Friday 17th – travelling and heat
Well, we arrived at Heathrow with plenty of time to shop, but even the girls weren’t really up for Dior, Paul Smith, Gucci etc so we made do with a lens cloth, a ds charger and some moisturiser and then settled in for the 2 hour delay. We finally took off and ten hours later after no sleep at all we arrived in Colombo to 30 degree heat and a warm greeting from Nimal, our driver for the next two and a half weeks.
While I managed to stay awake and drink in some pretty amazing scenery and scenes on a five hour drive up into the Knuckles Ranges, Han and Adie were well and truly cactus by then and slept most of the way.
We made a couple of stops along the way, one in the cashew nut district where the first first rip off was encountered with a bag of the best salted for 1000 skr (about £5) the haggling skills need to be honed fairly quickly, and another in a cafe for some pastries (fish cutlet buns – not exactly what we had in mind – Han had her heart set on a pain au chocolat!) Having driven through the cane district, our next stop was at the Pinnewala Elephant Orphanage, Sri Lanka’s most famous tourist attraction, apparently. The 80 strong herd (of which about 40 were present) had all been walked down a strategically placed avenue of souvenir shops to the river where they bathe twice daily. It was quite a lovely scene but having woken Adie up to full sunshine and hugely humid heat (a massive shock after four weeks of minus 2!) we took a few photos and decided we really needed to get to our accommodation for a wash, some food and a rest asap.
Once we were through Kandy, a sprawling metropolis and Sri Lanka’s second largest city, we were heading up into the tea plantation hills. The road was a narrow vertical climb of hairpin bends and very rural. The scenery was either rice paddies, beautifully sculpted and alive with cattle egrets, or as we reached higher altitudes, tea plantations.
We finally arrived at Rangala House to a warm welcome from Anthony , the owner, who advised us we had the whole house to ourselves. After a delicious lunch on the huge veranda of home grown salady bits and fresh bread, we all had showers, the girls had a swim in the lovely pool overlooking the tea hills, Adie got leeched and bitten by an ant, and then we settled down to watch the torrential rain pour across the hills.
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| Rangala House - view from veranda |
Birds seen today. On the journey lots of. Cattle Egrets in the rice paddies with a few Asian Openbills, Intermediate Egrets, Indian Pond Herons and Red Wattled Lapwings. Brahminy Kite was over the Elephant place and White Throated Kingfishers and Green Beeaters were in various places.
Afternoon from the veranda and around the gardens saw Hanging Parrot, Black Bulbuls, Long-billed Sunbird, Yellow Fronted Barbet, Yellow billed Babbler, Sri Lanka Myna, Crimson backed Flameback, White-bellied Drongo , Oriental White-eyes .
Saturday 18th – Tea
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| Long-billed Sunbird |
After a heavenly dinner last night, cooked by Sebastian (leek and potato soup followed by chicken curry, rice and vegetables, followed by chocolate mousse – all made in the kitchen here) we all went to bed, exhausted after our travels.
I was up early and had a wander in the grounds, where I had a great list of birds. A group of Hill Mynas were noisy, a pair of Sri Lankan Scimitar Babblers were attacking a flowering plant. A bird flock held Black-hooded Oriole, Sri Lankan Hanging Parrot, Golden-fronted Leafbird, Flame Minivet, Oriental and Sri Lankan White-eyes, Bar-winged Flycatcher Shrike, and Velvet fronted Nuthatch. Layards Parakeets and Red-backed Flamebacks, Pale-billed Flowerpecker. A flock of hirundines had Grey-rumped Treeswifts, Indian Swiftlets and a Sri Lankan Swallow.. ... all before breakfast.
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| Bee swarm |
Slept at least 12 hours and had to wake Adie and Hannah up! After a lovely breakfast we set off up the road on a 3(ish) km self-guided walk. It was a lovely meander through the tea plantations, where we saw ladies picking tea and wandering across the estates to have their full bags weighed. They all had bare feet which was a bit of a surprise to us, as we know there are bitey ants and leeches.
The scenery was very beautiful and there were many eucalytpus trees . We found a swarm of bees attached to a tree trunk also, The locals are all very friendly and particularly fond of Hannah and Adie’s blonde hair – there was much stroking and merriment at one point. Further birds seen included Crested Serpent Eagle, Black Eagle, Thick-billed Flowerpecker, Plum-headed Parakeet, Purple-rumped Sunbird.
We went to a Tea Factory just up the road and saw the tea making process from leaf to tea bag – the ladies pick every day ( each bush is picked every 10 days) and each sack must contain 2kg’s (or was it 20kgs ?) of leaves. They produce fifty 57kg sacks a day. 1m kgs a year.
Heathrow and Gatwick Airports closed. We couldn’t believe our luck: if we had planned to fly two days later we wouldn’t be here now!
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| Praying Mantis - Rangala House |
Dinner was another masterpiece: prawn cocktail with quail eggs followed by curry rice and vegetables and then lemon soufflé. Afterwards we reluctantly packed our bags, ready for a 9am departure the next morning.
Sunday 19th – long journey to Haputale
Six White rumped Munias flew past before breakfast and a Common Hawk Cuckoo sat in view calling throughout breakfast, which was delicious and after having our photo taken with Anthony for the guest book, we departed.
We had originally thought the day would encompass only a couple of hours travelling interspersed with a few interesting stops along the way. Alas, we were mistaken, and 9 hours after leaving Rangala we finally pulled into Kelburne Mountain Estate Cottages. The scenery from Kandy to Nuwara Eliya was quite beautiful – immaculate tea plantation and market garden style farms filling every possible space in an extremely mountainous terrain. We stopped at Pookalellie tea factory and had a delicious cup of tea and piece of chocolate cake each for 160 sr for four – about a pound – the best value we have found so far! We then stopped at Victoria Park in NA as it was a good spot for Pied Thrush and Kashmir Flycatcher, but it was also a public holiday so when we arrived about 1pm it was teeming with people rather than birds so only added the endemic Yellow-eared bulbul .
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| Retail Therapy wasn't yet working |
We had lunch at Glendower Hotel in The King Prawn Chinese Restaurant, which was fine, and then we headed off again for the final leg of the day. With roadworks stretching at least 20km’s, it was a pretty rough journey. We finally made it to Haputele where we collected our naturalist – Nayana - who will be with us for the next week. We then reached Wildflower cottage at dusk and glimpsed the amazing views under the clouds. Our cottage has has a roaring fire going now (it’s cold up here in the mountains!) and after another curry dinner the girls are playing lego in front of the fire while I write my diary. Have learnt to add a bit on for suggested journey times.
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| Yellow-eared Bulbul - Victoria Park |
Monday 20th
I was up at 4.30 to go Horton Plains – the girls bailed out – sensibly. We arrived at the gate at 6.30 am . In summary from a bird point of view it was hard work and although a few birds were seen, the endemics were playing hidey. Large groups of Samba Deer were on the plain when we arrived and Nayana and I set off from the parking spot towards Worlds End, an Oriental Honey Buzzard flew over and several Oriental (Paddyfield) Pipits and Zitting Cisticolas were in the grassland. The walk was pleasant, if hot and we covered about 10kms on a circuit via Bakers Falls. Two Sri Lankan Woodpigeons were heard, Black-throated Munia and Dark-fronted Babbler were seen and the large groups of Sri Lankan White-Eyes held only a few travellers, including Bright Green Warblers, Velvet fronted Nuthatch.
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| Paddyfield Pipit |
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| Samba Deer stag - Horton Plains |
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| View from Worlds End - Horton Plains |
A troop of Bear( purple-faced) Monkeys gave decent views and both black-tipped and horned lizards were seen, the famed Arrenga pool yielded nothing.
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| Purple-faced Monkey - a bit grumpy |
Arrived back at the Cottage around 2pm, the girls had a great morning and the views from the cottage rivalled Worlds End without the long walk. A Rufous-breasted Eagle was circling from the veranda along with Black Eagle, Booted Eagle and Common Kestrel.
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| Rufous-bellied Eagle - Kelbourne Cottage Haputale |
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| View from our cottage at Kelbourne - Stunning |
Tuesday 21st Dec – Buses and leeches
We set off from Kelbourne Cottages at 8am to go to Sinharaja – an estimated 3 hours. About half way there, up a hill the minibus broke.
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| broken bus ! |
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| Taxi for Matson |
It was too hot to stand by the side of the road so Nayana took us down a ravine in the shade of the trees by a river to wait until something was sorted, a Crimson-fronted Barbet and Asian Brown Flycatcher were welcome whilst the girls made boats out of leaves to float down the stream . After an hour or so it was obvious that more than a roadside repair was needed so poor Nimal was left with the broken vehicle and another taxi bus was sorted out and we set off again – so arrived at the Boulder Garden around 2pm.
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| Boulder Garden Swimming Pool |
The girls decided to stay and chill rather than venture into the forest so I went with Nayana in a jeep. It took around an hour to the forest edge. We picked up our local tracker (Susanda ?) and headed into the forest. We had a fairly productive first hour seeing Spot-winged Thrush, Sri Lanka Jungle Fowl, Legge’s Flowerpecker, Malabar Trogon, Sri Lanka Blue Magpie and Ashy Headed Laughing Thrush and a Green Pit Viper. It then rained - hard - so we had to retreat and gave the leeches their supper on the way.
Wednesday 22nd Dec – how much that bird ?
We all donned our attractive leech socks ! and headed back into the forest at 6am. Planned that the girls would do half a day with Nayana and I would carry on for the rest of the afternoon with Susanda. As often in forests the birds were slow in appearing and we hadn’t found the hope for bird flock in the morning. We added Black-naped Monarch, Pompadour (Ceylon) Green Pigeon, Sri Lanka Scaly Thrush (after some crawling through the forest floor) and Sri Lanka Jungle Fowl. Chestnut-backed Owlet we heard calling, but after wading through a stream to locate it we had no luck. Meanwhile Adie had successfully managed to turn into a bird guide when she mimicked and called in a singing Spot-Winged Thrush to a few feet much to Nayana’s amazement.
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| Paradise Flycatcher (Indian race) |
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| Sri Lanka Blue Magpie |
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| Rainforest Attire |
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| Common Green Lizard - Don't call me common |
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| Nayana with the girls |
The afternoon again started slowly with a Brown-capped Babbler, Green-billed Coucal, Brown-breasted Flycatcher. At 1.30 at last we ran into a bird flock which held around 20 species including Red-faced Malkoha, White-faced Starling, Crested Drongos, Orange Billed Babbler and Yellow –naped Woodpecker. Susanda then picked up a calling Serendip Scops Owl, we heard it call 5 times just as the rain started, so he headed into the forest to locate it and I waited in one of the forest shelters. Another tracker/guide was in the shelter and enquired about whether I’d seen the ‘special’ Owl or the Frogmouth as he knew their location – Susanda then returned and a discussion / argument ensued between the two of them where the opposing guide ‘claimed’ the Owl was his and it would appear, if I was to be given the opportunity to see it when it had stopped raining there should be a hefty donation to his pocket – up to 5,000 skr (about £30 – but a lot in SL). Susanda was uncomfortable and I wasn’t happy about the developing economy. It was lucky the rain didn’t stop so it was impossible to go for the Owl, which in a weird way I was happy with as I like watching birds not negotiating over them. The rain was incredibly hard, so much so the track turned to a river and we splashed backed to the car with leaches in tow (the socks worked but it was only in the shower later did I realise I was still wearing a couple on my arm). I am happy with tipping for good service but when the situation develops so much that the trackers are selling what they think are their birds for a price to see then there is trouble ahead – It’s not a Zoo, the birds are wild not owned by anyone.
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| Green-billed Coucal |
23rd December - Wet to Dry ?
We got ready to leave the Boulder Garden at a sociable hour of 8am having greeted Nimal and the mended minibus and hopefully leave the wet rainforest behind as in theory we were entering the dry zone. Before breakfast a good number of birds were around the hotel. Tickells Blue Flycatchers, Black-naped Monarch, Black-headed Bulbul, Black-hooded Oriole, Pompadour Green Pigeon, Common Iora and Brown-headed Barbet.
Udawalawe is a national park on the edge of a huge reservoir, on the approach we saw good numbers of waterbirds, including Painted Storks, Spot-billed Pelicans, Gull-billed, Whiskered and White-winged Terns. We arrived at the park gates, changed vehicles, and transferred to our tented camp for a one night stay. The journey through the park gave some good views of Asian Elephants, Water Buffalo and Spotted Deer. Our Tents were in a clearing close to a river and were quite comfortable with a flushing toilet ! We lunched and then set off for an afternoon game drive, seeing more Elephant, Crocodile, Land Monitors and lots of birds including Crimson-backed Flameback, Yellow-crowned Woodpecker, Sikheer Malkoha, Grey-headed Fish Eagle, Barred Buttonquail, Rufous Woodpecker, and an Indian Pitta.
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| Orange-breasted Green Pigeons |
A barbecued dinner and to bed.... then it rained.... and some.
It sounded worse because we were under canvas but I was sure we would be floating away .
24th Udawalewa to Yala
So Christmas Eve has arrived – and we didn’t get washed away, we were up at 5.30am and went for a game drive before breakfast. We had very good views of a group of 11 Asian elephants including a tiny wee one and additional bird species included Woolly-necked Stork, Blue-faced Malkoha, Plaintive Cuckoo, Brown Fish Owl. Hannah's Elephant count was up to 50 when we left, Adie had stopped counting cats and dogs on the road and had been helping with Peacock counts.
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| Blue-tailed Bee-eaters -avoiding the rain |
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| He's here !!! |
25th December – Merry Xmas !!!!
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| Chestnut-headed Bee-eater |
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| Happy Christmas ! |
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| Asian Elephant (tusker) |
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| Painted Stork |
26th Boxing Day
Today was the 6th anniversary of the Tsunami and it was particularly sobering to think that the neighbouring property to our hotel was completely wiped out. Thousands of people in Sri Lanka died, and this had a devastating effect on families. Yala lost over 70 tourists (ten were British). There by the grace of God do we all live.
I went with Nayana and Nimal to Tissa wetlands about an hours drive (the girls again voting for the pool), this just involved us sauntering up the road overlooking a vast flooded farmland covered in paddies and lakes with Water Hyacinths and reeds.
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| View over Tissa wetlands |
The first house along the road had a pair of Collared Scops Owls in a tree which the owners children seemed particularly proud of. The wetlands were picturesque and held quite a few birds. The second site – Tissa Wera – thwarted us as the heavy rains forced a new channel to be dug to ease the flooding on the road which prevented access to the causeway. So we retreated back to Yala. The afternoon was spent at the top of the restaurant block overlooking the park doing diaries, with Nayana helping Hannah do a journal. A large male Elephant was meandering in the car park and after dinner was outside our room so we had to wait until it had finished its meal before we could go to bed.
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| Collared Scops Owl |
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| Pheasant-tailed Jacana |
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| Ceylon Woodshrike |
27th Dec – Mr Big Trunk
This morning was our final game drive in Rahunu NP with Dinesh at the wheel , but new mammals or birds were difficult to come by. The afternoon we set off in the Jeep to Bundala, a Ramsar site on the coast with wetlands and saltpans famous for Flamingos. The Flamingos though were not present this year as there had been a bit of an accident, which meant a leak of freshwater had replaced virtually all the saline water in the Flamingos desired area and the problem had not yet been rectified. It was great driving out on the sand bars between the saltpans. We all had goes at trying to imitate Indian Pittas as there were 4 having a fight near the vehicle. Lots of waders and terns were present, Lesser Crested, Caspian, Whiskered and Little. Curlew Sandpipers, Little Stints, Marsh Sandpipers, Lesser Sand Plovers, Kentish Plovers, Small Pratincole and surprisingly a handful of Dunlin (which are supposed to be rare visitors). Eurasian Thick knees and a Pintail Snipe ended the days bird list and we headed out of the park.
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| Indian Pitta |
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| Whiskered Tern |
It’s a bit of a Matson family tradition to have at least one too close encounter with a wild animal and today it was a huge male Elephant (We have already done Black Rhino’s and Black Bear on our travels) . We had just left the park and curiously passed some vehicles which seemed to be waiting in the middle of the road. A few hundred yards further on we saw a male elephant in the road purposefully walking towards us. Dinesh slowed but didn’t stop, the Elephant didn’t stop, Dinesh kept going, the Elephant kept coming with menace. The elephant started running at us trumpeting madly. It was one of those moments that happened so quickly, Dinesh, Nayana, stood up shouting and banging the vehicle. The Elephant just stopped a couple of feet from the car, the banging and shouting continued and he reluctantly backed off and very slowly sloped away into the bush not without more than one moment where you could see he was assessing whether to resume his attack. Adie was completely unaffected by proceedings and I was trying to take it all in, in the circumstance the thought of taking photos evaporated. The guys had all been entirely confident they would win the shouting battle and we had actually missed the Singhalese conversation with the vehicles we passed which appeared to suggest the showdown my Mr Big Trunk was planned as a removal exercise on behalf of the locals.
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| Asian Openbill - Bundala |
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| Marsh Sandpiper |
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| Purple Heron |
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| Lesser Pied Kingfisher |
That evening we said goodbye to Nayana who had been wonderful company and a fantastic educator for the girls in all plants, insects and mammals, and a big help to me in finding the birds. Would recommend to anyone going to Sri Lanka on a similar trip that you contact Nayana via his website -
http://www.wildworldwatch.com/
28th I’m not a Celebrity but get me.....
Before the a bit of research into various Charity work in the areas we were going, most had centred around post Tsunami events, we wanted to visit some projects and see for ourselves. Ignoring some of the larger charities, through contacts from the girls school found Jon Ashworth who has set up The Yala Fund (www.yala.org.uk) Jon used to be a Times business journalist until a post Tsunami holiday was the turning point for him to move permanently to Sri Lanka. We visited schools and families he has helped or is in the process of helping – what a difference small things make to everyday lives of people (water, electricity, a new roof etc, school uniforms, playgrounds etc). Jon is a fantastic dedicated individual and we appreciated his time to show us around.
The afternoon had us checking out of the wonderful Yala Village and heading back into Rahunu NP for 2 nights at another ‘Luxury’ camp. Well – it was nothing like our experience at Udawalawe – a disaster. A list of things that weren’t right would be wasting time on here , all I can say is the wonderful people from ECD Global and Kirsty at Wildlife trails sorted out accommodation on the beach for us for the 2nd night so we could bail out. One blessing, we met some lovely people, Wendell, Jerome and Lalin who shared our accommodation predicament, love for travel and their Vodka !!
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| Green Bee eater - Rahunu NP |
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| Spot-billed Pelicans - Rahunu NP |
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| Changeable Hawk Eagle |
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| Baya Weaver with nests |
29
th Dec - Escape from Rahuna
Our early morning and final game drive in Rahuna NP yielded nothing more than a couple of Porcupines, after breakfast at the camp, on hearing of our success in finding new accommodation we packed our bags (quickly) said quick goodbyes to our new found friends and felt a sense of rejoicing having re-united with Nimal and our minibus . By 3pm we were at our emergency accommodation and had settled into the Luxurious Mandara Beach Resort enjoying sumptuous splendour in a huge suite with outdoor Jacuzzi bath and shower and a 50m swimming pool that the girls loved. The dinner was a buffet on the grass by the swimming pool and the girls spent the time catching crabs which were running around the tables.
30th Dec – Transfer to Welligama
Back on track with our itinerary we had our shortest journey of the trip, only 2kms to Welligama Bay (we could have walked down the beach). Again we found ourselves in 2 of the biggest luxury suites you could imagine and the girls were straight in the pool making new friends and then onto the beach for body boarding in the surf.
31st December - Whales
Today we were up early again and off on a whale watching trip. We were out for around 7 hours and went about 18kms offshore (we had passed all the shipping lanes) but the trip was successful in that we saw 4 majestic Blue Whales, a Green Turtle and lots of flying fish I also saw 4 Bridled Terns although very few birds were encountered given the distance we travelled. Despite having its bumpy bits the girls amazingly managed about 3 hours sleep on the floor of the captains little cabin !. Our planned afternoon siesta didn't materialise in advance of the evenings celebrations which were great. A fantastic buffet followed by a Singhalese dance troupe (their repertoire needed a little more variation !) leading up to fireworks at midnight - then an 80's disco !!! - we were in bed by 1pm.
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| Blue Whale |
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| Blue Whale |
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| Green Turtle |
Jan 1st and 2nd.
A very chilled day on the 1st - we visited another Tea Plantation and then a Turtle Hatchery where the girls handled tiny turtles. Then on the 2nd we transferred to the Sun House in Galle for our final 2 nights. Galle's Fort area is an unusual and interesting mix of styles and boutique arty shops and craft place. The Sun House is lovely and a huge black Scorpion in the bar caused some amusement in the evening (at a safe distance)
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| Balcony view at Welligama |
Jan 3rd - Hiyare Rainforest.
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| View over Hiyare Rainforest |
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| Ceylon Grey Hornbill |
I decided on a final plunge into a rainforest while the girls planned to plunge into culture in Galle. On Nayana's recommendation Hiyare Rainforest Park is a 600 acre forest about 20kms from Galle, less well known and not well used, it was a Monday but I was the only one there . I arrived about 7.30 but had to wait until 9ish before the trackers turned up, but the car park area overlooking the reservoir was pretty productive first thing as there were a few fruiting trees around. The first 3
Celylon Grey Hornbills of the trip were welcome.
Hanging Parrots, Celyon Green Pigeons, Black Bulbuls, Black headed yellow Bulbuls, White-bellied Drongo, Common Iora, Scarlet Minivets, Ceylon Myna, Ceylon Small Barbet, Bar-winged Flycatcher and Brown Shrike (Philipines race) were all seen before setting off into the forest with the tracker.
In the forest, more birds were heard than seen and more leaches were seen than felt, although my leech socks again worked admirably I seemed to suffer from the tree-launching variety that found their way onto my back. Sri Lanka Spurfowl and Green-billed Coucal were heard. Malabar Trogon, Dark-fronted Babbler, Black-naped Monarch, Crested Drongo, Brown Flycatcher were all seen and then we flushed a juvenile Malayan Night Heron from one of the forest streams. I'd had a good morning and ended my holiday bird list here - Final total 220. The forest certainly held a good number of birds including endemics and is certainly more accessible than Sinharaja.
Joined up with the girls in the town in the afternoon then we had a lovely final dinner at the Sun House, joined by a large Tree Frog.
Up at 3.30am for our flight home and ending a wonderful holiday in a fantastic country that we would not hesitate returning to.
