I have a few hard and fast rules that I try to obey during Third World Travel. I have published them in other blog entries. Some of the rules are stolen, some are my own and I even cadged one from Richard Adams. One of the most important rules is this: Do not pilot or ride in a vehicle of any sort after dark. Once the sun sets, ones travels for the day should be over.
And yet we found ourselves in an open jeep just out of the National Park as the sun set like a switch. Light-dark, an odd thing about the tropics. There were literally miles to go before we slept, or did anything else. But first we had to survive. What, you ask, could go wrong? The jeep has headlights, yes? Well yes it does My Friends, but I'm here to tell you that night travel in Sri Lanka is not something to be undertaken lightly. It feels something like this.....
It is dark. Very dark. Any lights that are near the street are not street lights, but rather the lights for residences or a stray business. Businesses who nudge up right to the edge of the road. The unlit road. People congregate in front of these tiny shack establishments and spill out into the road. On scooters, Tuk-tuks, and on foot. The dark road. Very dark road. Okay. So add your jeep to the mix, along with Tuk-tuks, small Tata trucks, scooters with lights, lots of bicycles without lights and lots and lots of dogs and cows. Squeeze all of these moving objects into the road at one time, complete with significant speed diferentials (cows are not as fast as Tuk-tuks, tuk-tuks are not as fast as Tatas.....) Let the Games Begin!
The jeep driver wants to get back to the barn, get paid, and go have a beer or whatever. He's moving quickly, not Autobahn quick, but let me tell you Friends and Neighbors, closing on an unlit bicycle at 50 kilometers and hour while a cow walks into the headlights causes all sorts of contrary motion to happen at the same time. It is very much like a video game in which dangerous things are just coming at you. Imagine being Mario but without a joystick or anyway to control what is happening. (clenching ones seat back or soiling oneself does not really count as control. Just saying)
Darkness, speed, scooter, cow, LOTS OF COWS!! dog, bicycle, COW COW COW, person standing in middle of road, insane dog sleeping in middle of road MORE DAMN COWS!!! Tuk-tuk doing slow u-turn in road, narrow road, BAD ROAD!!! DOG-COW-DOG-BICYCLE-TRACTOR!!!!! Really, tractors with no lights. Bad Dog!! BAD BOVINES!!
Eventually we made it, still alive, to the A2. This was not a lot better as now there were all the same players as before, all appearing out of the night, but the A2 added long haul lorries and big scary buses to the mix. The travel gods remained benevolent, however, and with a huge sigh of relief on my part, we eventually turned into the lovely drive of the Lagoon View Inn and safety.
We shared a wonderful meal of rice curry and fruit with curd and honey for dessert. We thought our wildlife day complete and retired to the balcony for some conversation and a smoke. P & J turned in for the night and we were alone. But not quite. We began to hear splashing in the marshland below us. Not small froggy splashing, but rather big Bump-in-the-Night-Swamp splashing, which got louder and louder. A herd of perhaps forty water buffalo appeared in the moonlight, hulking black shapes plodding through the water. We watched in awe as the herd passed in their own good time, looking for whatever water buffalo look for on a moon-bright night.
The day had been, Friends and Neighbors, a Damn Good Day. Ciao for Now! Tomorrow we head up into the Hill Country
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