To Gal Oya

My side was very painful again in the night - maybe yesterday's visit to Dambulla hadn't been such a good idea after all.

We left Wild Grass after breakfast and spent most of the morning on the road. It had been bright when we left (after more rain in the night) and I was pleased to spot a great Land Monitor Lizard photo opp on the side of the track. But it soon clouded over again and rained on and off for most of the journey.

We arrived at Gal Oya Lake Club, our base for the next three nights, and were welcomed with coriander tea and jaggery, an almost fudge-like unrefined sugar. Our room was a lovely one in the main building.

Front of the main building

The large bathroom

We had a lunch of cheese sandwiches in the restaurant area overlooking the lake, and soon after it was time to leave for our boat safari in the national park.

We shared this with a group of Russian visitors, two couples and five children. The latter, thankfully, were very well behaved. The boats were open, with damp plastic seats and no shade/shelter. And getting into ours was a challenge with my strained muscle as there was a short stretch of steep rock to descend and then a climb into the boat, but I managed OK.

Soon after setting off we saw a pair of White-bellied Sea Eagles in a tree, the (larger) female on the lower branch. Our guide told us they mate for life. We also saw lots of cormorants and several grey herons.

But the stars were of course the elephants. We first saw a lone bull, then two groups of females. The second group had a calf with them - so cute!

But as we were watching that group the rain, which had been threatening, turned very heavy very quickly. Rain coats were distributed and the boatman headed back to the landing area. Just the same we managed to get pretty wet and uncomfortable.

Back at the lodge we dried out and went to dinner, which we'd been asked to pre-order before leaving in the afternoon. The food was OK but not as good as at Wild Grass. There was a slightly bland (but piping hot) pumpkin soup, and an egg salad which was very heavy on the raw onions (and I like raw onion!) Chris's main course was rice and curry with a prawn curry and lots of vegetables as usual. Mine was the traditional kottu roti which I'd been wanting to try but found disappointing as the bread pieces were an unpleasant soggy texture. I wasn’t sure if they were meant to be like that or if this was a poorly made version. The fresh fruit salad dessert was lovely however.

Back in our room we relaxed for a bit and again had a much-needed early night.