On October 14th we landed in Colombo after a calm and pleasant flight.  Only the Captain gave me some headaches:  25 minutes prior to our landing he announced that the crew had to sit down as he was expecting turbulences.  I do not worry much while flying ……… as long as the crew moves through the cabin!  The crew disappeared and my heart beat rose.

Humaid had announced we would start at five a.m. and first picked up Roy who would join us.  Roy lives very close to Anura’s house and after that they would come for us.  After a warm farewell from Anura and his family, we started at six a.m. and made good progress.  By eleven, we already had made it to Kalpitiya and we explored the peninsula.  Other than little herds of wild donkeys, cows, goats, buffalos and a big variety of birds, there was not much to see.

We had asked around and the locals told us that the Puttalam Mannar road crossing Wilpattu National Park would be passable as it had not rained for weeks.  We started Tuesday morning for our trip along the coast up north.  For the first 10 kilometers there was a small strip of tar after that it was a dirt road.

When we arrived in Jaffna, it was already dark and we stayed at the Cosy Hotel, a clean modest place with marvelous food.