Friday, Mirissa, the farthest South of Sri Lanka.

In Kandy, Thursday am (after last blog)

I visit the Temple of the Tooth, its reputed to be the Buddha's tooth, snatched from the fire when he was cremated. I am just ahead of thousands of tourists, I am sure they are taking photographs of an edifice, while on the first floor where I am the only foreigner, many Buddhists wait calmly, preying in a queue. I feel very self conscious and decide to leave.

Kandy is very pretty, nice place wish I could have stayed another day. Decide to head South to Mirissa on the South Coast.

I take three attempts to find a road to Nuwarra Elliya, its a tortuous tortoise off a route, I am heading for some very high waterfalls, however it starts raining hard, I decide to press on, It took me 7 hours to go 100kls. 50Kls of road are one big building site, at Phase 1 pot holed like a crumpet bun but a 100 times bigger. A car that overtook me earlier, is stopped in the middle of the road the driver and passengers are just removing the last boulders from the road, the rock fall must have just happened, due to rain.  I have to say when the roads are finished they are a joy to drive on, as smooth as the underside of a crumpet.  I have to stop at Badulla, as it's getting dark, I do not want Srll Lankan traffic in a Mountain Range, I book in at the Riverside Holiday Inn.

I order Pork schnitzel, chips and salad, as per the menu, I get a fatty lumps stew dish. I refuse to eat it, instead I have a few beers, they bring me a large bowl of cashew nuts, freshly roasted with curry leaves.

Friday

All or most dogs in Srri Lanka look the same, an insipid mid brown, the colour of toffee, but not as rich.

I leave Badulla, at 8am, I escape first time, the road is smooth all the way down the mountain side. Every 100 y\Ms or so there are rockfalls/land slides. I just keep speeding on, I am in Tanamalwila by 11.30, in Mirissa by 2.00pm which is where I wanted to be last night. I have driven 200 Kls in 6 hours half through winding mountain roads.

I check in at the Hotel Glaucoma, I will get its name. My shower room window is 20ft from the beach, my balcony overlooks the entire palm fringed bay, its so good to be here.

I walk for a couple of hours up the East Coast and then back past the Hotel to the West Bay. Swim in every bay, guys are surfing, some very well.