Our morning began with a visit to Ruhuna University to meet Professor Weerisinghe at the department of Agriculture.It began with a visit to the main campus of the university, swiftly followed by an about-turn when we found out that we were expected in the Profs office half-an-hours drive away! After this slight mishap we found the correct campus and Professor Weerisinghe greeted us before we sat down for some Ceylon tea in his office.

The Professor heads the research into cinnamon at the university and proved to be very knowledgeable regarding the complex and highly skilled production process. He was most helpful, encouraging us to debate the various problem areas and potential solutions that have been trialled. We were pleased to find that many of our perceived problems had already been identified (and that there weren’t any big ones that we hadn’t).

Professor Weerisinghe provided us with much research into the cinnamon industry that will prove helpful in our efforts to improve practices from farming to production to export.

Lunch was had at the local wedding venue and we were, once again, the only souls in the restaurant.

In the afternoon, Team Sri Lanka made an impromptu visit to the National Cinnamon Research Centre that we had spotted on our travels around the area. Here we met Dr Wijesinghe who explained about the research and cloning techniques that they were using to try to improve cinnamon characteristics. They have identified 5 areas of investigation; increasing yield, erect/straight stems with smooth bark, ease of peeling, pest and disease resilience and quality of final product. So far they have been able to improve all 5 areas but are still working to combine the benefits in one “super strain” of cinnamon.

The evening was spent discussing the day’s findings and realising that we had more questions than answers. Hopefully our discussions tomorrow will prove to be more fruitful.

The Stats at the end of Day Five:

• Members of team: 5
• Number of ants in bedroom: 0
• Number of dead ants in bedroom: 466
• Tropical storms: 13
• Mosquito bites: 15
• Near misses with falling coconuts: 2
• Balloon Animals made: 172
• Cases of diarrhoea: 1