The week after that, the war ended, and there were big celebrations, street parties and motorcades through the streets of Galle. I had ‘flu, and stayed in bed, but Oren was swept off and placed on top of a statue of fallen soldiers and placed a wreath over their heads. He was on the evening news in Sri Lanka! The feeling in the island is very positive now, and we hope for the Sri Lankans that peace really does last. We would love the same to happen in Israel too, of course.

After getting over the ‘flu, we went up to Kandy, in the mountains- actually it isn’t very high, and the climate is just nice, not cold.The temple complex where a tooth of Buddha is supposedly kept is impressive and there is a lot to see. We were lucky to have a guide who really knew the complex, and unlike most Sri Lankans who offer themselves to guide or help you, he didn’t ask for any money ( so we gave him some, unlike the ones who are just on the look out for gullible tourists!) We didn’t get any pictures because we forgot the camera, and the next day a torrential thundershower started in the afternoon and carried on all night, causing a powercut through the whole city for hours. We were glad we hadn’t gone out!

From Kandy we went to the Botanical Gardens, and now do not want to see any more flowers, trees or shrubs for a long time- it is HUGE. We stayed at a nice little bed and breakfast place and the next day went to see the Elephant Orphanage, which is really very touristy and not worth the money, but we did see a lot of elephants, not many of whom looked like orphans. There was one with three legs though….

We will be off on our way to Thailand next week, hoping not to get too wet. The weather is quite nice now, but another lot of squalls will probably come in soon, so its fingers crossed!

After hearing our engine, they quickly diagnosed sea water in the cylinders, caused by overloading Chasamba with supplies- it is something which happens to most long term cruisers at one time or another, apparently- and helped Oren to get the engine drained and working. We weathered the night, which was very squally, set the anchors again at 3 in the morning because of dragging, and the next morning when visibility was reasonable set out for the anchorage where all the other boats were. Of course, we had to have a big squall come over on the way, so we couldn’t see anything- there are lots of coral heads in the lagoon and it’s a bit dangerous to come in blind, but we had no choice, so we carried on and were rewarded by the sight of Humphrey sitting in his dingy in the pouring rain, holding a mooring line attached to a coral head!

After this slightly traumatic arrival, we had a good rest, forgot about it all and started to have a good time. The cruisers in Chagos are mostly the ‘hard core’ - people who really know how to do things, and have lots of experience, and like helping the less experienced (us) to survive! During the time we were there, Oren made a new saddle for an injector ( one broke) from a piece of iron bar, tied our spreaders to the shrouds with steel wire, was given a mainsail and helped to get it trimmed, we were given a bit of rf ground wire and the ssb now has a range of 2000 miles ( it had about 100 miles before), replaced a seacock which was stuck open with one which came from a wreck, and fixed the toilet ( again).

Chagos itself is an amazing place. It is uninhabited, except by cruisers, and has a population of about 3 million coconut crabs, which start life as hermit crabs and gradually get bigger and uglier until they discard their shells and turn into Jurassic Park extras. The big ones are nocturnal, and can be 5 kilos, but luckily they aren’t agressive and just have a bit of a problem getting their legs to go the right way to run off.Apart from crabs, there are lots of rats, actually nice clean ones though, and of course thousands of coconut trees. In the main part of the island, there are wells and you can do laundry, and there are paths to walk round the island. We even baked bread, and in the evening everyone would gather for a drink and a chat. Paradise! The weather was mostly hot, with squalls every week or two, so we had no shortage of water, and drank only rain water. One day we filled 600 litres of water in 5 hours!

The fish is also abundant, wahoo, coral trout and tuna especially, and we also tasted barracuda, which is very good. There are lots of sharks, mostly black tip, some white tip and a few nurse sharks. They aren’t aggressive though, usually. The remora fish are worse, and try to stick on to you, it’s really horrible!

Our biggest problem was time, surprisingly. We were busy all day, every day, and the time just dissappeared. Two months was not enough, although it is nice to be back in a place where we can buy supplies, since we ate most of our goodies.

Now we will be in Gan for a week, and depending on the weather we will be off to Sri Lanka, so next update will be from Galle. Meanwhile have a look at the new pictures in the album.

Out of the water we finally got organised and hitched up to the “capital” , Hithadoo, which is on the last island. It was a bit of a waste of time, because it looks exactly like Gan, where we are anchored, except for a slightly larger minimarket! Basically, there are no hills, no valleys, and only one main direction to walk or drive in - along the island chain and back. The Maldivian women go for walks every evening, along the road to the end of the atoll and back- that is the only walk!

The Maldivians are really nice people, very friendly and open. Two young men paddled out to talk to us in a little blow up dingy, and were intrigued by Sheva- they had never seen a dog before! The next day they brought us an enormous amount of papayas, coconuts,bananas and mangos! The coconuts here are the best we have ever tasted, as are the papayas.

Sheva seems to have resigned herself to a life without solid earth, and doesn’t even ask to get off any more. She doesn’t seem to be suffering too much, and she loves coconut, which must be a consolation! We give her a piece of coconut still in part of the shell, and she treats it like a bone, working away at it until she has got all the meat out.

I have uploaded more pictures, they are in the album with the link on the right hand side of the page.

Sheva is fine, although she is a bit fed up that she can’t go for a walk- we tried to explain to her that there are no dogs allowed here, but she doesn’t really believe us, and thinks we are just getting too lazy to take her in the kayak!

Prices here are good, a bit more than India but still very reasonable, and the restaurants are good, with both Indian style and western food, served in a very aesthetic way. Canned goods are also good, much better than India, and fuel is much cheaper than India. I have put some more photos in the album, go in and have a look!

Thanks to everyone who has sent us emails, it is really nice to hear from everyone, and those of you who are in Israel… we hope for the best and keep up to date with the news, keep safe!

There are some new pictures in the album, by the way.

We have enjoyed the food here, and the prices of course, with a good mutton biriani costing about 1.5 pounds sterling for two people. ( Biriani is a rice dish, and comes as a big heap of tasty, buttery rice covering hunks of whatever meat you want, and little dishes of salad and pickle on the side). The spices are incredible, and contrary to our expectations we haven’t had any stomach problems despite eating and drinking at local restaurants. The fish is also good here, and we have bought lovely mackerel and baked them with garlic and ghee- great!

There are lots of cruisers here, 15 boats today, but most are thinking of moving on, some in our direction and some up the Red Sea. We will miss them, it has been a nice community here, with Christmas and New Year celebrations and lots of booze! Some we hope to meet up with again, either in Chagos or in Thailand, but most we will probably never see again- that is one of the special things about cruising, meeting people and then saying goodbye so soon.

We will leave on about the 15th of January, and head for the last island of the Maldives, hoping that the situation in Israel won’t affect our reception. The dog doesn’t help either, as they don’t like dogs at all. Oh well, we will just hope for the best! After that we will hopefully head for Chagos, although it is proving to be very difficult to get permission, and quite expensive. It is one of our oldest dreams though, and we won’t give up easily! So far we have filled out three different forms, given an undertaking to agree to be removed by the army(? ) if we can’t move ourselves, done travel insurance to cover airlifting for medical treatment, arranged a bank transfer of mooring fees….. does anyone have a feeling they really don’t want visitors?

After Chagos, where we hope to be for two months, we will wander up to Sri Lanka, arriving some time in May, and after a month there its off to Thailand for a bit of a rest, hopefully for 6 months. That is the plan! We should have a satellite phone soon, we have bought one in England and Rachel and Paul of Lynn Rival will bring it out to us, meeting us in Chagos hopefully. It is a Thuraya, which SHOULD have coverage there, but no certainty.  If we can get the occasional email out and get weather information thats all we really need. Thanks Mum and Dad, by the way, thats where my birthday money went!

After a lot of hacker attacks, some of which caused us to have to remove all the photos from the site, I have moved all our photos to photobucket.com, there is a link at the right side of the page which should lead straight to the album- go in and have a look!

Orens brother Ofer and his wife Hannale paid us a flying visit a few days ago, and we went sightseeing around Fort Cochin and Vypin Island. It was nice to see them, and to hear news from home- we didn’t stop talking the whole time we were with them!

On the way back a motorcycle stopped, and a journalist asked if he could put a photo of Sheva, the tourist dog, in the paper tomorrow! We agreed, but Sheva didn’t really have much to say in the interview! We will get the paper tomorrow to see if she is really in. It is very rare to see people with dogs here, and she makes quite a stir wherever she goes, although the Hindus are fine about her, not like the Moslems.

Chasamba has been attacked by hackers, so the pictures are down- this is temporary and Anat and I will get it back to normal as soon as possible (thanks Anat!). I will put the latest pics of Munnar in now.

We have been here two weeks already- it seems like much longer! We have got to know the city and  the ferries that link the different areas- each ferry goes between two islands, and some carry on to another island. Each ferry costs about 3 rupees- 25 agorot, or about 10p. Sheva is having a great time, we take turns to take her in the kayak for her morning walk in the grounds of the Bolgatty hotel. It is very nice, wooded and with lots of birds and lizards, and even a big snake which we surprised sunning itself on the lawn! There is a little golf course here too.

Today we will meet Ofer, Orens brother, who is in India on business, and will be in the Taj Malabar hotel, but first we will go into Ernakulum to change books at the great second hand bookshop we found on Press Club road, and buy more boat bits- the metal working industry is well developed here, and stainless steel parts can be made to order cheaply and are well made. Oren has asked for a quote on fuel tanks, so today we will see if it is worth while. Meanwhile we have got 12v fans installed in the bedroom, no more cursing and tying bits of string to things to get the one fan to turn round on both of us! And we have got a new pressure cooker, Indian style, and a toaster which is heated on the gas stove. Also lots of stainless steel bowls, which are really nice and cost about 100 rupees, or less, depending on the size.

Yesterday we bought lots of yoghurt, which comes in plastic bags and is called curd ( took a while to find that out!) and made labane by pouring it into a cheesecloth bag and hanging it over the sink. It came out really good, and afterwards I made balls and covered it with olive oil. For some reason the Indians don’t have cheese at all. We also got some pork and some beef, which was probably buffalo, and I made a curry and a chinese stirfry. The meat is not too good though, the beef needed an hour in the pressure cooker to soften it, and the pork was mostly fat. I can see why vegetarianism is so popular here! Inbal would have a great time here, and really, the vegetarian dishes are very good.