Fundraising Update On 4th June our road’s open-garden fundraiser raised almost £1300! This was a super amazing achievement and almost twice as much as last year with generous donations from those who visited the 5 …
Continue readingMay 2023 update – fundraising and impact
Fundraising After being back for a month from our epic trek from central to north east Sri Lanka, this is an update on some of the outcomes: Impact Suba, teacher in Kirimetiya, distributing the books …
Continue readingBlog 15 (Final Blog) – To a remote village in Kurunegala to celebrate the beginning of the Sinhalese new year
Welcoming Wow! Another amazing visit to a village community just outside of Kurunegala. I’ve been coming to this particular village since 2015 and the experience is always so warm, welcoming and colourful. It’s lovely to …
Continue readingBlog 14 – The Temple of the Tooth Relic
The history The Temple of the Sacred Tooth Relic, also known as Sri Dalada Maligawa, is considered to be the most important Buddhist temple in Sri Lanka. It’s also one of the most famous in the …
Continue readingBlog 13 – Our visit to a Spice Garden in Matale
On our drive back from Trincomolee to Kandy we were treated to a stop off at Matale spice garden. It was like walking into a mini paradise which included us having a face massage with …
Continue readingBlog 12 – A relaxing day on Niraveli beach
Niraveli is just north of Trincomolee and where we’re staying for 2 nights to conclude our trek across Sri Lanka. Niraveli is popular for whale and dolphin watching as well as snorkelling and diving. Pigeon …
Continue readingBlog 11 – Habarana to Trincomolee
Leaving Habarana We left our Habarana base where we’d stayed for 2 nights and headed for the strategically important Naval port of Trincomolee on the Bay of Bengal in the Indian Ocean. We both loved …
Continue readingBlog 10 – Habarana village tour and an amazing simple recipe for you to try
Resting our feet Our village tour as a 3 minute movie Coconut sambol recipe This recipe was made for us almost everywhere we’ve been. It is amazing and so simple to make if you have …
Continue readingBlog 9 – Climbing Sigiriya Rock – the ancient fortress in the sky
We were up before the cockerels woke us this morning and on the road by 5am. We made the steep climb to the top of Sigiriya Rock in time to see the sunrise at 6.05. …
Continue readingBlog 8 – Just walking – Polonnaruwa to Habarana
The tanks and reservoirs of the dry zone This section of our trek has been dominated by walking alongside two main tanks or what we might call reservoirs. Tanks in Sri Lanka were hand built …
Continue readingBlog 7 – the ancient city of Polonnaruwa in the dry zone of Sri Lanka
Polonnaruwa is hot: very very hot. I wrote a bit about the history of this ancient city in my planning blog over 2 years ago so won’t repeat that here. If interested in some of …
Continue readingBlog 6 – A visit to a Veddah community – the indigenous peoples of Sri Lanka
Today was all about visiting an indigenous community in Dambana, eastern central Sri Lanka. A highlight was a personal meeting with the Veddah Chief, Uruwarige Wanniyalaeto, which had been arranged for us as part of …
Continue readingBlog 5 – Spotlight on our elephant safari
Wasgamuwa National Park Our late afternoon Wasgamuwa elephant safari turned out to be a bit more of an adventure than we’d expected. We’d hoped to spot a few of Sri Lanka’s Asian elephants in their …
Continue readingBlog 4 – day 2 of trek
Descent from Medakallie village Left Medakallie village for our 2 hour descent to a bus stop where we got picked up and taken to the nearest town. The wiggly path we trekked down, the villagers’ …
Continue readingBlog 3 – Day 1 of trek – to Medakallie Village (the middle of the jungle)
Leech-land Both of us got bitten by leeches pretty much as soon as we set off on our jungle trek to Medakallie village, but Kiran’s was worse as her blood stains looked like she’d been …
Continue readingDay 2 Kirimatiya – a Tamil village in the hills and Kiran’s arrival!
An early tuk tuk trip today with Susantha to WDC where I dropped off the donation of children’s clothes, school stationery, spectacle frames and medicines. And then to Kirimatiya, the Tamil village in the hills …
Continue readingArrived . . .
Smooth 10 hour overnight flight from Heathrow to Colombo with Sri Lankan airlines, the only airline that flies direct. Kiran close behind and should arrive tomorrow ready for trek beginning on Tuesday.
Safe taxi journey from Colombo to Kandy with a couple of stop-offs for a king coconut, a mango and chicken curry followed by a mango juice – and now I look like a ? and only been here a few hours!
Fab driving through Kandy past familiar colonial sites such as the iconic clock tower, the old prison, Kandy lake, Queens and then eventually Hotel Suiss where I’ll be for next 2 nights.
Day 1
As we’re 5.5 hours ahead of UK time and with at best 2 hours sleep on the plane, I collapsed last night and didn’t wake until gone 10am and nearly missed breakfast. Now UK clocks went forward last eve we’re now only 4.5 hours ahead of the game! UKers are catch up with us.
Looking forward to Kiran arriving on Monday now and not today as she’s had flight dramas but in time to start trekking with me on Tuesday. Sounds like her flight problems will make a blog all by itself – she’s now flying via Chennai and as I’m writing this she should be in the air.
Women’s refuge
I visited the girls’ refuge today – the real reason for coming to Sri Lanka. It all started here. An example below of some sanitary kits the girls have learnt to make which are sold at markets around the country and for schools in the poorer rural communities. Each set lasts for approximately 2 years and as you can see comes in a discrete bag which the girls can carry in their school bag.
More pictures of the activity in the refuge in future blogs when wifi working better!
My evening was spent with Koush, Sri Lanka’s well known birder and trekker who we met last year in the Sinharaja rainforest, to finalise our exciting trek plans starting Tuesday.
If you missed the last blog then HERE it is.
Further sponsorship – if you’d like to help me to help those in need in Sri Lanka at this difficult time, whilst being assured every penny will go to those who need it, then please donate by clicking on this link. Don’t forget that if you’re a tax payer to declare gift aid when doing so which will increase your donation by 25% at no cost to you. Alternatively, if you know of anyone or any organisation who may have an interest in this cause please share this blog link with them
March 2023 – And we’re off . . .
There’s been a few changes since last month’s update: Gill can’t come now but Kiran can, for most of it anyway, and for all of the trekking part. As a result I’ve tweaked the schedule …
Continue readingFeb 2023 update – 50 day countdown
Our forest walk I’ve recently finished reading a mindfulness walking book that a friend gave me for Christmas. It captures some of what I’m looking forward to during our 4 days of trekking in the …
Continue readingJanuary 2023 update – 10 years
My 10th year anniversary 🙂 Top left: the late Pearl Stephen (Founder & Director of Women’s Development Centre), and Chandrathilika Liyanaarachchi (WDC’s Deputy Coordinator) on a trip with us to Nuwara Eliya. Right: Pearl Stephen …
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