Now here's the end....for this time

,In Ratnapura , when on a local gem mine tour, what a silly question....'do you want to go down(into that primitive, leaking hole in the ground, ankle deep in water at the bottom, shored up with rubber tee wood, and packed with ferns to prevent the sides from caving in, via a single rail very non OHS  ladder 40 feet that was still serviced by a hand windlass, and a pipe for communications)into the mine for a look.  Of course I did.   Second real opportunity NJC has had to claim on the super.....the shaft was about three metres square, 17 m deep, with an adit, into the gem gravel was about 1.5 m x 1.5 m and was about 3 m long.  The ground water was constantly trickling from  the roof and walls.  Most of the digging is loosened by crow bar and moved by hand into bags to be lifted to the surface.  .

Note the safety helmet, safety vest and boots

After climbing out. Bare foot, shirt stripped and .yes that's mud.

The gravel is then stored either in a locked room or a pit. When all the usable gravel is lined the pit is filled with water and the gravel is sifted using woven baskets.  Alas there were no sapphires in the  load we brought up.   Animist belief still reigns here as they have spirit houses and ceremonies to bless the site and drive out the evil spirits.

Three and a half hour bus to colombo, including a change of tyre, while we were still in the bus.  The driver and conductor both chewing betel nut...with the requisite red spit marks down the side of the bus.....

Hotel a luxury...hot water, cold water, sheets, air conditioning, towels, a tv that we will never turn on, an elevator, more than one power point, and a view of the beach ...(over the railway line ) about 10 ks south of the city central in Mt Lavinia.  But it will cost a lot more than the average $20-22 night accom we have been paying

Galle face green for kothu meal where we started three weeks ago.

Flag retrieval ceremony Galle face green

 Bus cost $1.00 for both of us, but the ride back to the hotel was amazing.  To say the driver was high spirited, understatement .  Following on I phone maps worried when according to the map we were driving along the sand.  Maximum speed per the meter was 49 kph, seemed like 160. We were starting to get worried when he said the journey would cost us rs1000, when we thought rs 400 max.   Just as well this wasat the end of our time in Sri Lanka, because our heart rate would not have gone over 150 this time.

At the airport now. Heading home.

Highlights

Me.

Galle fort- built 300 years ago still solid and standing

Jaffna- the damage that the war has done

Anurandhpura - 1500 years old and still standing.  And the cobra handling

Sigiriya  lion rock and the elephants

White monkey home stay haptule 

All the local train bus and taxi rides

Nathalie...of course

Low lights

Trincomalee - poor excuse for a hippie beach bum backwater- if you've never seen a decent beach maybe it has some charm.

Next.......maybe Indonesia, but maybe after that India.