The journey home

We had to wait until 6pm on Wednesday to hear from our travel agent to tell us what we should do. He said he could get us on flight at midnight that night from Singapore to Heathrow with Qantas (the last flight available before the borders closed), but we were in Kuala Lumpur! We dashed back to the airport (thank god the hotel was actually in the airport complex - a good decision made by us believe it or not).

The flight to Singapore was at 9.40pm on Silk airlines but the office was closed and wouldn't open until the flight was ready to depart. Help!!!!!!! then a brainwave - buy the ticket online. Denise succeeded in getting us 2 tickets, we sent the confirmation to our travel agents who immediately confirmed our flight - but we had 1 hour in Singapore airport to get off the Silk flight and get onto the Qantas flight.

I had unpacked absolutely everything so had to go like a mad thing to pack. I was ready to go but had a text from Denise to say the zip on her bag had just broken - what else could possibly go wrong!

Amazingly there was a machine by the exit of the hotel that wrapped bags in clingfilm, it was unattended but fortunately one of the porters was able to operate the machine, phew.......

We were happy to hear that our bags would be checked in right through to Heathrow despite being different airlines - I think Singapore was very strict on contamination, so bags were under strict control. They also changed our seats so that we were first off the plane - great news!. On arrival in Singapore there was a member of staff ready
to direct us to the transit desk where we could collect our boarding passes (there were 6 of us). I can't tell you how grateful we were for that - there are a number of transit desks in different parts of the airport and without help we would never have found it in time.

Once we had our boarding passes and arrived at the gate we could relax ........ don't be silly, that would be too easy ........ it was announced that due to technical problems the flight would be delayed until 1.30am. We immediately went to a cafe for a well earned (and very expensive) beer. We went back to departures to find food parcels pilled up on the floor - not a good omen! This was followed by an announcement that there was a slim chance the flight would leave at 3am

Needless to say the flight was cancelled until the following day as they needed spare parts. As we had been to Malaysia within 14 days we were not allowed to spend the night in a hotel so we 'luxuriated' in the Qantas VIP lounge with 500 other travellers. We were given water and a blanket, Den and I found a bench to lie on, others slept on the floor or in a chair. The next morning they provided breakfast, followed by lunch and at last we were told the flight would leave at 3pm - hooray!

Once on the plane there seemed to be about 6-8 people missing so we had a further delay whilst they found there bags and removed them from the plane - where did those people go? Unbelievable! We finally left at 4pm and settled down for a 13 hour flight - I can't tell you how stiff I got, and my knees were aching too but we made it to Heathrow after 34 hours. We took the Heathrow Express to Paddington (only 15 minutes) where my dear pal Mandy was waiting to take us home, bloody marvellous!

As my home is rented out until the end of April I am currently homeless but dear old Mandy and Diane are letting me stay in their attic room for the foreseeable future and I am now in isolation for the next 14 days. I am on day 4 and finding it quite hard but at least I am home safe and sound - and currently quite healthy, thank goodness.

What a finish to my adventure, but don't think it ends there - Denise and I will continue our journey as soon as it is safe and I have a trip booked to Antartica in February 2021 with my sister Jane, so watch this space ............................

Sri Lanka - final birds and animals

Sri Lanka has been a brilliant place to visit and I have thoroughly enjoyed it, I am really sad that we didn't see the whole tour but can recommend anyone thinking of visiting to go for it

A massive bumble bee taking off

An eagle

A cameleon

Look at this

Now look at this - what's the difference?

Peacock - very noisy especially at 4am!

Look at the formation of these ducks

one of the ducks - Mandy?

Our last day! - Corona virus stops our journey

Little did we know that day 10 would be last day of our tour of Sri Lanka. Only 6 of us felt fit enough to do the walk so we left early to take a train to Dalgashinna

The station that we left from

The sign at our destination says we were 1600 meters above sea level

Our trek started along the railway lines!

The view from the starting point

Our journey was uphill for a short time and then downhill for the rest - a total of 8km

We were walking through an organic tea plantation that only made tea from the bud and just the 2 top leaves - this is the most expensive tea and pickers only need to pick 12kg instead of 18kg per day but it is far more difficult to do

No pain no gain - suitable for those walking uphill!

The washing dries quickly here

This woman walked all the way to the halfway point to bring us tea

The intrepid 6 (Chad, me Gary, Karen, Jacinta and Tanja)

We had to avoid the villages because they thought we would infect them with Corona virus, but still we were shouted at. When we got to our lunch meeting with the others we were told that our trip would be cancelled and that we were being taken to Negombo the next day where we would have to find a way to get home.  On the way we stopped off at Bambarakanda water falls

That night we stayed in Forest Lodge eco camp which had only been open since 7th March 2020 and we would be their last tourists to visit for the foreseeable future - I felt so sorry for them - it's such a wonderful place

What a message for lion beer drinkers!

Our final meal with Chad and Tanja

Den and Katherine

Our drive back to Negombo on Monday morning was weird - the streets were virtually empty as the government had made the day a public holiday and asked that everyone stay indoors. By the time we had got to our hotel the holiday had been extended for 3 more days. We managed to get a flight out to Kuala Lumpar at midnight that night and we checked into a hotel in the airport with a pool. Our flight to London was at midnight Friday so we had 4 days to wait

Our fond farewell to our Intrepid pals (Indi our group leader in the background)

Our route around Sri Lanka

My room

Me at the pool

It is Wednesday today and we have been told that everything at the hotel is closed including the pool, there will now only be room service so we went to the very empty airport and bought some supplies. When we got back I checked our flight status and that is cancelled so who knows what is going to happen................

Sri Lanka - days 7-9

We stayed in a lovely hotel up a hill overlooking Kandy

The next day (7) in Kandy we went to a tea factory where they are still using the original 100 year old equipment for sorting and grading tea which is picked by hand. Only black tea is made in Sri Lanka and a small amount of white tea (from the bud only) which they call silver and gold tea. I bought some silver tea - it was extremely expensive and can't wait to try it when I get home

The drying tea leaves

The different grades of tea

My purchases - very artistically displayed I think

In the evening I saw a traditional dance performance which was very exciting with acrobatics, fire eating and fire walking

Day (8) involved taking a 6 hour train journey up into the mountains to see the tea plantations at Bandarawela. It was good fun, we played Yahtzee and Wizard with our friends Chad and Katherine and the views were terrific

Later that day we went for a cookery lesson and then we had to eat it - actually it was delicious!

Crushing garlic

Den making chicken curry

Grating coconut

Chad making potato curry

Katherine making aubergine curry

Coconut samba

popadoms

the final meal

Everyone tucking in

The next day (9) was a big one - a 12km walk in the hills at Haputale through tea plantations. It was a killer but the views were spectacular

A tea picker giving offerings for a safe day - they have bare feet and can be bitten by many animals which can be lethal

This man brought us all tea and biscuits at the top

The view from the top

Tea pickers

Afterwards, when we got to our hotel, I immediately booked a massage and that was wonderful too - because the next day, guess what? Yes it was another walk!

The view from the hotel overlooking Lipton's seat