Day 09 - They think it's all over, it is now ...

A later than normal start to the day for the last leg of the journey, mainly due to the short distance to be covered, a paltry 56km to then arrive in Mt. Lavinia. The short distance was compensated however by some time-consuming challenges, most noticeably the “Rice and Curry” challenge. This saw us having to purchase various ingredients within a limited budget of 500 Rupees and then turn up on some poor random Sri Lankan’s doorstep and through charm ‘encourage’ them to invite us in and work together to prepare and eat lunch.

Some poor chap washing his car became our first target and sure enough, Susantha - after he stopped laughing at us - invited us into the homestead. He was actually a lodger there and so we were introduced to the house-owners who were similarly game for our challenge. A somewhat spicy fish curry was prepared and cooked on a traditional stove and all partook in the tasting. Sri Lankans are such great and hositable people it must be said !

Susantha then helped us at the local market with our remaining challenge of finding some local fish (listed in local language) and identifying the English name – harder than it sounds.

The Loonies then arrived at the rendezvous point to hook up with all the other teams for a convoy/parade into the Mount Lavinia Hotel which caused much consternation and interest from the locals. The Mount Lavinia Hotel is an old colonial place south of Colombo itself and a truly fine setting for the conclusion of such a memorable 10 days.

Many mixed emotions then as the Lanka Challenge 2015 was completed. Time for a wash and beers and then off to the Awards Ceremony. The Loonies were not anticipating to be challenging for Top Honours but were mildly hopeful of picking up one of the “category” awards. Alas, it was not to be, there was an out-standing team in front on every occasion. That said, 7th place out of 15 wasn’t too bad for 2 gentlemen of age in cartoon character outfits. Congrats to team “Currently in 1st Place”, what a great name for a team. Inspired!

The truth be told, the final night party was a bit tamer than some evenings on the trip. The effects of early starts, long challenging drives and late evenings was clearly impacting even the young guns, never mind us old timers.