Friday 7th February 2014: GMT + 5.5hrs ­ Colombo, Sri Lanka: It¹s a Long, Long Road to Pinnawella Where My Elephant(s) Await!

Another 7.30am start for a visit to the Elephant Orphanage at Pinnawella some 50 miles to the north of Colombo. The trip began along a stretch of three-lane motorway but within a matter of a mile this narrowed to the National Highway No. 1 – a single-track road jammed with busses, lorries, tractors, Tuk-Tuks and cars.  No wonder the guide said there was no extra charge for the thrill of the drive!!

As in India the road passed through many villages and small towns and each side of the highway – a rather optimistic title in my opinion – was crammed with shops, workshops and businesses of all kinds.  The buildings admittedly were less ramshackle and of a more modern design than in India and for the most part free of filth and litter. Little acrid fires smouldering away every so often along the roadway suggested that the locals were attempting to deal with the blight of plastic bags.

After an-hour-and-a-half we stopped for a comfort break at a ‘Rest House’ set in beautifully tended grounds dotted with coconut palms.  These Rest Houses date from the colonial days of British rule when officials visited areas remote from Colombo and presumably the roads were even less passable than today and needed somewhere to rest and to stay.  They certainly did things in style!

Resuming our places in the bus we began to climb steadily some 200metre up into the rolling hills.  The landscape had already opened up into pleasant vistas of lush green paddy fields or meadows with cows gently grazing on the rich vegetation, coconut palm and small rubber plantations.   Coconut palm cultivation is concentrated in the south of the Sri Lanka, with the main tea plantations in the central region and rubber trees – introduced from Brazil via Kew Gardens - are to be found in the north.  Tea remains the largest export from Sri Lanka and is grown organically, so no fertilisers or pesticides are used, so good are the growing conditions.

Soon it was time to turn aside from National Highway 1 to an even narrower twisting road with even more traffic for the last 3 miles to the Elephant Orphanage at Pinnawella.