The drive from Passikudah to Ella for the next part of our holiday was about 114 miles / 185 kilometres and would take just over  two hours in most of Europe, but in practice normally requires four and a half hours.  Add miles and miles of temporarily unmade road and torrential rain towards the end of the drive and it actually took over five.  

This leisurely pace across largely open countryside gave us good opportunity though to see a part of Sri Lanka largely unfamiliar to us; flat all the way from Batticaloa on the coast until the hill country well inland, it is very different to what we have experienced before.

I hope the photographs give a flavour of the drive.  The market selling deliciously fresh fruit and vegetables is where this pin is in Mahiyanganaya. 

Steve