The start of a new journey - Unakuruwa, Sri Lanka

My arrival into Sri Lanka was a nice one. Feeling very tired after arriving at 6am when it was only 12.30am in England, I discovered the capital – Colombo – to seem pretty laid back. I got a bus down to the South coast to a little village just outside of Tangalle. I wasn’t at all sure what would great me, but it was lovely. My room was one of two, right on a beautiful beach. The windows were falling off their hinges, in fact one had come completely off, but I had a bed, a mosquito net and a view from my bed to the sea just a few meters away.

In the day time I relaxed on the beach or walked around the coast where friendly families outside their homes would invite me to sit with them, offering me coconuts to drink and sea food they had caught.

There was a little dog called Sibo. He mostly slept and if you commented on him sleeping then poor Sibo would be made top walk on his back legs whilst someone held his front ones, until he got to the sea where he was made to swim. I did feel this was a little mean but everyone there clearly loved Sibo, along with all animals I think. One day they found a lost tiny animal who was about the size of my hand. We discovered it was called a Deer Mouse. It did look a bit like a big mouse but with the hooves and legs of a tiny deer. The guys there adopted it, feeding it milk and keeping it safe. It can only have been a few days old as could hardly walk. By the time I left, Deer Mouse was doing well and had made friends with Sibo (who was happy for us to bury him in the sand).

There was also plenty of other wildlife. Snorkeling in the sea I found lots of fish and a family of cuttlefish who swam together in a perfect line next to each other in size order. In the jungle I saw a peacock and on one of my walks I found a snake busily eating a lizard. There were also hermit crabs, and two turtles who you could watch coming up to breath next to a rock at the edge of the beach.

I successfully stayed up past midnight on New Years Eve (it certainly helped that I was still used to English time and so for me it was really only 8pm), and celebrated with everyone who worked/hung out where I was staying, along with the other guests – two girls from the Ukraine. We tried the local drinks, set off fireworks and had quite a funny time.

The owner of the guest house told us that it had ‘rained stars’ the previous night at 4am and asked if we’d like to be woken if it did it again. We agreed, and at 4am the following night were awoken to see the raining stars. Unfortunately though he had woken us on the off chance that it would happen, and so we sat of the beach in the middle of the night waiting and waiting for the stars that never rained. The sky was however beautiful and we all had a little of the local greenery and then returned happily to our beds.

I couldn't have asked for a nicer more relaxed place to start my trip.