Udawalawe Elephant Sanctuary

The first in line!

Glub....glub.....a bucket load of milk

"Next!!"

"ooh...me me me!"

"Hey you, the one with the inconspicuous look, you already had your turn!...cheeky!"

A happy looking mob :)

Place: Udawalawe National Park

Time: 3:00 pm daily

Free entrance, but any donations for milk is gratefully accepted.

Until the babies are old enough to be released in to the wild, they need gallons of milk a day.....literally.

The Ancient city of Anu

The great Stupa from afar

Anuradhapura, affectionately (or conveniently) referred to as "Anu" in the book "The Winds of Sinhala" by Colin De Silva is one of my favourite places on earth, as is the book a favourite book of all time of mine.

If you haven't read "The Winds of Sinhala" already........!?! What the hell have you been doing all this time???!!@!#!#

Ruwenweli Dagoba

Anuradhapura doesn't possess the cool climate of the hill country nor its natural beauty, yet there's some magical force that continues to mesmerize the visitor.

"Eth Pokuna"

A hub for the water channel-tank network in ancient Anu, with underground water tunnels running in and out to tanks many kilometers away, ensuring flow control and minimising waste.

Isurumuniya


Tissa Wewa

The Citadel Sigiriya, "Lions Rock"

Sitting there looking pretty

David Attenborough once narrated the complex social structure and behavioural patterns of these fellows in Anuradhapura/ Pollonnaru areas

View from atop Dambulla temple

The Tessellaar Tulip Festival

The annual Tessellaar Tuip Festival held in Victoria is an event dedicated to celebrating the beautiful flower that has captured the imagination of many a poets, artists and laymen alike.
It's an excuse to put on a spectacular display of colours that just make you go "wow!"



Despite the fact that it's the spring time, the weather wasn't too kind and spoiled half the day with heavy rains and gusts which made things a bit difficult for us tulip admirers.


Rows and rows and rows of tulips


Red Hot beauties


Stepping out of the conventional image, a more modern look.


A little touch of Holland....the home of the tulip.


Some Dutch folk dances and music


A taste of Netherlands.....'poffertjes' small fluffy pancakes with a dab of butter, icing sugar and maple syrup. mmmmmm........


A mix of colours
Couldn't find the precious black tulip that caused so much trouble in Alexander Dumaas's "The Black Tulip". However it was easy to imagine the grand tulip festival mentioned in the book, the only difference being that here there were no candidates from Ceylon who were exibiting tulips, only admirers. Yes Dumaas was misinformed that tulips were grown in Ceylon!




A close-up with rain drops


Blues and purples


There were some others who were screaming out for attention.

The Mystical Dendenong Ranges and other stories

The Dandenong ranges are located just about an hours drive Eastwards from the City of Melbourne.

The area is a horticulturists paradise! Which does explain why there were so many plant nurseries, bonsai nurseries, gardens of all sorts and fertiliser vendors all over the place.

Mist.....thicker than the Beijing fog! This along with the winding mountain roads made driving a bit scary at times

I wandered lonely as a cloud
That floats on high o'er vales and hills,

When all at once I saw a crowd,
A host, of golden daffodils

There were Lots of unknown flowers like this one, even in the winter.

A green flower, looks like a variety of Euphorbia.

More Unidentifiable flowers and plants

Huge Gum trees!! makes you feel kind of ............... small.

?? Not sure what this was all about

A Crimson Rosella

A Laughing Kookaburra. There were plenty of these around but none came so close as to get a good shot. Why is it called a Laughing Kookaburra you may ask, well in that case you haven't heard the Kookaburra's call. Unfortunately I couldn't catch one on video for your listening pleasure so you'll have to have a listen here.

I wish more birds would sing like that!!

There are some very interesting aboriginal stories built around the Kookaburra. On Saturday night I read that aborogines in the area had this story that the Kookaburra's loud call is a request to the sky people to light up the mighty fire that lightens up the world. And sure enough the next day I heard the Kookaburras going on about something before day-break, and what do you know before long the sun was up!

A puffed up Australian Magpie

Ruby! One of our very friendly hosts for the night

mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm.......... a local lunch!

The William Ricketts Sanctuary

One of the renowned gardens & parks in this area. William Ricketts was a sculpture/ artist who was inspired by the spirituality among the aboriginal people.

It is said that the aboriginals have (more so had) a very close connection with mother nature, instead of fighting nature and overcoming it, the aboriginal people knew that the best way is to live with the nature in harmony.

This lead William Ricketts to do his bit to let the word spread. Therefore his sculptures depicted aboriginal figures blending in with the soil and the trees and the rest of mother earth.

A man with two lyer birds on his shoulders

Mother Earth

Thun Sithaka Raavaya

And to top off the great weekend, we got to listen to some intoxicatingly beautiful voices.

Dooooowili.................

This was not really in the Dandenong ranges, but it's not often that the diaspora get to listen to this kind of thing so didn't want to miss this!

The unforgettable Apple mala

Thun Sithaka Raavaya taking leave from the stage.

They didn't forget to sing all my favourites.........which was quite a lot!!

Bruno's Sculpture Garden, Marysville

As promised here is a glimpse of the Sculpture Garden that we had the good fortune to pay a visit to.


Bruno is a Belgian expat with a talent at making sculptures that are a bit on the funny side. And just like his sculptures he too has an unusual sense of humour. Most of his sculptures are made out of Terra cotta along with some day-to-day accessories.

The fun part of it is exploring through his rather overgrown garden. There you get to meet various creatures and people in every nook and cranny, some hidden away among the bushes, some having a bath in the ponds and puddles and some up in the trees.


An alligator on the rocks


This one is a bit creepy... it's located such that it catches you off guard


The mouse man....take a closer look (below picture)


How many mice can you count?


Carved out of a tree


If you follow the sound of the music, it will lead you to this man


A handful of water


Pocahontas


The bird man


A Yogi


We started off the morning visiting this place, so needless to say the whole day was invigorating!