April 28: Rock Fortress

After breakfast leave for Amaya Lake, Dambulla for three nights. Afternoon, visit Sigiriya Rock Fortress, which was the pleasure capital of a single king called Kashyapa in the 5Th centuries A.D.

I started the day with a 30 minute run along the road from the Hotel.  This basically followed the River and was thus pretty flat.  One place had some large guard dogs who went ballistic, giving the local street dogs bad ideas.  I reverted to Bali mode, scooping my hand along the road  as though picking up a rock while the locals who observed the situation went a little further: yelling at the dogs and casting that all important first rock!

As always the driving was very interesting as we go through a lot of towns and villages with interesting stuff going on.  The driving isn't fast - if Sri Lankans drove at Australian speeds the death toll (both human and canine) would be horrendous - but if all interesting things were stopped for I suspect we wouldn't have got out of Colombo in the first week!

The town of Arakuna was notable for a very high Islamic population: approximately 75% of the residents are of that religious group.  I picked up comments from a couple of folk that they were not a popular group within the general community.  This seemed to relate to them having a lot of money and using it to gradually establish closed communities.  (The source of the money was subject to some speculation.)

A little later we came to a large Hindu temple to which we were taken.  Shoes off quick smart and one of the locals attached himself to us as an interpretive guide.  Obviously both of these events led to a few rupees disappearing (as well as the formal entrance fee).

Another local - I believe to be the main priest of the temple - was busy adding good karma to the vehicle of a learner driver,  I don't know whether this was immediately before the driving test was taken or just general prophylactic chanting and laying on of charms.  A Rob photo.

The principle God at this temple was Murga, although Ganesa (which seemed to be the preferred local transliteration) was very evident and both Shiva and Vishnu were represented.  I enquired about the whereabouts of Kali (I was particularly hoping to seek her intervention in the fortunes of an AFL team) and was told that she is very aggressive so cannot be allowed in the same temple as other Gods.  In Australia this would earn a rating of "Does not play well with others." and might suggest that she has been adopted as the unofficial mascot of said team.

Most of the images are on their own page but as usual here are a few favourites.

A tad further up the road we went to a spice garden where a very knowledgeable guide told us a lot of things about spices and gave us a run down of the medicines and herbal products available there.  Cloves are known as the dentist as they are good for everything to do with teeth while nutmeg is in some way the active ingredient in the mace spray.  We got a massage using some of the products and then a chance to buy them.  The massage oils seemed pretty good so a (rather expensive) sample was acquired.  Here they are being tested.

The following images are of things seen along the way which interested me.

The temple gate is an interesting design.  However what gets this image in the post is the different roles of the laity, busy with the paint brushes, and the supervising monk!

This is the flower of Sri Lanka's National Tree, Mesua ferrea.  It is a rainforest species, but in this case was growing near the temple.

 I have included this here as these small tractors are everywhere, doing everything from pulling carts slowly along the road (with headlights but no tail lights which can make night-time driving a challenge) to cultivating the rice paddies.  The reason for the long handlebars is to allow for cultivation fittings to be installed when the trailer is removed.

 I had thought these were Papayas but Nanda advised they were cucumbers.  The angle of the tray suggests a visit to a shock-absorber vendor might be in order!

We ended at the nominated Hotel after getting some further fuel (diesel at 115.2R or about $A0.95 per litre).  It is pretty magnificent with a very large large lake at the end of the lawn.  There were notices on the lawn saying it was dangerous to swim in the lake: this didn't seem to bother the many villagers bathing and doing the laundry a few hundred metres away.

In the afternoon we went to the Sigiriya Rock Fortress.  En route some birding was done, finally scoring the endemic Sri Lankan Woodshrike.  

As there is a fair narrative to this set and the images are interesting I have included them here rather than on a separate page..  As we got closer the size and steepness of the rock became more apparent 

and the silhouette of part of the climb - note bottom LHS of the main rock face - was rather daunting.  

The site was surrounded by moats with the sign "Dangerous to bathe crocodiles go about." fairly prominent.

To begin with the climb was up steps until we got to a metal spiral staircase (visible above the yellow wall)

leading up to some murals.  

 The staircase going up was quite OK, but the one coming down had a fair bit of air underneath in places.  Keep looking inwards seemed to be one solution (adopted by me) , while Carol's approach is to look up at the photographer (Rob)! 

There was a long rock face to be crossed and from the ground one could easily see a set of planks with rope cables on the outside going past the face.  

That turned out to be where workers maintaining the outside of a wall - known as the mirror wall - earned their rice and curry.  I was extremely pleased that we walked on solid rock inside the wall to a spot known as the Lions Paw due to a bit of sculpture at that point.

Beside the paws was an interesting sign: "in the case of wasp attack stand still and keep quiet".  We then started to climb the very exposed metal steps - shown above - with a number of very large wasp nests hanging off the rock alongside.  Nanda commented to some noisy tourists that if the wasps come they will want to jump straight down.  We got to the top where there were a large number of schoolchildren and (as for everywhere) a happy seeming dog!  

Also a soaring Shaheen Falcon.  The view was rather excellent and the amount of human effort involved in carting the bricks up to the top was astonishing.

 This large rock was near the bottom.  Clearly it has just dropped off the cliff beside it!

On the way back we swung into a Cargills store to buy some beer.  This involved going to a separate part of the store up stairs accompanied by locals carrying empties.  Carol was the only female in the place and scored a few stares for her trouble.  It was all very easy going however, and the price were a lot lower than the hotel.  The guy behind me in the line had a polo shirt emblazoned with Rough Club and when I asked if this was a Rugby Club he replied that he didn't know the sport, he just wore the shirt: this got a lot of laughter from everyone.

We got back to the hotel - after some of us, in the more forward seats, saw an Indian Palm Cat run across the road.  We were in time for a swim before dinner.  The meal was pretty good with the usual buffet of European and Sri Lankan dishes.  This was accompanied by a three person band playing Sri Lankan music which was a nice touch.  Less nice was a male European person - accompanied by a very strange looking European woman - who was a complete chain smoker.  My guess is that he smoked approximately 5 cigarettes an hour.  When he left a sign saying "Reserved"  and naming him was visible through the cloud of fumes.  

Bird of the Day:  Shaheen Falcon
Other vertebrate of the Day:  General award (sort of triptime achievment).
Pattern of the day: those in the Hindu temple
Bad Taste of the day:  The Smoker

A strong contender for BTATD was a European "lass" on the top of Sigiriya who I decided was the winner of the award for "Miss Road Safety 2012 (Air Bags Division).   Steamy spectacles were put down to the toughness of the climb despite some alternative explanations.  A far more modest young European lady wearing a red sari in the dining area looked so good and was so obviously delighted with her attire that she was given a new award for Good Taste of the day.  In this case steamy spectacles were put down to some rather spicy curries.

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