Day 2. Negombo

A good night's sleep has gone a long way to getting over our jet lag... but we'll see, sometimes the first night is okay and then it catches up to you.

It seems we're in a large hotel that caters to lots of westerners starting their Sri Lanka tour, at least based on the people circulating at breakfast. After having something to eat we retreated to our room and re-packed and organised after the flight, so we're a bit more sorted out for the coming days. By this time it was late morning and we were due to meet the tour group. We decided an organised tour was an easier and more efficient way to see the country, and Bunnik is an Adelaide based company. It turned out there's only ten people on the tour. They're from a number of Australian capitals and all seem reasonable so far. We met, were given an orientation for an hour and then cut loose again for several hours.\

It is pretty hot (30 degrees or so) and humid; everything drips with condensation. So our time was spent in brief excursions from the comfort of the hotel. We did walk north along the beach a way. There was a fleet of traditional oruwa fishing boats, long hulls with an outrigger and an earth-coloured square sail. They all sat a short way off the coats, on a broad reach to the westerly breeze.


We walked past locals in the water and ignored the hawkers, then looped back to the hotel. Later we walked long the main street and stopped at a cafe where Lynn discovered that a smoothie with mango and coffee wasn't the combination we were hoping it might be.

Late afternoon the group reassembled and piled onto the bus. The first stop was St Mary's church. This was a pleasant, pastel coloured building with a great many statues showing more English features than seems historically accurate. It is interesting the churchs we visit around the world when we have so little interest in them in Australia.

Then we were taken to a small canal and loaded into two small boats which took us to the estuary at the northern end of the very large Negombo Lagoon. This area was a mix of fishing boats and mangroves across a network of islands. At this time of day local birds flocked to th mangroves to roost.


A bit unexpectedly, we stopped amongst the mangroves and disembarked. Tables where set up in the shallow water for drinks as the sun set.

The boats then took us back to our starting point. A few metres north along the canal was a barbeque restaurant where we had a buffet dinner. The food was probably not all authentic and I suspect the accordian playing a medley of 60's and 70's classics wasn't either, but it was pleasant. Best of all, we were back to the hotel at a reasonable time to pack for tomorrow.

Location: 175 Lewis Pl, Negombo 11500, Sri Lanka

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