCE and was built by King Devanampiya as a residence for about 500 high caste children who had recently been ordained. The cave holds a large reclining Buddha, carved directly from the rock, and many small ones. The walls are painted with scenes from Buddhist religious stories and teachings, especially the Buddha’s life. Permission is needed to take photos, which Champi was quick to secure for me.

A small museum at the site has a number of bas-reliefs from the Anuradhapura period, though precisely where they were discovered is uncertain, as they were moved here some time ago. One of the most famous is the so-called Lovers which a sign dated to the 4th-6th centuries AD.

To the right of the entrance to the temple is another carving, showing a seated man with the head of a horse behind him. This is thought to be Parjanya, the god of rain, and the horse Agni, the lightning that accompanies the rains. Below it at the water’s edge is a carving depicting four bathing elephants, dating from the 7th century AD, just visible in my photo at the top of the page.

We also climbed the rock above the temple which although not high I found a challenge as we'd had to remove our shoes to visit and the ground was painfully gritty. It was also a hot and sticky morning, which didn't help!

Jaya Sri Maha Bodhi

Next we went to see the Jaya Sri Maha Bodhi. This is more than 2,300 years old and said to be the oldest human-planted tree in the world with a known planting date and a recorded history. It was grown from a cutting of the Bo tree under which the Buddha received enlightenment. The cutting was brought to Sri Lanka from India in 236 BC by a Buddhist nun, Sangamitta Maha Theri. Later in our trip we were to see the spot, at the northern tip of the island near Jaffna, where the cutting is believed to have come ashore.

The tree sits on a high terrace, surrounded by other Bo trees for protection. It isn’t permitted to climb to this top terrace as the tree has suffered from vandalism in the past. There was also a horrific terrorist attack by a Tamil group in 1985 in which 146 people were killed.

Today it is a more peaceful but very busy shrine. As it was a Saturday when we visited it was crowded with local pilgrims, far outnumbering tourists. Champi bought lotus flowers for us to offer inside the temple, which was a nice gesture. We went barefoot on the hot and sometimes stony ground, as is required at all Sri Lanka temples (both Buddhist and Hindu).

There was much more to see in this area, with huge stupas and the UNESCO listed ruins of the ancient city, capital of the island in the 4th century BC. But time was short. Champi told us we needed several hours to see these properly and we had a drive of some hours ahead of us to Jaffna, our base for the next few nights. Incidentally, we should have been making this journey by train but at the last minute (yesterday!) we learned that maintenance work meant that no trains were running.

We did have time to walk past the Thuparamaya Stupa while Champi fetched the car, but not to explore properly. Thuparamaya is revered as the oldest dagoba in Sri Lanka, built in the 3rd century BCE. It is believed that a monk, Mahinda, visited the country from India, met the king, King Devanampiyatissa, at nearby Mihintale and converted him. At Mahinda’s request King Devanampiyatissa built Thuparamaya in which was enshrined the right collarbone of the Buddha. What we see today however is not that 3rd century BCE original as it has been destroyed several times. The current dagoba dates from 1862 AD.

Given the heat and humidity I wasn’t too sorry at the time that Champi encouraged us to leave after that, though looking back later I regretted not seeing more of Anuradhapura.

By this point in our trip we were realising that Champi, while a lovely guy and excellent driver, was not properly equipped to be a guide, in this part of the country at least. We were to raise this a few days later with our tour company and get more thorough guiding at subsequent sites. I’m conscious that as a result we missed seeing several significant sights here, and also saw some whose significance I didn’t appreciate until later and therefore omitted to photograph.

To Jaffna

The drive was uneventful and with few interesting sights. And although I quite enjoyed seeing daily activity along the road, I was a bit drowsy from the heat and the long days at Wilpattu to appreciate the drive as much as I normally would do.

We arrived at our hotel in Jaffna, Fox Resorts, around 4.00. The beautiful old building was once a stronghold of the Tamil Tigers and later an army HQ, but has been lovingly restored. Rooms are in rather more ordinary looking blocks in the grounds but once inside we found our room spacious and attractive, with all the mod cons we'd missed a little at the Mudhouse and Wilpattu.

We spent some time making the most of those mod cons, using the WiFi to catch up on emails etc., and the excellent shower to, in my case, wash my hair. We had dinner in the hotel restaurant, there being little choice in the immediate area. We had a good table on the terrace under the palm trees and enjoyed vegetable spring rolls to start with, followed by an egg biriani for me and mutton rice and curry for Chris.