we booked a driver for the next morning to drive us to sigiriya which is an ancient rock fortress, known as lion rock about 3 hours drive north. it's an example of ancient urban planning and i was particularly impressed with the engineering - it's no small feat building a palace on the top of a 200m high rock. we toured the gardens and then headed up past the mirror wall to the top of the rock where the palace was constructed. there were some gorgeous views of the water & terraced gardens. it was also superbly hot and humid in the sun - we were both pretty happy to come down and get into some shade.
we had a quick lunch and then we were off on an unplanned safari adventure to minneriya national park to see elephants. our taxi showed us some pictures on his phone and i was hooked being a lover of elephants. we saw tons of elephants in the park - they come from the surrounding area for the lake in the center of the national park in the dry season.
one of the viewing spots had more than 40 elephants hanging out together and having a snack until the bull elephant decided it was time to head to the lake. unfortunately for him, many of the safari jeeps were blocking his way. he asked politely a couple of times by trumpeting and running close to the jeeps however when they didn't move, he charged seriously, knocking the jeep behind us onto 2 wheels temporarily (our jeep drove away quickly before he had a chance to attack us). once they were able to pass, everyone meandered towards the watering hole and the jeeps headed out of the park.
it was a full-on day as we didn't reach kandy until 8:30pm that evening. we had a quick bite and then rolled ourselves into bed utterly exhausted due to the jet lag!
it was a full-on day as we didn't reach kandy until 8:30pm that evening. we had a quick bite and then rolled ourselves into bed utterly exhausted due to the jet lag!
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