Uduwalawe: From South to East Coast

So we've made it all the way to A-Bay. In a roundabout way.
We left Mirissa onTuesday after another day on the beach. The kids spent hours playing with their new best friend, Lola. She even let Otto borrow her trains and played cats!
The sea here is beautiful but dangerous and we were reminded that the biggest fear we have  wherever we go, is water. We are always teaching the children the importance of safety in the water and we're continuing our attempts at teaching them to swim. Grandparents don't fret, they are never in the sea without us hanging on to them and their arm bands on. That said they did try body boarding with Mikey - which Jess loved and Otto hated (he's not so keen on getting water splashed on his face).

Wednesday saw us at the Elephant Transit Home in Uduwalawe National Park, where they raise and integrate orphaned elephants back into the wild. 
Followed up by a swim at a luxury hotel, which was way beyond our budget, but only cost us £5 to swim for the day. We met a lovely Canadian/Russian couple who had a 3year old girl, Alecia, so again the children are finding lots of playmates. 

Thursday we travelled to Mongarala up in the hills where we were almost the only white people there. We got the VIP room opened up for us in a cafe when we went to buy two bread buns and two cokes (which I felt suitably embarrassed about but it felt rude to refuse)

And now we're here, Arugam Bay. On the East Coast of Sri Lanka. It's fairly full of western tourists and there are about a gazillion places to stay. The weather is still hot and sunny, despite it being apparently monsoon season on this coast! We plan to stay for a few weeks but we'll see how it pans out.
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