Sri Lanka (2)

We had worked ourselves into a nice routine. Each evening we would say – ‘we’ll get on a bus to Unawatuna tomorrow morning... definitely’. Then we would go to bed, wake up, have a breakfast of fruit, eggs, toast and press coffee, check the surf and decide that we would not go to Unawatuna. We never actually got on a bus to Unawatuna.

So that is how it went: breakfast, a surf check, a little ping-pong, a surf, a bike ride up town to the ATM, lunch, a surf, dinner, a game of ping-pong, and bed.

Each day we would also remark to one another that the surf could not possibly get any smaller than it was that day, but alas, it continued to impress. Despite the dwindling waves and increasing crowds, we would still head out for a couple of surfs a day, although most of the time out there was spent scratching lice bites and following turtles underwater. Kate would have everybody know that she has upgraded from a 7'10 at home to a 7'2 here. Because she is taller than everybody else, she will also have you beleive she is riding a shortboard. She came in the other day and was upset because she did not get a barrell. No joke. she actually said this to me and followed it up with, 'how long do you think it will be before I get one?'. All the same, she is surfing really well - standing up on most waves and riding reef breaks. Kate prefers the reef breaks for the predictability of the wave. At reef breaks the 'tunnel' is easier to find.

Many of these afternoons were interrupted by a storm and some light rain. But as they passed over the air became very still, making the surf look a lot better than it was.

Eventually it all this relaxing became too much and we decided to do something different. So, on Wednesday we booked a tour to Uda Walawe National Park – where we were ‘guaranteed’ to see many elephants. We were picked up at about 10am, by Charles (the driver), and the journey took nearly 3 hours. First we followed Galle road all the way along the south coast and we got our first glimpse of the breaks at Kabalana, Midigama and Weligama – Kabalana looked quite rideable. We stopped for a photo of Weligama harbour, which is a wide U shaped bay with fishing boats hiding behind the reef. There is a little sandbar leading out to a small, rocky island where a Dutchman has built a house. Not a bad location at all.

We didn’t get a look at Mirissa, but travelled on to Martara and followed the coast road, past innumerable palm-fringed beaches, fishing harbours and street side stalls selling fresh blue-fin tuna until we took a left and turned into a completely different landscape of irrigation canals and staggered rice paddies. Regardless of the environment, there are a few constants – people with bicycles, people with umbrellas (for the sun, not the rain) and people riding bicycles holding umbrellas. Of course there are rows and rows of billboards with the president on it – hugging mothers, holding children, waving to the crowd, helping old women across the road, discussing important matters etc. Along the coast road there are also many cemeteries and roadside graves with people’s pictures on it fromthe tsunami.
Although most has been rebuilt, there are still the ruined skeletons of houses abandoned on the beachfront.

Uda Walawe National Park is special because of the density of elephants within its bounds (the elephants are actually all displaced from a controversial reservoir project) and its climate. Because of something to do with the surrounding mountains, this small area of land get very little rain compared with the rest of Sri Lanka. As such, it cannot support the same jungle that fills in the gaps between the rice paddys, and is mostly savannah and plains of chest-high grass. As we approached, it was certain we were going to give this theory a good test, as the surrounding mountains were completely blotted out with ugly green clouds moving towards the park.

Before going into the park, we stopped in a little town for a bite to eat. It would have been a fairly uneventful visit of it not for these little, fried rice cakes that we later found out were made of rice, chilly, spices and ‘mouldy fish’. Only after our stomachs had well and truly turned did we find out that ‘mouldy’ fish is actually dried fish from the Maldives – i.e Maldy’ fish. We still both had a bit of a stomach upset the next day – and it the rice-cakes look pretty guilty in the line-up.

Anyway we entered the park, jumped on an open canopy jeep and met our tracker. The jeep rumbled into the park and set off along the dirt roads wiggling through the high grass. Some of these roads were atrocious, and a 4WD was a necessity. Many times we would have to plunge through huge puddles of water or drive through crevices that made us feel as though we would tip. It wasn’t long before we saw the first elephants – feeding beside the road and about to make their way across. They are fascinating animals and we watched them eat for a while. As they made their way across the road they came in groupings. For each baby 2 females position themselves either side of the baby almost obscuring it from view. We saw a lot more elephants including one herd that got very riled up at our approach and started trumpeting and stamping their feet and throwing dirt all over the place. Our tracker said that 6 vehicles had been damaged that month from elephant attacks. It’s mating season and the males are quite territorial.

Apart from the elephants we saw the single scale of a crocodile, many birds whose names I cannot remember – but I do remember one very odd-looking bird called a hornbill – a buffalo that I didn’t realise was getting very cranky at me, lots of monkeys, and some jackals that looked like foxes. There are apparently a few leopards in the park, but we did not see any.

Miraculously the storm over the mountains split into two and passed either side of the park. One storm was enormous with a round falling lip, like the bell of a mushroom. It was so stark, at one point we could see under the lip and into the storm. Somehow, it did not rain while we were there. Incredible.

Part of the allure of the park is the setting. The plains and swamplands are set against the dramatic peaks of Sri-Lanka’s hills. As the sun went down and the clouds drifted down and between the various summits, standing in the back a jeep watching elephants in the foreground and the mountains behind was a remarkable experience.

It was dark by the time we headed for Hikkaduwa. Our driver and Kate got into a conversation about eating and fish and before she knew it she has locked us into a home cooked meal of the most questionable fish we had passed prior to the safari. Charles (driver) had spotted a fat river fish on the road side for a good price. He said that they were excellent on the BBQ. I was unsure. The fish had definitely been sitting there all day with the flies doing the business and a group of goannas hanging around waiting for the fish guts. Not to mention I had no idea about the river that it came from. Anyway, we remained polite, he bought the fish (which would have been a few kilos), wrapped it in one of his car-floor rugs and away we went.

It was a long drive back home, and we were all tired. Again, most of the conversation revolved around the end of the war. I feel quite uncomfortable talking about it with people (mostly because I don’t have a clue what I’m talking about) because, as you would expect, many of them have lived this war and have passionate feelings. Not being in the north of the east, most people, including our driver have very positive feelings about the conduct of the current president. This driver was quick to recite the story that the LTTE placed civilians in front of firing government troops and that government troops would never kill a civilian. There are also some other commonalities, like that the united states was indirectly supporting the LTTE with weapons and also made an offer to purchase the south harbour as a strategic missile base, that Norway, when they tried to broker a cease fire gave financial support to the LTTE and that the UN, when it worked here distributed satellite phones to them. In the same breath are justifications for the government expelling NGOs (unless you go with a government soldier) from the refugee camps (which appear to be indefinite) and claims that the perpetrators of past bombings are confessing to their crimes and being brought to justice. Some of all this might be true and it is very difficult to sort fact from propaganda. Whatever the case, it is clear that the government is very adept at controlling the information coming out of northern Sri-Lanka. He also had some incredible and distressing stories about the tsunami day.

Thursday was a formula day with a late wake up, stinking hot weather and small surf. We did not contemplate the idea of going on the bus to Unawatuna and I spent most of the day stressing about how to politely decline the river-fish. Charles picked us up at about six-thirty, and we drove north a couple of kilometres to his village – Milla. He had a small, but really nice house. We met his three kids who were very funny and his wife, who cooked us an extraordinary dinner, his sister, brother, aunty and great-aunty. As fate would have it, Charles left the fish in the back of the car all day and it went off. So we had an amazing tuna steam-grilled in banana leaves with sides of local brown rice, lady fingers (which are not bananas here, they are okra) dahl curry, coconut sambal, papadums and a sour Mango chutney. They say the best food in Sri Lanka is at the home and it’s true. We had a fun night looking at old wedding photos and pictures of the kids.

Friday morning we planned a surf trip down the south coast. We got up early, packed the suncream and wax and left with a driver named Samba at eight. Samba is a local surfer who works at the place we are staying. He had excellent knowledge of all the breaks and surfed with us wherever we went. It was nice to feel like you were sharing the fun with someone showing you around. He was a quiet guy, but spoke excellent (if sparse) English and wasn’t afraid to share his critique of his religion and culture. We enjoyed the whole day talking and surfing with him.

First we visited Kabalana, it is named after the hotel it breaks in front of. Apparently it was only ‘discovered’ 10 years ago, but maybe you Dad or Ph surfed it in the 70s or 80s. It was pretty small when we arrived, but was picking up by the time we left. Kabalna is only about 5km from Midigama and is a left-hand reef break with a bit of right on it. Apparently it can hold quite big swells and get very good (it is the south coast’s most ‘powerful’ reef break according to Lonely planet) but this day it was a short but fun ride. All up we surfed for about two hours. Kate rode the beach-break further down by herself. The beach itself is superb with clear, light blue water, white sand and palm trees. She was going well until I came down to check the progress and convinced her to go out for one more. We paddled back out together and she pulled back on one that took the board and flicked it into her sternum. She left the water soon afterwards with some tears and a damning stare. It’s just bruised, but it hurt alot.

Next we surfed at Midigama, at a place called ‘plantation’, which was a fun right hand point, set in front of some semi-cleared land and houses, presumably by the tsunami. Just beside plantation is a point called ‘Coconut’ – it looked okay but we didn’t surf there. I was the only one out at plantation.

Just down the road we stopped at Weligama – the harbour I described earlier. Down the beach there are some great learning waves. Kate had a go, and even managed to jag one, stand up and ride it into shore, but her chest was too sore and we moved on to Mirissa.

Mirissa is a tiny place, just some small houses with bamboo fences and cows. At Mirisisa we had a lunch of fried rice, and Kate had Dahl curry, looking out over the point. Samba had described surfing at Mirissia like surfing in a pool – and it is. On side is a steep headland covered in palm tress, on the inside of the break is a line of reef bristling with urchins that forms a barrier to the shore and on the other open side is a rock outcrop that you paddle around to get out. Mirissa is a fun wave and a very beautiful place. It was only 2-3ft but I surfed for 2+ hours. If we come back it would be great to stay here.

On the way home we checked out Kabalana again but I was exhausted and we drove back to Hikkaduwa. Our surfing adventure, apart from Kate’s injury (she stiff but okay today) was a great day.

Today the well has come up, and it was quite good this morning (although I surfed very poorly and was very tired). The wind is quite strong this afternoon and it has mostly blown out, but I surfed again at lunch. We will see what happens at sunset. Tonight is also occasion for the weekly A-frame trance party. One way or another, it shall be a sleepless night.

Tomorrow we leave at about 8am for an afternoon safari and stay overnight in some ritzy bungalows inside Yala National Park. I’m hoping for some more elephants and maybe a leopard. We have had a wonderful time in Hikkaduwa and are sad to leave.

Our love to you all,
Kate and Charles.