Animals galore!

I discovered that the bright green drink was made of guava and neli. I have had some Neli juice since in Colombo and it is very good.
 The Story of Sigirya is a fascinating one and it is full of betrayal and bloodshed like many historical stories. In 5th century AD the two brothers of King Dhatusena were in disagreement as to whom should be the rightful heir ( sounds familiar?).  On hearing his brother, Mogallana, declared rightful heir, Kassapa drove him out of the country into exile in India and imprisoned his dad. In fact, in the end, he had his father walled up in a chamber and left to die.
Meanwhile, to protect himself against his brother's return, Kassapa built his home- a pleasure palace and fortress on top of the 200 m high rock at Sigirya.. Alas, only six years after its completion, Mogallana came to gain recompense and the upshot was that Kassala's elephant bolted and the naughty prince finding himself cornered, killed himself.
 We were much luckier with our elephants because the day after we arrived, on the Wednesday, we set off to see elephants at Minneriya National Park. The reason that it was possible to see elephants in abundance there was because there had been no rain since April and so the elephants have to leave the forest in the evening to come and drink at the Minneriya Tank. Tanks are an  ancient method of irrigation which was developed as far back the third century BC but  it was later successive kings who built huge man made lakes to store the monsoon rains for irrigation from about 3rd century AD onwards.
I could hardly contain my excitement as we sped in a jeep through dense forest towards the empty plain of the dried up tank- at this time of the year the lake has shrunk considerably so one is able to bounce over many miles of flat plain where the water had once been. On the way we treated to all sorts of sights- a small deer came out of the forest, we saw numerous beautiful birds, a mongoose was sighted, monitor lizards climbed slowly up the banks of a dried river bed while numerous beautiful peacocks strutted about in its floor. We saw the nest of a weaver bird and also of hornets. I was told that 7 hornet stings are equivalent to one cobra bite! There were two kinds of monkeys in abundance who did not bother us but were very happy to be photographed.
 When we eventually drove out into the plain, the first group of elephants with their young came into view. It was so wonderful to watch them ambling along, kicking up the dust as they tried to feed off the sparse grass and vegetation. From then on we bumped along and I stood up in the jeep to see groups of elephants here and there. There was one rather excited Bull who became very aroused at the sight of a group of females and another bull who sauntered over and chatted up a few cows by curling his trunk around theirs.
Perhaps the best sighting was of a group of elephants by the water's edge. One tiny baby elephant was no more than three or four days old and kept itself always under its mother as she walked along.
The sun was setting and the world looked so utterly beautiful, I could not help crying with joy. then we saw a golden jackal, slinking off into the sunset and decided it was time to head home. On the way, however, we saw water buffalo soaking themselves in the water and one with a calf by the lakeside. As we bounded back along the forest path, a wild boar dashed into the forest and as dusk drew nightjars flew in front of us.
It was such a wonderful experience to see so much wildlife roaming free. That night, back at the hotel, we heard gunshots several times because the elephants had decided to wander rather too close to the hotel complex and had to be frightened off. Apparently there is one cow who charges the jeeps because her calf was killed by a jeep. I am glad I found that out after we had been to see them!