Sadly, it is time to leave Galle. But this is where our adventure really begins.

We have a car and driver for two weeks so we can start exploring the island.

Our driver arrives at the Sun House to pick us up. His name is Preeth. He is not tall or short, not fat or thin, not young or old. He is altogether rather ordinary and totally forgettable. That would normally not be a compliment, but for a driver who will be with us for two weeks I think it is perfect, especially if his personality is the same.

It isn’t.

He is driving a Prius which, having read my description of him, you may already have guessed. He opens the back for our bags and out rolls an empty bottle of whisky. Gordon picks it up and laughs.

I yell “It’s party time”

Preeth is not amused. He snatches the bottle back and it disappears rapidly into the car, never to be seen again. Maybe there is more to Preeth than meets the eye. Or maybe his last customer left it. We will never know!

Today we are driving up into the mountains to a town named Ella. It should take around 3 hours. Preeth sets our destination on Google maps on his phone. Really! I thought he drove round this island for a living! We get 100 yards down the road when Siri offers up her first direction …. in Japanese!

Preeth swears in Sinhalese. My Sinhalese is not that good, but the expression on Preeth’s face is enough to give it away. He slams on the breaks and fiddles with his phone.

100 yards down the road Siri speaks again.

In Japanese!

This is not good. Preeth is perhaps technically challenged, and definitely short tempered.

At this rate, the drive will take much longer than we thought.

For the first hour or so the land is flat and low. The vegetation is tropical and oh so very green. There are rice paddies as far as the eye can see, their shades of green bright and cheerful, the fields sometimes flooded with all the rain. Dotted around are slightly raised “islands”, where a dense covering of trees and palms give shade to tiny villages. It is lovely.

The road is a highway, long and straight, and Preeth tells us it is the best road in Sri Lanka. It could be any road in any country, until you see the signs:

We turn off the main road and begin our journey upwards. It is now just a local road, lined with homes and business with a never ending array of roadside stands selling everything from buffalo curd (delicious and much like yoghurt)

to king coconuts

We tell Preeth we want to visit some rock carvings on the way. He says he knows them and he will take us there.

Sometime later we see a sign to the carvings pointing left. We drive straight past it. When we tell him, Preeth says he knows where he is going, which apparently is straight on. Gordon looks on Google Maps and it too shows we should have turned off. We tell Preeth. He tells us there is a school on a corner of a junction and that is where he always turns off.

We drive on

No junction

No school

Preeth finally stops and asks someone, who tells him what we told him and what Google Maps told him.

He lets out a huge sigh of exasperation and says rather tetchily “We have to turn round”. He says it as if it was our fault.

When we finally get back to the junction with the sign, there is a school on the corner. If Preeth had a sense of humour we would be laughing. He does not and we do not.

It is a very small road. We drive some way without seeing any more signs. Preeth is about to say something like “I told you so”, when we come to small dirt parking lot with an attendant but no sign. The attendant assures Preeth we are in the right place. You would think Preeth would be happy, but he was showing no signs of that emotion.

From there, we follow a beautiful walkway

until we come to the site itself

To get a sense of scale of the rock and the carvings, just look at the size of the people in front of it. It is awe inspiring. There are seven figures carved into the rock. The rock itself resembles a kneeling elephant, its head resting on the ground to the left.

The carvings date back to the 10th century. No one quite knows the purpose of the carvings or why they are there. That’s an awful lot of effort for such little recognition. Some think it was the site of a Buddhist hermitage, but it is only speculation.

The name of the of this wonderful place is equally wonderful. It is called Buduruwagala. A name that to us sounds so exotic, so inviting, it makes you want to go there, without even knowing what is there. To the Sri Lankans, not so much. Roughly translated, it means “rock with buddha carvings”. Well yes, I guess that sums it up quite succinctly, but it doesn’t make you want to rush over there and take a look. Surely, someone, somewhere could come up with something a little more mystic!

The central carving is 51 feet tall. It is the largest such rock carving of a standing Buddha anywhere in the world (there are larger ones of a sitting buddha). There was a taller one in Afghanistan, but the Taliban destroyed it in 2001, as they do, or did. They don’t anymore. There is nothing left. They have destroyed everything.

The three carvings to the right are somewhat smaller but just as impressive

while on the left, the middle carving shows the original plaster and some of the paint that the artists used to complete their work.

It is a spectacular sight, surrounded by forest, miles from anywhere, with nothing but distant bird songs to disturb the serenity. Quite magical, and yet, as you can see, there is a mere handful of people there. But perhaps that is good. The ones that are there disregard the signs asking you to remove your shoes before climbing the steps. None of them does. They must be Russian.

As we leave, Preeth asks if we would like to have lunch. We can’t imagine there would be anywhere out here, but he says he knows a little place. Sure enough, just down the road we find this:

How perfect is that. And it certainly is a little place. But I guess it is large enough to handle the crowds visiting Buduruwagala. Score one for Preeth. He definitely needs it.

There is a sign that says cappuccino, which is all we really want. There is no espresso machine in sight, but we go for it. Sam is delightful, even if he can’t spell cafe. His coffee is not so delightful, but we don’t care. The Fabulosity meter loves it. And we love that right there on the sign, he reminds us that we are in Sri Lanka. Just in case we had forgotten.

It is small moments like this that we always remember. They are the reason we love to travel to far away places, away from the crowds. Where else could you sit in solitude over a lake sipping cappuccino, chatting to Sam, who has never travelled further than Columbo, some 150 miles away

We could stay for hours, but we have places to go.

The road now starts seriously climbing, winding up the mountain until we come to the remarkable Ravana Falls

There are many more people here than at Buduruwagala, which only goes to prove something about tourists, but I am too polite to suggest what that might be. Most of them refuse to go to the vantage point you see in the photo. To get there you have to clamber over wet rocks and cross the raging stream at the bottom right by jumping from one stepping stone to another. Gordon won’t go, but much to Preeth’s dismay, I will. Up to this point he has stayed close to us, but he refuses to cross the stream. He stands on the edge like a worried mother yelling at me to be careful. Adorable, but a little annoying.

And to prove that I did make it

That’s me in black, hanging on to the rails for dear life

When I get back, Preeth hasn’t left the spot by the side of the stream. He is wringing his hands with worry. As I leap athletically (!!??) from stone to stone he reaches out as if to grab me.

Maybe more annoying than adorable?

Back at the road there is a crowd of people taking photographs, watched by a rather unappealing monkey with a bad hairdo. Or is that a toupee?

An hour later we reach the top of the mountain, and there perched right on top, is our hotel. It is called 98 Acres. I guess that is a clue to the size of the grounds. They really are very literal with their names.

Now that looks pretty fabulous. We are so struck by the place that we fail to notice the dark clouds.

When we get to our room, the first thing we do is step out onto the balcony to admire the view. We are greeted by an all to familiar sight

Here we go again!