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................