Baggins in Sri Lanka pt1

 One of many gorgeous sunsets over the Indian Ocean we've been privy to over the past couple of weeks.... nice eh? All change for Baggins once again folks, - never one for beating around the bush (unless the bushes concerned are at some migration hot spot like Spurn Point and said bushes are full of migrants!), and certainly not prone to going round the houses when a few simple words will do, so, in a nutshell ….I’ve left the Vienne and via protracted stops in Brittany and the UK, I’m currently on holiday in Sri Lanka with my fiancee Gabrielle. We were originally going to get married over here but decided a few weeks ago to put the brakes on and hold out for a year or two - for several reasons and all the right ones!

Seems like ages since I last posted on here and it’s doubtful whether there’s any ‘blog mileage’ in the travels of my mind over the past couple of months but I may do a bit of back tracking in future posts if things become mundane but since ‘mundane’ is  a rare and unwelcome dimension in my life I suspect both the devil and the detail will remain untold …. in truth it’s not that interesting anyway.

Sri Lanka is one mad place! You either love or hate the sub continent so they say but as we’re kinda hotel based it’s tricky for either of us to say. We’re about 18k north of Colombo, in a good hotel complex next to the ocean and here it’s all sand, sea and sun but take a tuk tuk (cheap taxi that resembles a dodgem car) into town and it’s just mayhem! Gabz has suggested I post a video of street life whilst riding in a tuk tuk which I may do, but for now here’s the first salvo of a series of  Sri Lankan shots to date… no particular order or theme, though it goes without saying that the local bird life looms large!

 This is the view that greets us every morning out of our luxury beach chalet ... not that we sleep under these date palms but you get the morning feeling yes?

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

and these are what we see as the last rays of the sun go down ... giant fruit bats that fly in, eerie as hell, the size of herons and surely the inspiration behind the batman icon!

 

We're close to a river and associated mangroves so tons of water birds about, this is a White Throated Kingfisher that strayed from its usual haunt by the river and perched very kindly in front of our beach side bungalow .... look at that beak and thank god you're not a local fish!

These cute little varmints are all over the place in and around the bushes here ... they're called 3 striped squirrels and they come right up to you (especially if you have a handful of bombay mix!)

 

Not totally sure until I check some kind of Sri Lankan bird guide but reckon this is a Pied Kingfisher, caught in mid flight and 'let's stab a fish' mode!

 

Ok, time for bed now because internet time is limited here and charged by the hour and guessing I'm nearly at my limit ... this is how they make up the bed in this country, different floral design every day and very quaint ... my guess is that the more you tip the more flowers you get on your bed!

Night night folks...... more Sri Lankan magic to come!

 

 

 

 

 



 

 

 

 

 

 

 

  

Two great gigs, Carcassonne and back to the Barn!

We're back at the barn! After 6 weeks on tour and an impressive 1080 euros raised so far with another couple of gigs to go closer to home, I think Cancer Support France will be very pleased with the cheque we hand over and we certainly feel as if we've done both ourselves and the charity very proud indeed.


Reflections on the tour are many and varied but on the whole it's been enjoyable, we've met many wonderful people and been to some wonderful parts of France. Carcassonne was one of the highlights for me and it's certainly a place I'll be heading back to to in the not too distant future because I didn't get chance to visit and photograph the walled city part, I really wanted to but on the evening I'd planned we got a gig in a local restaurant. No worries though, I've promised Gabrielle a trip out there next year and I'm thinking that Spring in that part of France will be outstanding ...we might fly out, we might be in a camper van, but whatever we'll be together and in truth not being able to share all of this with her has been the hardest thing to bear on tour.


Here's a pic I found on Google of the aforementioned walled city of Carcassonne and you can maybe see why why I need to get back there with the camera!


The slighter newer part of town is non too shabby either. Whilst we were there we were lucky enough to catch a bit of the city's annual music and arts festival and here's a clip of one of the free gigs we were at (just click the link) - Lucky Peterson - I believe I'll dust my broom


Our last couple of booked gigs in this neck of the woods were both marvellously entertaining affairs. The first of these was in a very isolated but totally awesome campsite called La Fargassa. It was way up in the mountains close to the Spanish border and the road trip up there was not for the faint hearted .... no wonder campervans are not encouraged! Such was the beauty of the place we ended up staying there for 4 days and the hospitality extended to us by the owner Madhu will live long in the memory - I took a shed load of photographs whilst I was there, partly due to Madhu asking me for some publicity shots for her site, but largely down to the fact that it was just a beautiful place to be in. Here's a sample to show you what I mean

 
Personally I love driving up and down mountain roads like this but Jane n Mark's van struggled for headroom on more than one occasion and apparently many campervans have been trashed trying to get to the site!!

Worth the effort though, this is a superb wooded mountain range with some beautiful streams that you can swim in, in the high valleys. 

 Safely installed and though the mountain streams were inviting it's practice first as always!





And now for that swim!!!

Here's a few before, during and after our splendid gig on the Sunday eve ... such a great atmosphere that night with neighbours from the adjacent valleys present, lots of kids and animals too .... all up and dancing through the night (apart from the animals)

Our wonderful host at La Fargassa, Madhu, making a charity call

The campsite is very eco orientated, child & dog friendly and is run with the help of several overseas volunteers who stay free of charge in return for managing the site and associated farm. If you'd like to sample this wonderful place here's link for you to explore - La Fargassa campsite & gites it comes highly recommended but DON'T take a campervan!!

Our last event on our tour we took as paying gig because we had reached our target for Cancer Support France - we ummh'd and arghed a bit about this but felt justified in this since we had taken very little in the way of expenses throughout the tour. It was at a campsite just outside the town of Trebes which is on the Midi Canal and just 10k from Carcassonne so an excellent location. Thanks to Guy, the campsite owner we again enjoyed 3 nights free camping, all our drinks and 150 euros for the gig which was perhaps our most enthusiastic audience ... 3 encores and still they wanted more! Not sure about this but I think any audience with plenty of Dutch folk present is a good one, especially if they're a bit piddled ... and we had both here in abundance and if they could they would have gone on all night!!

Sadly not much in the way of pics but here's a great one of Guy with my guitar and a random Dutch guy getting it on after the event.

Once again, a great site and highly recommended here's a link La Commanderie

OK time to wrap this blog post up but I have many photographs still to sort through after 6 weeks touring Southern France plus a short hop into Spain so will be putting these together in due course.