Thursday 7th November 2019

We were up at 05.00 in order to get a tuk-tuk from our hotel to Mullaitivu Bus Station, because we needed to get the 06.00 bus to Vavuniya in order to be there by 08.30, as Daya had been told there was a direct bus from Vavuniya to Nuwara Eliya at 09.00 (only one a day). The tuk-tuk failed to show up, so there was a bit of a panic and, even though it didn’t arrive until 05.55, we still managed to catch the bus to Vavuniya, and we got there by 08.30. Sadly, we found out that the direct bus to Nuwara Eliya doesn’t leave at 9.00a.m. but is an overnight bus that leaves at 9.00p.m.! Well, this is Sri Lanka after all, so we thought nothing of it and got a bus to Kandy instead. Once we got to Kandy, I left Daya to catch a bus to Hatton (the nearest stop to Norwood, where he lives) and I quickly got a bus to Nuwara Eliya, finally arriving there at 18.00.

Long distance travel on the government buses is an excruciating ordeal really and I am so relieved that it will be a while before I need to take another one! The toilets you encounter when the bus stops for a break on journeys like this make French service stop toilets seem like haute cuisine! When I got home, I bumped into Donald and Ramesh (they live below the apartment I am staying in), who asked after my welfare and whether I had eaten. I told them I hadn’t, but that I would be fine until I went shopping tomorrow. There was a knock on my door a while later, and they had gone out to buy me some bread and jam for my breakfast tomorrow morning. I had a cup of cinnamon tea with them (a present Rachelle left me) and just felt so grateful to be back at home in Nuwara Eliya with such lovely people!

I am just adding photos of my 3 heroes today: Dayaneethibabu, for being such an amazing travelling companion this week (I do love this cheeky photo of him) and Donald and Ramesh for giving me such a great welcome home on my return to Nuwara Eliya!







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