My wife and I recently had the opportunity and good fortune to string a few weeks off together to go on a serious walkabout and travel about as far away from home as we could from Colorado and set off to explore Sri Lanka. It was a wonderful journey with amazing food, people, stunning views, crazy tuk-tuk rides, monkeys running on the roof & of course hours of riding the rails. So here is brief photo essay of our journey, please enjoy!
A Long Journey - this was actually our flight path home, but illustrates nicely our 23+ hours of flight time to get half way around the world. Wow!
Riding the Rails - one of the joys of visiting Sri Lanka is the riding the train through the high mountain jungles and tea plantations with stunning views while trying to spot monkeys. If you ever find yourself in SL, I highly recommend not riding in a first class air conditioned car, but rather enjoy the open windows and feeling of freedom in 2nd or 3rd class. The experience is far more rich and allows you to really the ride.
Strawberry Man - a little fresh fruit is just what we needed on the first day of our train journey after leaving the busy capital of Colomobo.
Haulin' - always love the creative ways those without much can get the job done. In our travels it seems some of the happiest people we've met have little by western standards. Perhaps consumerism isn't all it's cracked up to be.
Man in the Mist - part of our rail journey was in the rain & clouds which inhibited some of our views near Nuwara Eliya but as bad weather can do, it made for some other great photo opportunities.
Motherly Love - throughout our various travels we've yet to come across a place with so many monkeys scampering about. For us, they were of course a novelty & fun to see. However after hours of running & jumping on the metal roof of one our hotels we could start to see why the locals consider them a nuisance. Yet still, we love monkeys!
The Bicycle - a young boy works on his mountain bike near the village of Ella, bit of a kindred soul.
Ellie - we did a quick safari excursion into Udawalawe National Park where lots of wild elephants are located. We had hoped to make it Yala to view the leopards but that'll have to wait until next time.
Ella Gap - a brooding mountainside view in the town of Ella taken from our hotel.
Nine Arch Bridge - This famous bridge between Demodara & Ella is most certainly worth the hike from Ella. I'll be writing a separate post shortly about the hike and how to do it. A must if you are fan of trains & adventure (who isn't?!)