Ocean Breezes… so delicious, they named a cocktail after it.
Alright, so it wasn’t ‘they’, it was ‘we’… because we have inadvertently invented a new drink, which became such an integral part of our trip.
Sneaking around to someone’s room before dinner – usually Alison’s, because she had brought the bottles in the first place – became a regular occurrence, whenever we were blessed with a balcony, and someone who could provide us with ice. There is, after all, nothing more conducive to a sketchbook appraisal at the end of a steamy-hot day than a cool, fresh cocktail to sip; and Alison was not taking those bottles back to Australia, she informed us.
There were only the three of us on the Ocean Breezes itinerary this year, which is quite hard to understand, given how beautiful and inspiring the area is, and how comfortable and relaxing the accommodation. The trip is only a week long, though, and I have lately felt that many people were put off by the long journey to Sri Lanka for just a week’s holiday, if they didn’t wish to explore by themselves afterwards. Chathura, our driver on the Land of Smiles longer ‘sketchbook journey’, has often asked me why I don’t organise an itinerary around the so-called Cultural Triangle, encompassing ancient cities, kingdoms and temples. I decided to consider it, and I offered a second week to two willing guinea-pigs, visiting all the proposed locations, road-testing the sketching spots and trying out some promising accommodation.
We all agreed that the cultural highlights were an excellent contrast, and addition, to our first week around sleepy Indaruwa; and with a little tweaking and further thought, the new trip, ‘Rajarata’, will be launched soon. Designed as an optional extension to Ocean Breezes, this trip could potentially also be taken on its own.
After a week of staying in one hotel, we were now on the road, and moving on every couple of days. It’s the best way to see a great variety of sights within a country, but it can be tiring – and thirsty – work. In contrast to our first hotel, not everywhere during the second week had a bar, or indeed, even a restaurant. Alison had brought a full-sized bottle of Tequila and one of Cointreau in her oversized baggage, and I am sure I must have looked at them askance initially. Now, though, the idea made complete sense; all we needed were limes.
We spent a good proportion of each journey scanning the roadside stalls lined with fruits, exotic and familiar, of every shape and colour, for the luscious, bright-green gems we craved, but to no avail, until Chathura informed us that limes were to be found with vegetables, not on fruit stalls. How silly of us. The precious items duly purchased, a sharp knife borrowed and ice blagged, we enjoyed several perfect Margheritas over the course of the week. Alison had also brought a little packet of Himalayan salt with which to rim the bathroom glasses, and we bought little bags of popcorn from the children at the roadside in the Knuckles ranges. Our decadence knew no bounds.
By our final night, we had exhausted the lime supply, and were out of walking distance in the sticky heat to any potential source. There was a lot of drink to finish and we felt compelled to toast a wonderful fortnight in each other’s company. The only suggestion that made any sense was a bottle of the local lemonade; tasting of sugar rather than lemons, and certainly not of limes, it was the closest thing we could think of. It was also cheap, as well as thirst-quenching.
Sitting upon brightly-coloured, hand-woven Barefoot cushions, in antique wooden chairs on our colonial-style veranda, no cocktail has ever tasted better and we all agreed we had found a new favourite. A slice of fresh lime would have been the icing on the cake but as it was, it was a bit of a revelation even without it. All we needed was an appropriate name, because a Margherita it wasn’t. It didn’t take long. What, after all, is refreshing; relaxing; inspiring; surprising; interesting and different, and much more enjoyable than you could ever have imagined?
Ocean Breezes, of course!
(The next Sri Lanka Ocean Breezes itinerary will take place next December, followed by the new optional extension, Rajarata.)
