We arrived in Cochin SW India on 5 March. After a passage of three days eight hours and thirty minutes. The weather was good to us and the strongest wind that we saw was 22 knots behind the beam, which is always good. We encountered a lot of fishing traffic along the Indian coast, which kept us awake at night. The arrival formalities in Cochin were very easy, with all officials being very polite and proper and no hint of corruption which makes a pleasant change! We have only just started to find our way around the town. It is Hot, dirty and fun! The food is very good and cheap. The people very polite and helpful and begging is very infrequent. A full update will follow later!
This News from Galle in Sri Lanka. Having passed by Galle on our way to Cochin on 14 February with all going well. On the morning of 15 February we were hit by some very unpeasant weather in the Gulf of Mannar. We decided that it would be better to head for a safe haven and turned back for Galle. Finally arriving at 01.20 Hrs on the 16 Feb. Exhausted but unharmed and with no more than minor damage to our main sail.
As we had to pay for and go through the full check in procedure and were able to stay for up to one month we decided to call forward our visit from later in the year.
We have just returned from a five day tour of the island. A very pleasant place, totally different from our past experiences of Asia.
We visited the highlands and a town called Nuwara Eliya. The scenery is beautiful, tea grows everywhere and waterfalls are in abundance. Almost every house seemed to be surrounded by it's own little market garden. It is in this area that 80% of all of Sri Lanka's vegetables are grown. We stayed for just one night in this town and it was the first time for a very long time that we got cold, with the temperatures down to just 12 Deg C in the morning.
In the lowlands rice grows plentifully and irrigation schemes are in evidence everywhere. Water is a problem at the moment in Sri Lanka. This is due to several years of near drought conditions. The rivers and reservoirs are down to as low as 20 % of their normal levels. As 80 % of all of Sri Lanka's electricity comes from hydro electric power plants daily power cuts have become the normal way of life. We did see a wind farm on the south of the island with five commercial wind driven generators in use.
We next visited three of Sri Lanka's ancient cities. The first was called Sigirya. This is a hill top palace dated from around 500 AD. The hill in question is a rock with vertical faces rising up to 200 meters above the surrounding countryside. On the plains below are a double defensive wall system, with two moats. Inside of this are water gardens and rock gardens. The climb up is demanding but well worth the effort. On the top is a swimmining pool, which was carved out of the rock. It was a truely interesting place to visit and well worth the entrance fee.
Our second visit was to the ancient capital of Polonnaruwa, which at it's height in the tenth century AD must have been an impressive and extensive site. Today only a few ruins remain of what was very obviously an ancient and advanced civilisation similar to those of south America.
The main features for us were the templs and palaces. The temples each built by succeding Kings were bigger and better as time went on.
Finally we visited the cave temples at Dambulla. These temples date back to around the first century BC and are still used today by Buddhist monks. There are many Buddha statues of various ages and much rock painting, some dating back over 1500 years.
All in all this has been a very pleasant stay. Now we are making plans to carry on towards Cochin in India. As the weather looks to be right we are planning to depart Galle on or around 02 March.
Our next news should be from Cochin.
Thanks for being with us.
Best wishes Phil and Ines.
