Galle, Sri Lanka

Hi All, after a 9 day 8 night passage we finally made it into Galle.  The last 300NM was on the nose, 20kt-25kts, with moderate sea.  Unfortunately we were also battling a 4 knot tidal current along with the rest of the fleet.  Then with our starboard engine flashing a oil pressure light, we turned that off until we were able to contact the Yanmar Agents in NZ on Monday 10th when everyone went back to work, to find out that it was only a faulty switch, so on went the engine.  We were traveling from speeds of 1.8 kts up to 4.5kts which was very frustrating at times, but we finally made it and have been enjoying the sites, culture and cuisine of Sri Lanka.  So enjoy our pics, we also went on a landbase tour for 4 nights and 5 days.  Visiting, temples, tea plantations, waterfalls, Ranwali Spice herbal gardens in Kawdupelella, Matale, the prestigious Hill Club in Nuwara Eliya, founded in 1876 for men only, the Ruhunu (Yala) National wildlife safari park with elephants, crocodiles, mongoose, pelicans, jungle fowls to name a few. We also visited a elephant orphanage, where they nurse the elephants back to health if they can and then try to reintegrate them back into their natural habitat.  There are some villages that still use the elephants for moving large objects around or tourist attractions.  The boxing day tsunami in 2004 also affected the Sri Lankans, but had not had as much publicity as the Thailand tsunami.  Many lives were lost with the wave traveling into land 1.5kilometres.  A large memorial statue stands in the place where over 200 people who had been traveling in a train perished with the tsunami waves.  We attended the celebration of Historiacal Duruthu Perahara of Pilana Sri Maha Viharaya 110th Term which started with 7 villages presenting their cultural dances and buddhas, this only happens on the night of a full moon and is a very big occasion, we started at 10pm and finished at 4am, colourful, exciting but very tiring.  We were the guests of honor sitting in seats only for foreign visitors.  So now for the pics enjoy…