Sri Lanka Day 9

Owls and gods

A more leisurely day, mostly of travel down to near the south coast and literally down from 2,000 to 0m height. A “leisurely” start at 9am and trundle south while Mukesh, the head guide, does a good job of condensing a mythology involving Sita and various suitors in Indian mythology, part of which happened in this area. We stopped briefly at a Hindu temple to Sita based around a footprint in the rock. I like the living religions around here.

Then on to the Surrey estate, a private place but the guides knew of owls here so we had a surprisingly tricky path though muddy steep forest to catch a glimpse of an Sri Lankan brown wood owl through a narrow window in the trees. Peg picked up a leech! The things we do and call it holiday.

Moving swiftly on to Ella and nice restaurant with a great view. Ella is in a very picturesque position and beloved of travellers.

A bit further on we stopped at Ravana Falls, pretty impressive and also featuring in the myth.

We then did a long stretch to a village close to our destination and again hunted owls with the help of a local lad who kept his eye on them. We got two but missed a third due to being perennially late and it already being hunting rather than roosting and we also had a quick look at birds on the”tank”

Final 30 mins to the rather swanky hotel but as usual no time to enjoy it!

Sri Lanka Day 8

High plains drifter

A very early start, out of the hotel at 5am for an hour’s drive to the entrance of the Horton’s plains national park for opening at 6am. The bus was way too big to get up he very winding steep road so we’re split between 3 minibuses.

A brief toilet stop before entering then a short drive to the first stop, passing sambar deer and a Sri Lankan jungle fowl (like a rooster), which was for a very elusive endemic, whistling thrush. So elusive that no one could spot one in the hour or so we tried, including packed breakfast.

We moved to the visitor centre and prepared for a longer walk. The full walk was around 10km, with opportunities to shorten in various places, on mostly good, but sometimes quite eroded paths, with a few quite steep bits. To get into that area you had bags checked and all single use plastic was confiscated. Worked well to discourage litter.

The landscape was odd, at around 2,300m, grass and heath but some woods too. It gradually got quite busy with local people walking the trails, mostly in extended families. It was Sunday, school started again on Monday and it was independence day. As it turned out the majority of us went for the full walk, managing well despite age, new knees, lack of experience etc. Though slowly.

As usual we were running late but got to see the route home in the light including the highest railway station on a famous beautiful line. Time for a hurried lunch then out again for a couple of hours at the Victoria park in town, quite a British colonial feel to it but good for several new birds.

Back to the hotel and the usual shower, tick list, dinner, collapse

Sri Lanka Day 7

A nice cup of tea in the morning

A pre breakfast bird trip to the local lake, Kandy Lake, with some useful views Indian cormorants which have blue eyes and white eye patches. Kandy has a rather colonial feel about it, with tennis clubs and things, set up in the cooler part of the country.

We set off on a drive to even higher realms, along some very twisting roads rising about 1000m. Above a certain height, tea plantations started to dominate, mixed with large areas of vegetable plots. The tea plantations look just as you would imagine, I still remember doing a project on them in primary school! The vegetable plots are interesting, terraced, and then raised beds which seem to stay in position with no boards, I think to create channels for irrigation?

We stopped at tea factory called Glenloch for a tour and tasting, and retail opportunity.

This was actually fascinating, quaintly old-fashioned in style. Mechanised but with lots of manual labour involved, smells of tea and generally interesting.

We then had a tasting of 4 different types and led to the shop where we bought a few packets.

Travelling further, up higher till we reached the hotel at Nuwara Eliya, another resort town with a lot of residual colonial features.

After a late lunch we drove a short distance to the Hakgala botanic gardens where we had a lovely couple of hours birding. This consisted of standing on a well manicured slope in lovely weather while the guides called in endemic species for our delectation!

Back to the hotel by 6, at dusk, pretty good meal though not so much choice in a smaller hotel and a few other guests. We were informed that we would be having a 5am start and went to bed accordingly+

Sri Lanka Day 6

Kandy man

A day in and around Kandy, which seems to be a nice town, 500m high, in a valley with a somewhat colonial feel. Woke feeling much better and had usual breakfast and out to do birding at the royal park. This is a beautiful unspoilt area of woodland and valleys with quite a “jungle” feel about it. We were told to buy and wear special leech gaiters as the heavy rain yesterday may have brought them out. These are basically an oversock, over your sock and lower legs drawn tightly with cord. As it turned out they weren’t necessary and leeches don’t do any harm except potentially psychological!

We saw a few new birds, muntjac deer and toque macaques looking way better in their native environment than begging for food at tourist spots. We also met a couple of Canadians also birding with a guide.

From here we returned to the lake in the centre of the town and the shrine dedicated to the relic of one of Buddha’s teeth. Considering he insisted that no one should worship him, he has a disobedient bunch of followers. The shrine has a somewhat east Asian feel about it because of historical reasons. There are a lot of devout followers at these temples and I like that they are still active.

After lunch we visited the botanic gardens, with an interesting retired professor, with excellent English and a great knowledge. We picked up a few birds and had a nice walk til about 5pm then back to hotel.

I fitted in a quick swim in the infinity pool, then a good dinner and bed.

Sri Lanka Day 5

The spice garden

I was feeling quite delicate all day, and very weary, but managed to complete everything except the 6.15m session, which Peg got to. 4 other people were variously ill and chose to get a taxi straight to the next destination but I decided to risk it.

We were transferring to Kandy for the next two days with a couple of stops on the way. The first was yet another temple but this time lots of buddhas in a natural cave system. Some of the sculptures were also hewn out of the bare rock.

The guide was interesting and good but I just wasn’t feeling it and sought out shady places to chill in. The overall look was rather like a Greek monastery but particularly when they were chanting, felt very different

On the way to the next place we stopped to sample king coconut juice, with a very impressive woman chopping them open. Also durian and rambutan.

The only other stop was to the spice gardens. These had an amusing owner/guide to give us the run down on spices in Sri Lanka. Apparently they are important here and he certainly took them seriously. We had lunch there, though I didn’t partake, during a really noisy rain shower on the tin roof. After a while we moved to a side room and offered massages with various potions. Peg had her shoulders vigorously massaged. We bought some stuff and drove on to the hotel, which is very nice. I’m writing this blog here and not doing dinner.

Sri Lanka Day 4

Man, that’s a big rock

Today was the day to visit the lions rock, the most visited tourist attraction in Sri Lanka. The town here has more of a backpacker vibe and I think a lot of people drive to get here. The visitors are a mix, majority local but as overwhelmingly so as other sites, with a mixture of Europeans, Russians, Australians etc.

I had thought the remains of the palace on top were the main thing but in fact it’s surrounded by interesting pleasure gardens with complicated water works. This was all 5th C AD and the result of some arguing between brothers on succession.

Then the climb proper, in two stages. The first mostly a stone staircase but uneven steps, sometimes no handrail and hordes of people, up to the terrace. This looks spectacular from a distance.

Zoom in and look top left

At the terrace you see the remains of two lions feet through which the original route went

And now the steep steel staircase, quite uneven and thronged with typically unfit, young or scared people. The total climb is only 180m, but in 100% humidity and 30deg it’s interesting.

The top has the remains of a palace, swimming pool and other stuff, all materials brought by hand up the staircase.

The descent was equally interesting, with some good cave paintings on the way.

Returning to base we had a few hours free while some went on an optional excursion, I tried the swimming pool which was excellent. My fitness less so!

Then a birdwatch in the gardens plus back at the moat was successful

Home to dinner and me feeling ropey

Sri Lanka Day 3

Man, that’s a big Buddha

I’m going to do a couple of quick ones to catch up and partly because I’m not feeling great, so don’t have the energy.

Today was a travelling day and was supposed to start with pre-breakfast birding at 6.15am. However, for the first time ever on a trip we missed it by not setting an alarm. This paled into insignificance after I opened WhatsApp and found out that Mike Mortimer had died in a climbing accident in Spain. Mike had been my boss, good friend, office mate for nigh on 20 years and we had been in close contact to him and his wife since retiring, most recently a meal in a pub just before Christmas. He was 80 and might have chosen this way to go, but to go because of a careless mistake is very upsetting to many, many people.

We caught up with the rest at breakfast and set off at 9am. We were going to the famous Lions Rock at Sigiriya but stopped on the way to look at a temple famous for its Buddha statue. This was a simple walk up a hill, and then barefoot to view. 14m high and from granite it was very impressive.. It’s nice how locals test these places with reverence, offer gifts etc.

We then continued to Sigiriya arriving for lunch. A very swanky hotel with a great range in the buffet and a swimming pool directly looking up at the rock.

We had a rest then went birding near the large moat surrounding the whole area, then again after dinner in an open top jeep safari in the dark. Shining lights to try to see the eyes of any animals shining back. It was an interesting experience with fireflies floating around everywhere. We didn’t see any particular animals well but did pick up a loris, two species of deer, hares and a few others including a large owl.

And so to bed