We have left Colombo and are now heading north west into the Arabian Sea.

As was predicted we arrived late into port at Colombo, around 1 pm. This screwed up our day, our tour to the tea plantation and factory had fortunately been able to be rescheduled from the morning to the afternoon. We set off around 2.00pm in our air conditioned coach, having finally got ashore.

Now this tour involved a return journey of 5 hours or so and the ship was leaving at 7.30pm. So a tight squeeze to say the least! We would miss seeing any of the town, another time perhaps.

But the main game in this port had been to get out and see life in the countryside. Which is what we did! There is a philosophy that suggests one shouldn’t get agitated about things one can’t control. Go with the flow! So a slow ship didn’t worry Slobro and neither did the bus breaking down on the way to the tea factory! Fortunately, a risk management assessment had been performed and the tour company had an empty bus following us! So we piled into that one and set off again down the Highway, a further twenty minutes had ticked by.

Turning off the dual carriage highway it was back to a narrow two lane roadway all the way to the tea factory. It seems that in the countryside the population lives largely either side of these roads. There are motor bikes, little two seater cars and small trucks everywhere. Small traditional shops among small workshops, retail stores, vehicle repair shops. An endless stream of probably subsistence level economic activity.
At one point we have a police escort, it clears oncoming traffic to allow us to speed along through the endless village. Our driver honks his horn almost continuously as he overtakes all and sundry on the narrow road.

We finally make it to the tea factory for a short refreshment break before a tour through the operation. Slobro really got into this and was engrossed in the processes.

The factory was quite heavily mechanised, but some processes remain very manual. A bare footed female workforce seemed to operate everything, even the bagging of final product. Interesting set up, we had about an hour on site.

It was then back aboard the bus for the return journey along the same route. No breakdown, but the driver wasn’t mucking around. We made it back at 7.20 pm!

The ship though seemed delayed and we didn’t leave port until nearly 11pm. The Colombo tulip flashing from red to green and blue in the night sky as we sailed away.