Galle, fourth largest city/town (pop 91,000), 119 km south of Colombo was our next destination before arriving back in Colombo. Located on the south western end of the island, Galle has been an important ancient seaport of Tarshish, from which King Solomon drew ivory, peacocks and other valuables. Certainly, cinnamon was exported from Sri Lanka as early as 1400 BC and the root of the word itself is Hebrew, so Galle may have been the main entrepot of the island for the spice.
Images 1-3 External parameter walls of the portSince then, Persians, Arabs, Greeks, Romans, Malays and Indians were doing business through Galle port. The "modern" history of Galle starts in 1505, when the first Portuguese ship, under Lourenço de Almeida was driven there by a storm. However, the people of the city refused to let the Portuguese enter it, so the Portuguese took it by force.

Images 4-14 fort interiorIn 1640, the Portuguese had to surrender to the Dutch East India Company. The Dutch built the present Fort in the year 1663. The fortified wall were built using solid granite from the hinterland and corals form the shore. The quality of the original construction is reflected in its excellent current state. After the construction of the fort, Galle was the main port of Sri lanka for the next 200 years and was an important stop for ships sailing between Europe and East Asia. When British forced Dutch out of SL in the 1796, the commercial interest was turning to Colombo but they preserved the Fort unchanged, and used it as the administrative centre of Galle. Today the fort has been recognised as a World Heritage Site and has survived the 2004 tsunami.The interior of the fort remains a working community, with administrative offices, courts, shops and populated with regular folk. However the its attractions as a one of the best tourist spots in the island means (excellent) boutiques, hotels and and some of the vintage property being bought by foreigners.
Images 15-19 local traders The New town surrounding the fort is quite modern and large part of of which back on to the fort wall was either damaged or destroyed by the Tsunami but most of the town is now back to pre tsunami levels and its bustling with traders and traffic.

After arriving in Hambanthota, We were now following the coastal route down to Galle. These southern were hard hit but the 2004 Tsunami and the effects of hat is still all around.

South Coast

Heading down to the South coast of SL through the hill country with a breathtaking view of the south of the island. The towns such Haputale that we drove through are makes a good base for visiting tea plantations and walking in the cool mountain air. The train tracks and the roads follow some of the most winding paths in this part of the country. The traffic is thing, we just wish we could have spent more time here on the Colombo-Kandy-Badulla route stop at Haputale - it's about 2hrs from Nanu Oya (Nuwara Eliya).

Nuwara Eliya (3 hrs south of Kandy)Sri Lanka's highest town (nearly 2000m) was once the favourite hill station of the British and still retains some distinctive colonial features. We were quite looking forward to getting there but it was quite wet when we got there and it was cold at night. And the place felt so similar to being in the UK. misty morning, dairy cows, vegetable gardens but the exception was the tea plantations. So our time was limited to just one night and we headed south.

Kandy, the last royal capital of Sri Lanka is our next destination. ( 115kM from Colombo at 465 meters above sea level). The city established in the 15th century was the last royal capital where 2500 years of royal rule ended, Kandy was the capital of a Sinhalese kingdom from 1592 to 1815,. And as the second largest city in SL, has retained it historical importance, as Colombo is considered by most as a colonial capital city.The geographical, cultural and religious heart of Sri Lanka and the last stronghold of the Sinhalese kings, falling to the British in 1815. The main attraction of the city and also the most sacred Buddhist establishment in Sri Lanka is where one of Buddha's tooth is being kept, Dalada Maligava (the Temple of the Tooth), Built in the 16th century but improvements and additions have been done to this structure until the fall of the Kandy kingdom. A golden canopy was added recently. Daily rituals are being carried out at various offering times to the shrine. This is certainly the most touristic site/city that we so far have been to and the whole atmosphere was quite nice, the hills the lake and the temples. on the down side the traffic was quite bad.

Since our encounter with the first pair of tortoises in Turkey, this the second time we come across a tortoise while being on the road. This is a very rare site in Sri Lanka and only a few managing to survive cohesively with the expanding population, farming and pesticide and not to mentioned the road users.

Trincomalee situated on the East coast will be the furthest east or north we will travel in this occasion in Sri Lanka. With a huge harbour, described by the British Admiral, Lord Nelson as being “the finest natural harbour in the world”, the town and the large neval bases have seen some action the last two to three decades as they have been targeted by the LTTE terrorist. And not to mention the 2004 Tsunami.
But today there is very little going for the town. Getting here from Anuradhapura means going through number of time consuming check points but the police manning the post have been friendly and helpful.
And once you get here, there is little or no accommodation as there is virtually no tourist, local or foreign. But the some of the countries best beaches are found in the east coast, to the north and south of Trincomalee

The town centre is a hot and dusty ramshackle but lively. Here the ethnic mix of Singhalese Tamil And the Muslim is more or less even but not always harmonious but adds to the charm
The region is dotted with hot water springs that used to be popular with the locals but they are deserted these days (below). But we thought that we would drop by the most well known hot water springs and healing baths at Kanniya , again no one here except the army personal maning the nearest check points.



As we head back south towards thrill country, we came across some wild elephants grazing just of the main road.

Trincomali