A well-oiled family traveling machine

guest post writer: BRITA (aka Christie Sumner)

I met up with the Rogues as far from lat 44.1334N lon 13.0790W (Bristol, VT) as possible, into their fifth month of world travel. After a screaming and hugging meet up at Colombo/Sri Lanka airport at 4am, we went back to bed!! We settled in for one day of travel recovery on the beach. a few minutes walk from a beach on the reef! Grant found a gang of locals to play soccer with each day. I had a wonderful visit with them, sad to leave them, but knowing they have more well-planned adventures ahead!!

You know with this family, plenty of snacks are packed for the day. We traveled by van 3 hours north. After an overnight outside Wipatu National Park, we were picked up at 5 am for a morning safari. We first spotted a sleeping bear! A sloth bear. After a morning of birds, spotted deer, barker deer, turtle, a pair of jackals and crocodile, we missed, by minutes, a mama leopard with 2 cubs. Unlucky, but a good show of wildlife.

On to Sigiriya and the excitement of treehouse living! We stayed in one of 7 treehouse accommodations at the Back of Beyond. The kids were so excited to share this with me The main attraction here is Lion Rock. Most tourists visit the gardens here and climb the rock on a switchback and ladder trail. Many others, Rogues included, opt for the neighboring pidu….from which the view of Lion is spectacular. Annie hiked it 3 times, Ryan and Grant 2 and Liv and Brita 1. In between all of these ascents, we rented bikes for a tour of the reservoir below, with a stop at a local woodcarver, who schooled us in various local woods and carving techniques. The kids and Annie tried their hands at it, and his kids caught minnows with Liv in a spring nearby.

Some of you have asked how this family plans, and, isn’t it hard not knowing where they’ll go next? With incredible planning throughout their travels, it is pretty seamless to move along with them. Next day we headed back to Negombo/Colombo with a stop at the Royal caves with tallest, golden Buddha in Sri Lanka and several large lying Budddas carved in the caves.

After a final Sri Lankan night, we flew to Male in the Maldives and hopped a ferry to the island of Rashdhoo. After daily math, writing and reading, this is now “school vacation” for the kids. Much snorkeling and spotting of tropical fish, sharks, rays, turtles and octopus, as we are a few minutes walk from a beach on the reef! Grant found a gang of locals to play soccer with each day. I had a wonderful visit with them, sad to leave them, but knowing they have more well-planned adventures ahead!!