Tuesday 2 Feb 2016

It’s going to be a long day on the road today.  We were picked up at 7:30am so that we could miss the traffic.  Not sure if it helped.  It is mayhem here with tuk-tuks, buses, trucks and cars moving around.  We got to an eating place out of town for breakfast.  It was a surprisingly good place with a good selection of food.

Our first stop was the spice gardens.  Various spices and herbs are grown at this place.  Sri Lanka is well known for their spices and it is one of the reasons why over several hundred years there was a procession of European powers who invaded the country.  The main business at the Spice Garden is to produce Ayuvedic medicinal products.  We were shown the vanilla creeper and how they produce vanilla essence, cinnamon tree (apparently the lighter coloured cinnamon bark is the good stuff), nutmeg tree (intake of a reasonable quantity could prove fatal), cocoa tree and others I fail to remember now.

I bought some Ayuvedic products.  Some tablets that are meant to reduce cholesterol for myself and an oil product for arthritis which Dianne might find helpful.  They are not cheap but they are all natural products.

Next stop is the Minneriya Elephant Sanctuary.  We picked up our 4WD and driver just outside the park. Four of us were in one vehicle and 3 in the other.  Off we went on our elephant safari.

Elephants Feeding

Most elephants were feeding in family groups.  They are noisy eaters.  They seem to move from area to area on an eating spree.  Occasionally we saw some baby elephants including one that was 5 days old.  It was well protected by the family and hence we did not get a good view.

The sanctuary is made up of 3 connecting parks. The elephants often cross the main highway to go from one park to the other.  We were taken to another park.

Driver and guide intently looking at the elephant herd.  Some judgement and decision making is required here not to spook or disturb the elephants.

We came across a female elephant called Kanahila who was not pleased with our presence. Truth be told, there were a lot of noisy 4WDs in their domain with tourists.  It must be annoying for them.  This elephant came charging straight for us but seemed like she singled me out to take the fall.

The guide made noises and threw water at it to calm it down.  Kanihila in the local language means ‘torn ear’.  All the guides and rangers knew her and her behaviour well.

Later Kanahila charged our other 4WD and had it pinned against a tree.  There was no way for the 4WD to move.  It finally relented and an escape was capitalised.

The herd moved and blocked our exit from the park.  There were several 4WDs.  A park ranger came onto our vehicle and managed to clear a path for us to leave the park.  He was very experienced and knew how to handle the elephants.  He later told us that Kanahila lost her alf in a vehicle accident about 10 years ago.  This accounted for her aggressive behaviour.  Apparently the females are the more aggressive ones.  I could have told them that without visiting an elephant sanctuary.

Our standoff with the elephant herd took a while.  It was getting dark.  One of the other 4WD vehicles had a flat tyre.  Apparently the custom is that all 4WDs must stop and help and make sure that no one is left behind.  It is good to see them work together even though they come from different companies.

We checked into a motel type accomodation called Asnara Hotel.  It is a comfortable place with a very green setting. The food was good.