Wasgamuwa
Due to ticketing issues Nepal didn’t quite work out. While it was a bit of a blow bc we were looking forward to it and had already planned quite a bit, it wasn’t the end of the world. On the bright side we’d be in Colombo to watch the World Cup finals and, as i’d find out a couple of days after the cancellation, new work commitments would have made things very difficult if the trip did go ahead. And Nepal isn’t really going anywhere so there’s always next time. We were considering alternatives within the country for the 4 days (including taking Monday 30th off) of Vesak and May day. The usual suspects were brought forward, Yala, Udawalave, Nuwara Eliya, Ella and even an out of season unawatuna trip. We eventually settled upon Wasgamuwa (also spelt Wasgomuwa for reasons i fail to fathom). I would have loved Yala but it’s a bit of a pain booking places at such short notice, and we were quite lucky to get rooms at Safari village in Wasgamuva so no complaints there. So about 10 ppl were due to show up between Sunday and Monday, after the last cricket watching session for a while.
The WC final ended on a sad note, not bc we lost but the circumstances. It’s a shame we didn’t have a full cricket match that would do justice to a final. But as is often the case in SL, things were put into perspective in the sharpest possible way. Power failures followed by explosions and the Colombo sky being lit up like a christmas tree. Phones rang frantically before the networks got jammed, and we watched through windows as planes flew around, not knowing whether they were SLAF or whatever else was out there. The rumour mills worked over time and nobody really had much idea what was going on. Things quietened down and we edged home nervously around half 3. I didn’t know what was going on in the match but knew it was raining and the boys had no chance in those conditions. Half the trip crew dropped out so it was just 5 of us who wanted to go anyway, we agreed to decide the next morning (in 4 hours time) to see if we still want to go ahead.
I woke up around 9am and a glance at the phone suggested that the 5 ppl were still in so we left Colombo around 9.45. The radio news headlines were about some random minister discussing wholesale prices and the latest in the French elections race, how very classy. We took the Kandy road to the Warakapola junc and went via Kurunegala to Matale. The drive from Matale through Laggala is one of the most picturesque in Sri Lanka. It takes you through the Knuckles range and the scenery is fabulous. The different shades of green on the hills, the trees interspersed with paddy plantations, natural bonsai created by the wind, the orchestra of crickets as you pass through tunnels of forest and the spectacular sheer drops from the road forced us to stop and admire for a few minutes. Along this route there’s a mini worlds end which isn’t all that interesting and a couple of nice looking bungalows which are pretty cleverly placed to capture the best of the views. Lucky sods. Naturally we made plans to revisit that area after setting up base in Wasgamuwa, it was much too pretty to be accorded just a simple drive through. The road quality depreciated sharply between the end of the knuckles forest and Wasgamuwa, and the scenery of course had a very tough act to follow.
We got to the little hotel around 4ish, which was pretty good time considering we stopped for brunch at Ambepussa. The rooms are pretty neat, we got a couple opposite the lake so the early morning view promised to drag you out of bed. But first things first, no time or energy for an evening round so we grabbed towels and bathers and ran off to find the nearest source of running water. A couple of the chaps had been to Was before so they rumbled through hazy memories but couldn’t pin point the location. We asked around a couple of locals about bathing spots, and an elderly villager said the place we wanted was now frequented by an elephant in musk. On another day we might have, but none of us had the energy to scamper away from an angry pachyderm. Instead we drove up along the bund of a water stream and picked a random place to take a dip. There was a fence bordering the stream which looked like it was electrified to keep the elephants away from the neighbouring farms. We asked a farmer whether its active and he said not till night, so we casually hopped over it. The water was warm and clean (what you can’t see or smell can’t hurt you) and I had the most pleasant swim since my shoulder decided to make a nuisance of itself. About half an hour later A yelps; “leach!” I was quite amused bc I had never heard of a swimming leach so I thought she was imagining things. She pointed to a twig like thing which she removed from her body. This added to the humour bc it was at least 3 inches long, far larger than any leach. And then to our amazement the twig doubled up and started swimming back towards her. She yelped and splashed out of the water. I was last in line to jump out of the water using the overhanging branch as a lever, and just before K had got out, the leach, or whatever it was, managed to attach itself on to me. I produced a melodramatic shriek and danced around a bit before hopping out of the water. The drama wasn’t over bc we were unsure about the status of the electric fence. K was the guinea pig and he got past unscathed. M was next and as soon as she touched it she quite casually said “it’s on.” Her tone didn’t suggest anything, but it seems she had actually scorched her finger and the shock had pushed her back. While she nursed her hand we crept along the wires until we reached a small gap and squeezed through to the safety of the jeep. Tiredness and lack of sleep saw us stagger into bed after a quick meal and a few drinks under the stars. There’d be 3 more days to enjoy so we needed all the rest we could muster.
