We spent ages today trying to find the Puthukkdiyiruppa War Museum and when we eventually did we were told that only locals can go and that they need to obtain special permission to do so. The most we got to see was a small military centre displaying information on how the government is rebuilding the town and surrounding areas and supporting the families of Mulliativu who were affected by the war. All feels very calm here and as we’re walking the people we pass are friendly, curious about where we are from, where we’re staying and where we’re going. Still no white faces which reveals the remoteness and absence of tourism in this north eastern region unlike that of the south.

Sights around about 

We passed mothers riding bicycles or more like they passed us, riding to school with their kids on the back wheel frame. Roadside shops were opening up for the day, men were engaged in hard physical building work before it got too hot, motorcycles were passing and beeping which was interspersed with the odd passing car. 

We also tried to find Kurundi Temple set in a large Buddhist monastery complex that we discovered on Trip Advisor but we couldn’t make it as it was too deep in the jungle. We reached the start of the 15km track to get us to the place according to Google Maps but it was an unmade road and with fresh elephant dung along it so we turned back! 

One great thing about today is that it rained and rained and very hard too so it felt much fresher and it certainly took the sting out of the sun. 

The death of the cockroach

The most exciting part of our day was the coddiwompling cockroach in our room. Gill was not impressed so pushed the emergency alarm for instant cockroach death support but couldn’t wait for more than a second for it to arrive and so went on to kill it herself; with disinfectant spray. The army turned up just a few minutes later to discard of the body.

Tomorrow is the last leg concluding my trek across Sri Lanka over the past 24 months. I will have trekked/travelled from the south to the northern tip of the island just as I had planned during our pandemic lockdown period. In 2022 Gill and I trekked from Galle in the south to Kandy, and in 2023 Kiran trekked with me from Kandy to Nilaveli just north of Trincomolee. During the past 7 days Gill and I have trekked/travelled the final stage, which was planned to be from Nilaveli to Jaffna, but I decided to reverse this so we would end nearer Kandy and the surrounding areas where we’ll be for the next 12 days. 

More blogs

I’ll be keeping up the daily blogs but they’ll look rather different from now on. We’ll be moving into places with more tourists and white faces, we’ll be more likely to see elephants, we’ll catch up with projects and people we’re supporting as well as Suzana and Krystyna who will be volunteering in the girls’ refuge.   

More trekking 

There’ll be 3 more days of trekking 3rd-6th April but this time far away from the arid, sparse and remote Tamil north part of the island. Instead we’ll be walking along the lushness of the tea pickers’ trails high up in the Kandyan plantations. This extensive series of trails known as re Pekoe Trail will form the basis of my follow up trip next year.  

We will then allow ourselves a day’s rest on the beach at Negumbo before we return to the UK. 

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Next up: To Nilaveli via Kokkalai

If you missed the last blog here it is