13th to 14th March - Ahangama, Sri Lanka

Due to the war that started in Iran our flights back home through Dubai were no longer an option.  We had been found a flight back to London on Singapore Airlines, but it was two days later than we had planned, so we were moving to a hotel courtesy of Audley Travel and Jetwing.  When we knew we were having to stay an extra two days we expected to have to put up with a hotel in Colombo.  But no, we were moving about twenty minutes around the bay to a town called Ahangama, another surfing tourist hot spot.  The hotel was called Mosvold Villa and it was a lovely boutique hotel set on the beach.

Our room had stunning views of the beach where once again there were plenty of surfers enjoying the waves on the main beach.

I then went through the task of checking in and receiving the boarding passes for our journey home.  It was a relatively straight forward exercise and made our stay here a little less concerning.  We were checked in all the way through to Heathrow.  We ten made our way down to the pool for the rest of the day

Clouds gathered in the late afternoon and the sunset wasn't as we would have wanted but we did catch a glimpse of the setting sun.

As we sat having a evening drink the clouds picked out the last of the days sun above the palm trees.

This area is known for the "Stick Fishermen"  Traditionally fishermen would put poles in the surf and then climb up and sit to fish.  Today they do not fish in this way, but the fishermen have become a tourist attraction so they will still go out to the sticks with rods and then charge for the photographs.

From the hotel we could see several sticks in the sea and early morning with the soft glow of the morning sunshine we could see them on the sticks.  I was able to get a photograph.

There must be worse places to get stuck waiting to go home.  This was the view over breakfast.

Then from breakfast we moved to the sun beds and spent the day taking in what we hoped would be our last day of Sri Lankan sun and sea.

We finally went up to the room to sort ourselves out for our trip home in time to enjoy the evenings sunset, and we were glad we had, it was quite spectacular.

On our last two big winter trips to Australia and Costa Rica we had ended the trip with views of a spectacular sunset, so today was all about keeping up that tradition.  We watched as the sun finally sank into the Indian Ocean and brought our holiday here in Sri Lanka to an end.

It was an early start the next day as Viraj arrived just before 7:00am for our journey to the airport.  The journey was straight forward, with it being Sunday there wasn't much traffic.  Our flight was at 12:15 and after some emotional goodbyes we went through checkin and security with out any fuss.  The airline now had our bags checked all the way through to Heathrow and they would not be going without us, we relaxed just a little bit more.

Both flights were on time and we had about four hours in Singapore to wait until the fourteen hour flight to Heathrow.  It was long but we managed it.  The journey door to door from the hotel was thirty seven hours and it felt like it.

Once home we looked back on our time in Sri Lanka.  It was a wonderful holiday, but with the worry of getting home hanging around in the background.  Despite the assurances and they were very good there was always a worry, would we get bumped off?  Would the war escalate further to close more air space?

Thankfully it didn't happen and we can look back on a wonderful tour of a beautiful country with lovely gentle people.  The properties we stayed in were wonderful, stand outs were Jetwing Surf, Kayeem House and the outstanding Galoys Wild Glamping, which exceeded our expectations.

The safaris too were magical with wonderful wildlife encounters, the highlight of which must be the Leopard in Kumana, but the birds and photographic opportunities were also superb.

Finally a big thank you to Viraj our chauffeur guide.  He went over and beyond to ensure we were comfortable and safe, he was with us all the way and added to the experience with his knowledge and organisation.  If you do get to read this Viraj, once a gain a very big THANK YOU once again for myself and Helen and I wish you al the good fortune for the future.