From river to river

The day started beside a river and ended being so close to another we are almost in it. The hotel in Kandy was a huge sprawling labyrinth perched above the river Mahaweli. Quite upmarket. Tourists from all cultures getting stuck into the buffet. For dinner and for breakfast. Same options. Over and over. Thus it was a quick pass through this morning to meet up with our botanist guide who took us to the Botanical Gardens.

This place impresses on a number of fronts, it has history, well groomed folliage, peaceful serenity in the middle of a town of chaos, and pretty flowers. The best tree happened to be from Queensland. Go figure.

After an hour of walking around the place getting wetter and wetter in the humidity (via sweat) we jumped back in the car and did a quick shop under the auspices of our shopping guide. Snaffling some linen bargains (fitting courtesy of our tailor guide) we hopped back in the car for a 2.5 hour hair-raising jaunt to Kithugala. This trip had it all. Tight windy roads. Tightly packed traffic jams. Tight fits through seemingly impossible tight gaps. Up to the top of some very high hills and then back down into narrow valleys. Islamic towns, buddist towns, run down towns, people everywhere. Busses and tuktuks all over the place. Driving here is an art form. Seemingly few road laws but a very strong protocols which allude those from out of town. It was a long tiring journey and this comes from a passenger. The driver guide should've been exhausted. Didn't seem to be though. Maybe it was the chilled music seeping out of the Non-bloggers charging phone that kept him energised. Eventually we found our next accommodation of which the main focus is rafting. Thus it is called Rafters Retreat.

Our room is a definite contrast of last night's which was a sealed box in the bowels of a catacomb to this which has no windows, just a missing wall and a drop down bamboo blind to stop the view of the noisy river running seemingly under the floor. At least we have a net to keep the bugs out of the bed. Never done this before. It will be interesting to see if it works because there is no doubt countless bugs flying, crawling and making weird noises all over the blogger as he creates this prose. After checking in ( which we didn't - just shown to our room) we got changed into our togs and sat around in the strangely empty entertainment shack that appears to be where the guests are meant to hang out in. Managed to squeeze a cup of coffee and a wifi password out of them whilst we waited for our next adventure to commence. Eventually it transpired and off we went. Breaking every Aussie road law in the book we sat in the back of a delapidated jalopy with a rubber raft tied loosely to roof as we headed upstream in the pouring rain. Hard to complain about getting wet when you're going whitewater rafting. This was a hoot.

Four paddlers (which included our paddle guide) under guidance of the young dude yelling instructions from the back. "Forward", "Rest", "Hold on" and "Get Down" were the key commands. Possibly the only English words he knows. We did extremely well as a team and didn't loose one member. The rest of the flotilla did at some stage or another. The trip went for a long time and we enjoyed every second of it. Even having a peaceful drift for a while after the last of the rapids were navigated. All the way along the trip locals were using the waterway to swim, wash themselves and/or their clothes. Pity they don't appreciate the damage soap does to an ecosystem such as this. We also saw the location where they filmed the blowing up if the bridge on the river Kwai in the 50's and the bones of a new hydro electric plant that will obviously decimate the whole place. We arrived back at our glamping doorstep in time to connect to the world before a fabulous home cooked meal of local bits and pieces. No buffet. Best meal if the trip so far. If it was not for the happy European family sharing the guest facilities with us it would have almost been a surreal experience. Coming from the chaos of tourists everywhere to seemingly total isolation would be wierd to say the least. Spooky would be more like it. Anyway a smattering of others around stopped those feelings from arising. So now it's off to sleep with the loud roar of the rapids creating sweet lullabies in our heads. Not.