Lanka Challenge - Days 6 and 7

We are back in Dubai now and I am sitting at my computer desk with a glass of red wine and air-con flowing freely. Sri Lanka already seems like so long ago! We are now faced with the task of remembering what exactly happened on each day of the trip (and wishing we had overcome the exhaustion to write those blog entries every night). As I am sure we have observed before, there is a catch 22 when it comes to maintaining a blog - when we have lots to write about, we often have little time to do the writing and when we have lots of writing time, it generally means we have little to write about.

Getting back on track, Day 6 was a rest day and certainly needed after the marathon that was Day 5 which saw us travel over 200km's, a fair portion of that being in the dark (which is not fun in a tuk tuk on Sri Lanka's roads). We were now on the beautiful east coast of Sri Lanka in an area called Nilaveli - a gorgeous strip of long sandy beaches with clear and calm water. We started the day well with our first "hopper experience". A hopper is a staple part of Sri Lankan cuisine (often served for breakfast and dinner) and I can only really describe it as a combination of a pancake, a fried egg and a yorkshire pudding. It is made from a batter of rice flour, coconut milk and palm toddy (alcoholic!!) which is then cooked in a hemispherical wok-like pan coming out crispy on the edges with a slightly soft egg center. You then slop the curry sauce inside and add various traditional condiments no doubt featuring copious amounts of chilli and a fair amount of coconut. Some may say we go on and on about food....but man these hoppers deserve a decent amount of air time because they are just that good!

The pool at the hotel was slightly cloudy, no doubt due to an increased ratio of beer versus pool water from the festivities that took place on the previous night, so we decided to take to the beach and took a boat across to Pigeon Island for some snorkeling. Although we ended up being stranded on the island for 4 hours resulting in all of us getting a good dose of sun burn, the water was nice and Brendan spotted a decent sized reef shark while snorkeling.


Sadly we said good bye the next morning to the east coast and headed south west through the paddy fields to our final destination of the day, a small town called Sigiriya. It was another group day, but thankfully not a race day, which meant our little tuk tuk procession could bounce it's way slowly along the 190km route with no real stress other than making sure we more or less stuck together (once again they only allowed one map book for each team of 5 tuk tuks which makes it kind of stressful if you lose the guy with the map). Have no fear, team Chilli Express led the way with compass and map book in hand. Happy to report that we didn't lose anyone, only made some minor wrong turns and were the first group to arrive safe and sound at the hotel. A score update was released for the first time that night. To our BIG surprise, team Chilli Express found itself in the number 1 spot out of all 18 teams......but for how long....?

On a side note, one thing that really gets me about Sri Lanka is the incredible diversity of the landscape - of course being an island means it has beautiful beaches and coastal views, but it also has sparse desert areas, rich green rice paddies, mountainous tea plantations and beautifully dense rain forest. Oh, and you will likely see this in one day of driving. 


Well, midnight in Dubai is fast approaching so I will finish up now and bid you all a good night. Until next time....

 //Kate