Monday 27th January - Bonus Birding

R is determined to get the table under the fan for breakfast, so much so that we arrive before any of the tables have been set. Breakfast is the same again and still good, accompanied by copious quantities of tea. We pack at leisure and await our driver who manages to get lost, eventually arriving 15 minutes. Good practice for Indian Time. We are given the option of paying 200 rupees extra to use the Expressway and opt in. This gives us 30 minutes of hassle free motoring until we reach the cones that steer us off. The road ahead looks to be 99.9% finished but the latest forecast opening is April. That would have cut today's journey down to under 2 hours. They are also building a railway out towards and beyond our destination. We saw no evidence on our trip today.

There is lots to look at including some very ropey driving practices. R gets to see lots of birds. We arrive at Tissamaharama just after lunch time and check in to the Blue Turtle Hotel. Our room is on the first floor of one of a series of four roomed 'cottages' grouped around a pool in a pleasant garden. There are resident peacocks that we can watch from our balcony and even a kettle.

We unpack and go for an explore. The streets around the Blue Turtle are unpaved and probably a morass in the monsoon but today they are mainly dry. We find a shortcut through to the main road where there is a Londry in the sky. This is perched on stilts and accessed via a precipitous and shoogly steel stair. There are no rails or fences around the meagre circulation area at first floor level. R retreats leaving D to find out what's what. Hand in laundry by 5 pm today and it will be ready after lunch tomorrow.

By happy coincidence the husband of the washerwoman organises Safari tours to neighbouring National Parks. We have one fixed for tomorrow but could maybe go another for Wednesday. The opening gambits of negotiation are observed and we agree to resume at laundry dump off time. Our progress takes us to the side of the Tissa Lake, a tank in local parlance or reservoir to the benighted. A most enthusiastic chap tries to persuade us to take a boat ride. We politely decline, suggesting later in the week might suit better, and walk on around the perimeter of the tank.

Mr Enthusiastic is nothing if not persistent and is soon cruising alongside us offering a 33% discount on his original quote. R has spotted a colony of birds roosting in trees on an island so we go with it. We have never been so grateful to an entrepreneur. For an hour and a half we cruise the lake getting in close to colonies of black headed ibis, egrets, cormorants of different types, darters (snakebirds), pelicans, various herons, fruit bats, a magnificent grey headed fish eagle and even a crocodile. At one point we are within a few feet of the crocodile as it leaps out of the water and tried to take a young darter. We make sure that our hands are well inboard. This boy has earned his fee big time. We cheerfully cough up the undiscounted rate. LP says next to nothing about this lake except that swimming is not advised as there have been reports of crocodiles.

Thrilled with this unexpected avian bonus we head home and D nips out with our grungy undies. We get theses booked in then get down to serious negotiations.  "Best price?"  and we have a deal.  That means two pre dawn starts in a row. Whose idea was that? The terrace at the hotel provides a suitable setting for a couple of cold ones followed by an early supper. 04.00 start tomorrow. Good