Day 06 - Moonshine and Chilies

The thought of a long 175km drive from Arugmbay to a night camping in the Udawalawe National Park encouraged all teams to attend the morning briefing on time and get a good start. The Loonies were up early completing a “roti-making” challenge and then amongst the first ones to set off and we maintained a steady pace into the mountains throughout the day. Our practice of experiencing local food for lunch went a little astray when we somehow over-ordered and were faced with a mountain of spicy fried fish and samosas to get through.

Today’s main challenge fell nicely in the laps of the Loonies. If ‘Jokers’ were allowed in the Lanka Challenge then we surely would have played this one … “buy some village home brew toddy (local moonshine)”. With a heritage / knowledge of poteen and related elixirs we quickly slipped away from the groups and spied some likely suspects who duly sorted us out. Challenge complete! Success then followed in droves with completion of 2 more tuk-tuk related challenges, including the tricky “get 10 tuk-tuks and their drivers lined up together” one find a tuk-tuk driver asleep in his machine. Look out for an evidencial video on the Facebook page (search FB for 'Hong Kong Loonies')

Eco-awareness is high on the organisers plans and challenge #2 saw us collecting a bag of rubbish from local roads. A small effort in the overall problem but one which cannot be ignored in such a naturally beautiful country.

The arrival at the Udawalawe campsite signaled a switch for the Lanka Challenge competitors from drivers to passengers in a the safari 4x4’s. Elephants, buffalos and various birds were duly snapped by an excited gang before we headed back to camp for the evening challenge. A five level Chili Challenge (weak to strong) knockout contest on the lakeshore saw our brave Loonie Dave make it through to round 3 before the sweat beads and teary eyes saw him take an exit.

A local band pitched up for the night entertainment. ‘Cinta J’ was in our hearts as the Loonies joined the band for renditions of ‘Country Roads’ and “Rivers of Babylon’. Needless to say the only stars on display were in the sky and not on stage. After throwing a few shapes on the dancefloor to local Sri Lankan classic hits the long day was taking its toll on the Looniues and we headed for the tent and a 5am morning jungle cry of birds and animals. Let’s hope the footage from the Sri Lankan TV channel film crew following our the Lanka Challenge stays on the cutting room floor and doesn’t come back to haunt…….