Following a good night's sleep, there is nothing better than a good traditional fry up…….sadly neither of the above applied. As always when I start a foreign trip I lost my battle with the sheets and woke up to a curry, not a banger in sight. In this case a lovely spicy fish curry, dhal and some interesting sambols and chutneys.

A three-hour drive north in a taxi (costing £15) took us to Wilpattu National Park. En route, we visited a nearby fishing village which made the traditional-style outrigger canoes, known as 'oruvas' which we had been on the day before. We also spotted 'toddy tappers' climbing coconut trees to collect sap from the flowers along the way. The sap they collect is used to make Arak - a local whisky-type spirit. I ended up trying some that evening and it is actually really good…….albeit my body didn’t work from the legs down after the first 4!

Despite its location in Sri Lanka's dry zone, Wilpattu National Park boasts nearly sixty lakes and is renowned for being home to leopards, elephants, and sambar deer. Rachel and I headed out on a jeep safari in the hope of spotting the elusive leopard. Whilst we didn’t succeed in seeing the big cats, the amount of wildlife was fantastic with elephant, water buffalo, the country’s national animal which is the giant squirrel, large water monitor lizards and incredible birds together with fearless, and lawless, Macaque monkeys…..these thieving buggers had no hesitation in climbing onto the jeep to steal anything not tied down.

Leaving the park, we drove onwards to nearby Anuradhapura to visit the mountain peak of Mihintale. It's believed that this was the site of a momentous meeting between the monk Mahinda and King Devanampiyatissa, introducing Buddhism to the country. Exploring Mihintale involved climbing a flight of shallow stone steps which seems to go on forever, and a short final section with uneven steps carved into the bedrock with a rickety handrail leading to the summit. There were excellent panoramic views from the top across the entire surrounding landscape. This was a calm beautiful place and the height of the temple reduced the humidity which had been quite oppressive earlier in the day.

We ended the day in a local small hotel where we ate a very different style of vegetarian curry cooked with coconut oil rather than ghee…… the breadfruit curry was quite hot and after a couple of pints of the local Lion Stout (a cheeky number at 8.8%), I went off and had a fantastic nights sleep.



The blog article was conceived and written by Nigel Buckland