The Tsunami of Christmas Day 2004 has a personal meaning for the British owners of this website. For 10 years, Sri Lanka has been our second home where we have spent every Christmas and Boxing day since 1998, except for the Tsunami year 2004 when we were delayed in leaving the UK. Much annoyed at having to spend Christmas in the gloom of winter England at the time, we heard of the Tsunami of boxing day 2004 in Manchester and our website email was flooded with thousands of emails from worried relatives in the UK. ,

The level of destruction on the Southern and Eastern coast of Sri Lanka beggars belief.  Returning to Sri Lanka in 2005, we visited a scene of devastation over one year later when most of the images on this page and the Tsunami picture gallery were taken.

Yala Park, lying astride the coastline, with low lying beaches, was badly damaged by the tsunami of 26th December 2004, with the destruction of the wildlife center and the Jetwings tourist lodge, we had stayed at in earlier years. Many tourists, including a party of 22 Japanese, died in the disaster, as did several of the national park and lodge employees. We visted the site of the Jetwing Hotel and found the debris largely unmoved and uncleared one year later. The Tsunami picture gallery is a historic monument to that disaster.