Reply to thread

Message: <blockquote data-quote="rochel1977" data-source="post: 18676979" data-attributes="member: 371">River rafting, caving, and a leech <img src="http://www.eaubergine.com/images/SriLanka_Dec13/thumbnails/m090_DSC_4924.jpg" alt="" class="fr-fic fr-dii fr-draggable " style="" /> We've left tea-world and descended to about 2000'. We're near the town of Kitulgala. This small hotel has a tea plantation below. <img src="http://www.eaubergine.com/images/SriLanka_Dec13/thumbnails/m091_DSC_4948.jpg" alt="" class="fr-fic fr-dii fr-draggable " style="" /> <img src="http://www.eaubergine.com/images/SriLanka_Dec13/thumbnails/m092_DSC_4962.jpg" alt="" class="fr-fic fr-dii fr-draggable " style="" /> Piper picks some tea from the plantation. <img src="http://www.eaubergine.com/images/SriLanka_Dec13/thumbnails/m093_DSC_4997.jpg" alt="" class="fr-fic fr-dii fr-draggable " style="" /> Things are so peaceful. Until....     "DAAAADDDDDDYYYYYY!! DADDY! DADDY!!!! COME HERE NOW!!!! NOWWWWWW!!!! IT"S EATING ME!!!!!!! HELP!!!!!!!!!! HELPPPPP!!!!!!!" This is Finn's reaction to finding a 1-inch leech gently, harmlessly caressing his ankle. During the rest of the trip, Finn was terrified of leeches, and must've asked a dozen times a day if this river has any leeches, or this tree, or this hotel.     Piper: "Finn has three main fears now: the pool monster, the big orange cat, and leeches." The big orange cat is a rumored animal which has fought with our cats outside from time to time, and which Finn perceives as being of comparable size to Clifford the Big Red Dog. The pool monster is on a long hose and sucks up algae from our pool, but probably can eat people as well. <img src="http://www.eaubergine.com/images/SriLanka_Dec13/thumbnails/m094_IMG_0445.jpg" alt="" class="fr-fic fr-dii fr-draggable " style="" /> Check out that tuk-tuk river-rafting shuttle! Piper gets ready down the road from our hotel at the tea plantation, in Kitulgala. <img src="http://www.eaubergine.com/images/SriLanka_Dec13/thumbnails/m095_IMG_0471.jpg" alt="" class="fr-fic fr-dii fr-draggable " style="" /> Finn and Astro are back at the lodge eating ice cream. Heidi has somehow done an amazing job of telling Finn that the rules are that he can't go river rafting... I know if I said that, he'd be incredibly upset. <img src="http://www.eaubergine.com/images/SriLanka_Dec13/thumbnails/m096_IMG_0479.jpg" alt="" class="fr-fic fr-dii fr-draggable " style="" /> Go Piper! <img src="http://www.eaubergine.com/images/SriLanka_Dec13/thumbnails/m097_IMG_0482.jpg" alt="" class="fr-fic fr-dii fr-draggable " style="" /> Here's our river guide. Oh -- and what is that just behind us? It's The Bridge Over the River Kwai! Indeed, this is precisely where the Oscar-winning film from 1957 was filmed. This is a new bridge at the same location as the famous one which was blown up, which Finn has now watched the last 8 minutes of countless times on DVD in order to see the resulting train crash. And no, it's not the River Kwai -- it's actually the Mahaweli River. <img src="http://www.eaubergine.com/images/SriLanka_Dec13/thumbnails/m098_IMG_0484.jpg" alt="" class="fr-fic fr-dii fr-draggable " style="" /> We took a side excursion for an hour or two to go on a little jungle walk (no leeches). <img src="http://www.eaubergine.com/images/SriLanka_Dec13/thumbnails/m099_IMG_0499.jpg" alt="" class="fr-fic fr-dii fr-draggable " style="" /> Piper slides down some slippery rocks into a pool! <img src="http://www.eaubergine.com/images/SriLanka_Dec13/thumbnails/m100_IMG_0532.jpg" alt="" class="fr-fic fr-dii fr-draggable " style="" /> Piper and I are back in the raft. <img src="http://www.eaubergine.com/images/SriLanka_Dec13/thumbnails/m101_IMG_0537.jpg" alt="" class="fr-fic fr-dii fr-draggable " style="" /> Hmm, how strange. Piper has fallen in the river. I wonder how such a terrible thing could have happened? <img src="http://www.eaubergine.com/images/SriLanka_Dec13/thumbnails/m102_IMG_0540.jpg" alt="" class="fr-fic fr-dii fr-draggable " style="" /> Oh no... it seems like Piper has been splashed. This is awful! <img src="http://www.eaubergine.com/images/SriLanka_Dec13/thumbnails/m103_IMG_0547-Edit.jpg" alt="" class="fr-fic fr-dii fr-draggable " style="" /> As we're paddling down the river, this guy was pushing his way up. We saw more Fitzcarraldo-esque moments later on in the afternoon. Despite us being on a commercial raft trip, this area (and much of the country as a whole) is still very undeveloped, with a lot of people living on subsistence agriculture. Up-river from here a woman was drying some large yellow fruits she picked from the forest; this was very common to see. <img src="http://www.eaubergine.com/images/SriLanka_Dec13/thumbnails/m104_DSC_5058.jpg" alt="" class="fr-fic fr-dii fr-draggable " style="" /> Done with the river, we've driven through a big rubber plantation and are on the path to a cave. Finn gets a nice ride... <img src="http://www.eaubergine.com/images/SriLanka_Dec13/thumbnails/m105_DSC_5081.jpg" alt="" class="fr-fic fr-dii fr-draggable " style="" /> ... and so does Astro. Heidi says this might be her favorite picture. <img src="http://www.eaubergine.com/images/SriLanka_Dec13/thumbnails/m106_DSC_5089.jpg" alt="" class="fr-fic fr-dii fr-draggable " style="" /> The cave was kind of a last-minute addition to our itinerary. As we were walking up, it seemed to me like we were definitely under-prepared for spelunking. Like, where's the harness, ropes, or even a headlamp? I figured out guides didn't know what they were getting into, and it'd be a bust and we'd have to come back the next day with proper equipment. Well, here we are, and no headlamps needed. <img src="http://www.eaubergine.com/images/SriLanka_Dec13/thumbnails/m107_DSC_5095.jpg" alt="" class="fr-fic fr-dii fr-draggable " style="" /> This is the Beli-Lena cave. There was a plaque at the cave entrance describing some of the things found there:     30,000 year old stone tools (among the oldest in the world).     Remains of animals eaten, including sambhur, pig, barking deer, monkeys, porcupines, and giant squirrels.     Salt (traded from the ocean) and breadfruit.     16,000 year old skeletons, which are among the oldest in Sri Lanka. This ornamental structure is quite a bit newer. Finally, "Beli-Lena occupies a very special place in the cultural heritage of Sri Lanka. It awaits further investigation by future generations of Sri Lanka archaeologists with progressively sharper analytical skills." <img src="http://www.eaubergine.com/images/SriLanka_Dec13/thumbnails/m108_DSC_5097.jpg" alt="" class="fr-fic fr-dii fr-draggable " style="" /> This is the excavation area, where it was dug in the late 1970's. <img src="http://www.eaubergine.com/images/SriLanka_Dec13/thumbnails/m109_DSC_5109.jpg" alt="" class="fr-fic fr-dii fr-draggable " style="" /> ... next to a nice waterfall. <img src="http://www.eaubergine.com/images/SriLanka_Dec13/thumbnails/m110_DSC_5142.jpg" alt="" class="fr-fic fr-dii fr-draggable " style="" /> Somehow Finn is drier than I. <img src="http://www.eaubergine.com/images/SriLanka_Dec13/thumbnails/m111_DSC_5174.jpg" alt="" class="fr-fic fr-dii fr-draggable " style="" /> <img src="http://www.eaubergine.com/images/SriLanka_Dec13/thumbnails/m112_DSC_5185.jpg" alt="" class="fr-fic fr-dii fr-draggable " style="" /> Piper found a nice iguana in the grass on the hike out. <img src="http://www.eaubergine.com/images/SriLanka_Dec13/thumbnails/m113_DSC_5202.jpg" alt="" class="fr-fic fr-dii fr-draggable " style="" /> People in the village. The school here was a Tamil school, which is somewhat rare for this area of Sri Lanka, where it is mostly Sinhala. <img src="http://www.eaubergine.com/images/SriLanka_Dec13/thumbnails/m114_DSC_5218.jpg" alt="" class="fr-fic fr-dii fr-draggable " style="" /> Moments after this, Finn freaked out when the local people told us we should not walk through the tall grasses so as to avoid the leeches. <img src="http://www.eaubergine.com/images/SriLanka_Dec13/thumbnails/m115_DSC_5245.jpg" alt="" class="fr-fic fr-dii fr-draggable " style="" /> Sri Lankan traffic jam. <img src="http://www.eaubergine.com/images/SriLanka_Dec13/thumbnails/m116_DSC_5247.jpg" alt="" class="fr-fic fr-dii fr-draggable " style="" /> More echoes of Fitzcarraldo. Steep hills, jungles, rubber plantations, rapids, locals in canoes and rafts... all we need is an opera. <img src="http://www.eaubergine.com/images/SriLanka_Dec13/thumbnails/m117_DSC_5249.jpg" alt="" class="fr-fic fr-dii fr-draggable " style="" /> Astro wants to check out the Ray-Bans <img src="http://www.eaubergine.com/images/SriLanka_Dec13/thumbnails/m118_DSC_5300.jpg" alt="" class="fr-fic fr-dii fr-draggable " style="" /> Heidi won the bug-finding contest! This thing is about three inches long (plus another five for the antennae)... and perfectly camo'd as a leaf. <img src="http://www.eaubergine.com/images/SriLanka_Dec13/thumbnails/m119_DSC_5351.jpg" alt="" class="fr-fic fr-dii fr-draggable " style="" /> Our rainforest hotel here had the most amazing collection of tree frogs! OK, most of them were jumping around the building and not trees. But still great! After everyone else was in bed, I employed the services of our waiter Hashan to help me shoot some frogs pics... he held a big flash rig as I got close to them with the camera. <img src="http://www.eaubergine.com/images/SriLanka_Dec13/thumbnails/m120_DSC_5367.jpg" alt="" class="fr-fic fr-dii fr-draggable " style="" /></blockquote>

Verification: Payakata winadi keeyak tibeda?

Top Bottom