From Ella (that's the previous post) we drove down to the east coast and Arugam Bay, the surf town, for a few days. It's a drive of about three and a half to four hours. On the way we stopped at Ravana Falls, just outside Ella, and passed the kind of road sign you don't see at home — a "Drive Slow, Wildlife Crossing" one with silhouettes of an elephant, a leopard, a bear and a crocodile.
The sign wasn't just decoration. Partway along, Line suddenly spotted a wild elephant right beside the road. We turned back to look, but it was hard to get a decent photo before it moved off, so you'll have to take our word for it — a wild elephant, outside any national park, a few metres away. It's exciting and also a bit dangerous: a little further on we saw a family about to let their kids out by the roadside for a toilet stop, seemingly not realising there was an elephant in the bushes just there. Not a good idea.
Vitus's toe, again
We arrived in Arugam Bay in the afternoon and spent the evening sorting out surf gear and lessons for the next day. First, though, we took Vitus back to a clinic to change the dressing on his toe — the same hospital chain as in Ella had a branch here (IMC). It felt overpriced and not especially on top of things, and they seemed keen to remove the toenail. We held off, because Vitus really wanted to surf and couldn't if the nail came off, and agreed to come back before we left town to deal with it properly.
The night Noah crashed
Noah had started feeling off already on the drive down — he stopped once, wanted to push on, put music in his ears to cope, ate a chicken sandwich at a restaurant and briefly felt better. But during the night he spiked a high fever and got really, really ill. It was obvious he wasn't surfing the next day, and that we needed a doctor. First thing in the morning we took him by tuk-tuk to a local doctor — his temperature was very high — and got a genuinely good, competent, reassuring one. Because the fever was so severe he sent us on to the bigger neighbouring town for blood tests to rule out malaria, dengue and meningitis.
They all came back negative, which was a big relief. The diagnosis was an infection, most likely in his stomach — he had a lot of stomach pain and a bad headache — and the doctor's guess was the undercooked chicken back in Nuwara Eliya. He was put on penicillin, which then wrecked his stomach for the next few days. So Noah spent much of Arugam Bay flat on his back, with Line staying with him while Jesper and Vitus went surfing.
Learning to surf
Arugam Bay is a proper beginner-friendly surf spot, and the way the lessons work is clever. A friendly instructor teaches you the basics, and then there's a rotation system where the instructor pushes you onto the wave — so you don't need big waves to get going, and you can get some nice long rides even as a total beginner.
Vitus took to it brilliantly — up and standing on the board again and again on the first day, and later getting some absurdly long rides. Jesper spent most of his time pushing Vitus onto waves, so his own surfing went, in his words, militantly badly at first. By the evening it started to click, though, and he began to think there might actually be something fun in this.
One thing worth knowing: surfing here is a big business, and the instructors want their own pupils to do well, which makes them a bit tiresome about where everyone else is allowed to stand. The very spots where a beginner most easily catches waves are exactly the ones they want to keep for their pupils, and they'll use all kinds of good and bad arguments to move you along — even though the break is public and open to everyone.
On the second day of lessons they drove us out to a different, less crowded spot. Vitus got some great long rides; Jesper struggled to catch waves again by day, but the evening session turned it around completely and he caught loads. The pizza restaurant in town got a visit that evening too — a good sign, because Noah actually fancied pizza and managed to eat nearly a whole one.
On the third day, our last, Noah was well enough to get out on the board for about half an hour, and Vitus surfed again. Jesper's surfing highlight came here: a ride of nearly 150 metres on a single wave, all the way round the point. It's real fun once it clicks — though compared to kite-surfing or wind-surfing, where the wind is always there to help, surfing is more work, and a lot more about catching the right wave at the right moment.
The toenail, finally
We'd also taken Vitus to a second doctor for another opinion on the toe, together this time. He agreed there was no need to remove the nail — better to cut it right down and re-dress it once Vitus had finished surfing. So after the last surf, Line took him in and had the nail cut back hard. It hurt quite a bit, but far better than losing the whole nail; it was bandaged up with antibiotic cream, with instructions to change the dressing before we flew home. Vitus, who loves cake, marked the occasion by buying takeaway cake for the car — a big cinnamon bun and a slice of something else, both gone before we'd got far.
From Arugam Bay we drove on toward Yala for the leopard safari, with a night at a lovely little homestay on the way — that's the last post from this trip.
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