Day Seventeen - Lazy day

Today has been been a fairly chilled out lazy day, with a slow windy drive along the southern coast from Hiriketiya Beach to Bentota Beach, which yes you guessed it, it is another empty golden sands beach. Once checking in to our hotel, we went for a wander down the beach, to see yet more sand and gentle waves, before spending the afternoon lazing around the hotel pool (and a Pina).

Day Sixteen - Lush beaches

Neo and Diesel spent the first part of the morning playing cricket with a group of local boys. Before going to the neighbouring town Dickwella (Dan says not to be confused with Paul Weller) for a couple of supplies. Whilst we were there we thought we should check out their beach, yet another stunning virtually empty beach with soft lush sand and calm clear blue water.
We returned back with our supplies to discover some visitors sitting on and around our balcony, Diesel was fascinated in the monkeys and one of them was fascinated with him too. We later returned to our beach for the boys to enjoy the waves again.
This evening we took Bob out to get some tea, when there was a sudden down pour of torrential rain, this only lasted for about 20 mins, but that was long enough for the little roads into streams. Dan enjoyed the challenge of driving Bob on the small bumpy dirt tracks/streams, this was the first and potentially the last time we will have driven Bob in the rain (as we only have him for three more days, before moving onto Sri Lankan railways).
After tea, we returned to our hotel where the boys ran around trying to catch the fireflys, with no success, before returning to our room only to discover one trapped inside.

Day Fifthteen - Catch up

Today was a special day of our trip as we met up with some old friends, Neo made last time we were in Sri Lanka seven years ago (we had kept in touch via post, but unfortunately during one of our many moves we lost contact).
We also took advantage of the quiet roads in Yala to record the little video below, before travelling to Hiriketiya Beach. Where once again the boys enjoyed the clear blue Indian Ocean its waves.

Day Fourteen - Elephant Toll

Back down the very steep windy road, where we had to avoid a Black Mamba snake, several different types of monkeys and a ruddy mongoose on the road.
An hour later and we're driving through yet another national park (Yala) which not only has the friendly police checks, but its own special toll which excepts bananas as payment for passage.
Dan and myself spent the rest of the day lounging around sipping cold drinks attempting to watch the local wildlife, whilst the boys ran around like wild animals (hence the word attempting).
ADDED EXTRA - We popped out to a local bar and met a Sri Lankan Cricket player, then on the  driveway back into our hotel Dan gave the boys a mini tuktuk driving lesson.

Day Thirteen - Train trip

Today was a fun day of drinks and trains, This morning, we chilled out watching a local cricket match, before catching the train from Ella to Badulla (and back). This is listed as one of the top train journeys to do in Sri Lanka and its easy to see why, with the jaw dropping views of Sri Lankan tea plantations, its Nine Arch Bridge and the Demodara Loop (the only looped spiral trainline in the world).

Day Twelve - Long windy drive

Today was a long and windy drive from Arugam Bay to Ella, we looked out at amazing hill top landscapes and watching for elephants crossing the road on the national park roads, whilst avoiding the scary lorry/bus drivers on the windy mountain roads and stopped at a couple of friendly local police checks. We had a short break and leg stretch, with a little climb up a waterfall. And ended the day watching the sunset from the top of Adams Peak. Where of course the boys made friends with a couple of local stray dogs (I mean what else would you expect them to do 1141 meters above sea level).

Day Eleven - Waves, waves, and more waves

This morning we took Bob for a quick check up and greasing session at a local garage, as we have reached the first 1000km point of our trip. I believe we were probably the only westerns to use the garage, they were high entertained by the sight of us with Bob.
After Bob's service, we spent the remainder of the day on the beach, enjoying the waves. The boys made friends with a couple of Dutch children and of course a few strays of the beach. Thanks to a kind local lending the boys a couple of boards (for FREE) the boys even learnt how to body boarding, which meant I got to enjoy a sneeky Pina Colada on the beach.

Day Ten -

Just a short drive 140km from Kalkudah Bay, to yet another stunning beach (Arugam Bay). This time our drive was full of temples and ceremonies, with whole communities washing each other within the rivers and temples (which on the whole meant the roads were great to drive on, with everyone in either a river or temple. That was until they all piled out of one of the massive temples and started climbing onto any method of transport going 😂). Once on the beach the boys had fun wave surfing and jumping, until the thunder and lightning arrived, at which point we took advantage to have a sneeking pub crawl (as you can see from Neo's face he was not impressed at this), the clouds soon cleared and the boys returned to the sea.