A warm sunny day interrupted by bruised and sullen storm clouds that drenched and refreshed the vegetation and the spirit. One of the crew, presumably suffering from jet lag, required a rather long sleep that ended around lunchtime (local time). Meanwhile, four of us enjoyed a fruitful breakfast of bananas, pineapple, papaya followed by eggs and toast washed down with freshly squeezed juice and tea.Breakfast was followed by a walk along the golden sands to the small estuary that nestled between a hill and a hotel. The hotel offers Wi-Fi connection for the price of a drink so we took advantage of their hospitality. Returning to Jaga Bay around lunchtime, the fifth member of the team surfaced in time for curry, rice and chips.

After lunch, Richard took us to the festival where we met with the local people of Weligama and began to absorb a little of their culture. We arrived in town to find thousands of festivity goers lining the streets, all in keen anticipation of the planned procession. With the afternoon sun beating down, dancing and music were on the agenda for the following hour, glorified through various choreographed acts and a rainbow of colours. The participants ranged all ages and both sexes, from the young and the elderly and women to men. It was a real family affair both from the participants’ and spectators’ perspectives. We even saw Richard’s son dancing as part of the procession. We, along with everyone else, had a brilliant time. There were lots of smiles to be seen and fun being had, especially when the balloon animals made an overdue appearance.

On our way back to the guest house, we dropped by to see Jagath who was organizing lunch and dinner for the local community as part of the festival. Jagath promised us a behind the scenes expose of the whole operation if we returned later that evening.

Refreshed and fed on the daily catch of Mullet washed down with a couple of cool LL’s, we headed back into town. We were met by two queues snaking down the streets from the local market hall converted into the communal dining room. An observant member noticed that one queue contained solely women and the other men. Taken round the back with our VIP passes we witnessed vast pans of food being prepared by an army of volunteers. Inside was an even bigger eye opener with regimented lines of bench seating, ladies to the left gents to the right, eagerly devouring (without cutlery) the home cooked produce served by an army of waiters. The heat was stifling but our curiosity forced us to stay and observe. Jagath told us that they expected to feed thousands rather than hundreds in up to 30 sittings. We were all made to feel at home even though we were outsiders looking in.

As we returned to the hotel in quiet contemplation, the deep darkness revealed a treasure of fireflies dancing around in an exotic neon rhythm.

The Stats at the end of Day Two:

• Members of team: 5
• Number of ants in bedroom: 464
• Number of dead ants in bedroom: 237
• Lizards in the toilet: 1 rather big one (we promise we did not utilize the facility)
• Lizards in restaurant: 5 little ones (not including us)
• Lizards rescued: 1
• Tropical storms: 3
• Near misses with falling coconuts: 1
• Balloon Animals made: 25
• Cases of diarrhoea: 1 so far (continued from day 1)
• Cinnamon – we are coming!