Saturday 23rd October 2021

On leaving Taru Villa, we took the opportunity to visit an Elephant Park called Udawalawe Safari Park since in relative terms it was close by.

It was the middle of the day when we reached it, so the majority of animals were resting away from the scorching sun, but as time went on we saw 14 elephants, 7 crocodiles, lots of monkeys, buffalo, so many peacocks and peahens and thousands of different birds! Steve was in his element with his cameras and our jeep driver/trucker was very patient and enjoyed the park with us. There were minimal number of other jeeps, tourists still being away and just a few locals and expats occasionally coming across each other.

You can sit in a jeep for so many hours and let yourself left be bounced up and down (Emilka called it “Alton tower on a budget”) and admire the vast park with its animals and birds. We left the park just after 5pm to hit the road, knowing we are starving and in need of food and with the prospect of having 3.5 hours at least back to Colombo. We stopped at the motorway service station and the only non-spicy option was pizza from Pizza Hut, so the kids had the pleasure of finishing their holiday with their favourite food.

We reached home after 9pm, unpacked together, and I commenced the marathon of washing (five washing machines – don’t ask me why as we were living in swimwear!) which took me two days.

We have lots of lovely pictures that Steve processed and which are a memento of a lovely family holiday where we relaxed, ate and read lots of books (well at least myself and Emilka each 2 books, and Steve with good inroads to his book on the English Civil Wars that I think has travelled the world several times over!), and Misa spending lots of time on his mobile phone watching Youtube.

I feel relaxed ready for the next stretch of monotonous days with online schooling and home working.

Rennie