Nostalgic Pictorial Excursions in and around My Galle Fort-by Michael Roberts

deft-work-chain-gang

Dutch-style verandahs –here in a house being repaired with a chain gang transferring clusters of tiles –yes, tiles — Up-Catch-Shift-Place. Wow, efficient-Pic by Roberts

Galle Fort in yesteryear

A Scene in front to the Fort in the 1890s or thereabouts–Pic from National Gallery of Australia

Fishermen at it in the 1930s along the rocks at the foot of the ramparts, western side … a common sight even in the 1950s but now unlikely in the same style of garments —Pics by Lincoln Pereira

SCENES TODAY: THE WATERLINE off the Fort… my teenage playground

FULL FRONTAL: The Imposing Ramparts

The VOC crest over the original harbour entrance … and from inside

Pic by Dr. Janaka Gallangoda

The Galle Literary Festival in January 2008

The Eateries– essential fare! Vikram Seth autographs Bron’s copy AN AERIAL OVERVIEW

Pic from unknown source

GALLE AS QUIET AS ASLEEP by Norah Roberts Vijitha Yapa Publications

… with cover design from Donald Friend’s Mural Imaginings of Galle in the P & O era of the late 19th century …

…….. and, then, on 26th December 2004 … there was the UNIMAGINABLE: a tsunami, THE TSUNAMI, hit the eastern, southern and south-western coasts of Sri Lanka

Pic from Sunday Times …………………. many people died at this bus-stand and along the coasts on both sides of the Fort; but no one in the Fort was hurt … the Dutch fortifications stood the test…. while one fishing trawler is said to have made it over the southern wall into the Fort, presumably without crew!