SL3 Wild Wild Life - Day 26

After a magnificent local breakfast for two in the dining room amid the antique furniture, we thought about what to do for the day. The area does not lend itself to things to do - the lagoon is too dirty to swim, the roads too dangerous to cycle, and we wanted a bit more than just loitering in the pool and garden all day. I rang our driver, who had made himself available for us today, and arranged a walking tour of Puttalam and then a wildlife safari in nearby Wilpattu National Park in the afternoon. The walk was an interesting view of a Sri Lankan town, and especially the market area with its produce, spices and local dried fish. After our tour we headed north to the park, stopping at a restaurant for a simple curry  lunch . Then it was off into Wilpattu with the three of us perched in the back of the safari jeep as we made our way from waterhole to waterhole in search of elusive wildlife. It is a bit like a fishing charter - you sign up on the potential for something to happen but that does not necessarily mean it will. So we lurched around on 4WD tracks for four hours without seeing a cheetah or elephant, the two prized atteactions. Butbwe did see a good varirty of Sri Lankan birdlife, numerous wild peacocks, spotted deer, grey lemur, a water monitor and a mongoose. So it was still an entertaining and interesting day, with time for a cup of tea at the park before heading home in the dark.
We no longer had the place to ourselves when we returned to the guesthouse, but the group had gone out for tea so we still had our table for two under the cloudy night with a beef curry, devilled prawns, curried egg and potato in coconut milk, and string hoppers to wrap portions in. All very nice with a dessert following. Unfortunately our neighbours on their return proved to be a group of men who were very noisy, so we retired to our room and tried to sleep while the TV blared in the study.
Things we learned in Sri Lanka #3 - curry can be nice for breakfast. Especially with hoppers - a thin crisp pancake like thing shaped like a bowl that you add a dal or meat / fish curry into, add some coconut sambol or caramelised onion then roll up and eat. Delicious ! For added delicacy-ness an egg is cooked into the bottom of the hopper as it is made, and this is an egg hopper - same thing applies, you add the curry of choice, roll and eat. One egg hopper and filling each is sufficient for brekky but you would be surprised how many plain hoppers with a filling you can wolf down in between cups of tea.