Bed tea arrives at 06.30 and is welcome. D has been awake for a while and notes that we leave the last scheduled stop, Kanpur, 45 minutes late. They day is another grey one but it is not raining. Even D realises that photos of IRCTC meal trays can become less than enthralling so here is the last one. Note the smiling features of the steward. That is the smile of a shark. Unlike South Western Railway, who operate the Rajdhani that we took from Bangalore to Nagpur, Northern Railway do not decorate the coaches and staff uniforms with exhortations not to tip. When the steward makes a final appearance with a tray and some breath freshener he is not too happy with D's offering and hustles for a bit more. Cheeky sod. We accept that he works hard for long hours but we haven't asked him to do anything that isn't part of the job. Perhaps it's something to do with being closer to Delhi. A great effort is made to catch up the lost minutes but all is for nothing when w...
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 floo...
Our 5 am pick up is waiting at the gate and driver Chaminda greets us warmly. We have the gypsy to ourselves this morning and have less distance to travel. The driving is much more sedate this time and before too long we turn into the Bundala National Park access road where we pull up. We are just over the road from a temple and less than a hundred yards from another. The two seem to be in a volume contest and the cacophony is immense. Regular readers may recall that we are very definitely against mixing religion and amplification, particular in the hours before dawn. The sky lightens and we move along the single track road away from habitation. A few other gypsies have joined us but there is nothing like the mêlée of yesterday morning. At the gate we are joined by a chap who introduces himself as a volunteer guide, and whose name escapes both of us. Our first stop gives us a view over an area of marshy looking ground towards a small lake. The sun is just creeping over the hor...
hallelujah
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