No one knows better than a chef that feeding someone, day- in day-out, is a mammoth task. Which is why they started the 4th day on tour with a feeding session at the Elephant Transit Home in Uda Walawe. Perhaps, the playful baby elephants jostling greedily for more than their share of milk was a reminder of the lunch rush at the restaurants back home. After the feed the team headed South-East to Buttala with its quiet stretches of thorny scrub jungle and dense tall dry zone forests home to rare tropical trees and profusely flowering trees. Lunch was at Galapita – an eco lodge that derives its name from an arresting rock formation in the vicinity where one rock is balanced precariously on top of another. The meal was cooked and served in the Menik River (in Sinhala menik means gems). The tables were set up on the rocky riverbed and everyone sat ankle deep in water for a simple spread. The river merrily flowed on swirling around polished rocks bathed in the filtered afternoon light as great culinary ideas were dreamt of and shared over a piping hot cup of Ceylon’s finest tea.