With less than ideal timing, we left for Sri Lanka a couple of days after the opening of our Dronfield exhibition. This was our second visit and served to confirm our attraction to this delightful country and its people.
The highlight this time was a trip to Anuradhapura and the Wilpattu National Park. We had visited several of the ancient cities on our first visit, but had not seen Anuradhapura – the oldest (I think) and certainly the largest. What a wonderful site and what a wonderful place it must have been. Temples, carvings, pools a
nd in the most tranquil setting!
It was the run-up to the Buddhist new year and there were stalls selling lotus blossoms as we left the site.
We moved on to Wilpattu where we took 2 safaris by Jeep into the National Park – one at dusk and one at dawn. This Park has only fairly recently re-opened after the civil war. It was a stronghold of the Tamil tigers and, sadly, wildlife tends to come off second best when faced with hungry soldiers. However, the wildlife is now returning an
d, although we did not manage to see a leopard (only its footprint!), we saw an amazing variety of birds and other animals. So the paintings this time so far have been all from Wilpatt
u which was indeed a most enchanting place even without the animals. A region of “willus” which are very shallow lagoons a haven for birds of all kinds and often sporting a coverlet of lotus blossoms.
We then headed for a couple of nights on the Indian ocean – a charming (if exceedingly hot!) place where the locals managed a vigorous game of handball? as the sun went down.
After this, things did go a bit pear-shaped as Mick fell ill with cellulitis and, after a few days in hospital in Kandy, was effectively grounded for the rest of the holiday.
Luckily, we were staying with old friends Jerry and Sally who were extremely helpful and their beautif
ul guesthouse was a very good place to be stranded!
If you would like to see the paintings I have done – please go to the Landscapes (Sri Lanka) section of this web-site.