Flooding at Tissamaharama

Talk about history repeating itself. In 2004 I arrived in Sri Lanka worried about terrorism, but instead was threatened by a tsunami. Again, in 2006 I came concerned about my families reaction to the civil war, but instead got trapped by flood waters! It's almost like the country is asserting itself to remind me what the greater danger is.

In any case, our travel around the island was rudely compromised by the gradual introduction of rain. We thought nothing of it until we arrived in Nuwara Eliya, the town with the highest elevation in Sri Lanka. Nuwara Eliya is known for its beautiful tea plantations and its lousy weather. In our case, we got the lousy weather, but no landscape. It was freezing cold - something I had not even considered in Sri Lanka which seems to have perpetually balmy weather - and was raining endlessly. We should have guessed something was amiss when we observed the landslides partly obstructing the road leading to Nuwara Eliya. However, in true Sri Lankan style our driver 'Longtooth' (on account of his implausibly long canine) evaded the slides with great skill, and so we thought nothing of it.

Oh, and for future referance if anyone visits Nuwara Eliya, they should most definately not stay at the 'Hellenic Inn' which can only be described as a flea pit, with no amneties and the most incompetant Faulty-Towers-esque staff ever conceived. The Lonely Planet, inexplicably, describes it as "comfortable" and "modern". It is, however, true that it has an "excellent view:, although in our case we only 'viewed' a thick mist sitting a foot away from the window. The blankets were ancient things, the covers dusty and allergy-inducing and the mattress' not dissimilar to sleeping on the street. The showers must have been water-blaster rejects since the pressure was so high one could not stand there for anymore than a few minutes- and it was icy cold. Finally, the food they served was poisonous - who puts chilli in vegetable soup?

In any cae we fled Nuwara Eliya and eventually found ourselves in Tissamaharama in the low lands. We thought (wrongly) that the rain was peculiar to the high country. Instead, we discovered that - in our eagerness to break out of Nuwara Eliya - we had nearly got ourselves trapped by flood waters.

Despite this, we booked ourselves into our hotel in Tissa. Unfortunately, our trip to Katuragamma (a Sri Lankan pilgrimage site) seemed to be ruined because the river waters had flooded the only bridge into the town. We weren't the only people delayed by this development. As we prepared to investigate the bridge, a convoy of vehicles screamed into the hotel courtyard and armed men burst out of them, AK-47's at the ready, forming a security barrier. Out stepped a Sri Lankan MP who calmy booked himself into the hotel. So not only were we threatened by rising flood waters, we were also housed right next to a prospective terrorist target!

A bus negotiates the flood-waters:


A three-wheel tries its luck:

Our turn:

Flood waters threaten Kataragama:


Returning to Tissa from Kataragama:

The fact that the bridge was out of order certainly did not deter the locals. In true Sri Lankan style they were fording the waters anyway: three-wheelers, buses and cars were all making their way slowly across the bridge, in many cases only barely. We even saw an old man carefully making his way across: a cane and a scrawny child his only means of support. So, rather than give up - as would be the normal, rational procedure - we adopted the local custom. We donned our already soaked 'waterproof' clothing (bought hurriedly from a dirty little shop in Badulla). Then 'Longtooth' called a mysterious friend who arrived with an all-terrain-vehicle (meant, I think, for safari's at Yala) and helpfully drove us through the rising waters.

The Katuragama temple was loud (Hindu's often worship through sound), but probably wasn't as interesting or as fun as how we got there. In the driving rain we completed the Hindu ritual by hurling a burning cocout into a cage thereby conferring bad luck (mine didn't break - I take it this implies indifference on the part of the deity). We got a fright when there was a brief power cut leaving us in pitch blackness in a near emergency zone. In any case, we must have done something right because Katargama (the god the town is named after and also the guardian of the region) allowed us to leave safetly, and the next day we made it past the flooded waters along the only road that was open, all the way back past the road that took us to Nuwara Eliya.

It seems like natural disasters follow me wherever I go! At least this one was less dangerous and tragic than the tsunami (although at times I wondered what the state of the Sri Lankan rescue service was like. Ultimately, it was somewhat more exciting too and even though we didn't get to visit Yala National Park, or Horton's Plains we made up for it with a rather peculiar aquatic adventure.