April 30 Cultural sites

Day excursion to Anuradhapura, the first capital of Sri Lanka founded in the 4th century BC. See the sacred Bo Tree, the oldest historically documented tree in the world, Abayagiri monastery, which housed 5,000 monks and Jetavana Stupa, the tallest stupa in the world. Afternoon, visit Dambulla Cave Temple with murals, statues etc.

The day began with a joint run from the Hotel across the wall of the dam creating the big lake - really a tank.  This was very pleasant with the sun rising in the general direction of Sigirya and lighting up the bigger mountains across the lake.

 Being overtaken by a tuk-tuk is not a common event while running in Canberra!

As we headed off to breakfast the laundry cart passed by attracting some excitement from other guests.

At least one of them was obviously alert to me photographing them, as well as the laundry cart.  After breakfasting (where much entertainment was provided by a staff member dissuading a squirrel from raiding the sugar supply - this must be a common event as we also saw this at Yala) we embarked on the trek to Anuradhapura, which seems to be considered the major archaeological site in the cultural triangle.  Early in the drive we went past a mosque - they have been few and far between on this trip.

The drive was moderately chaotic as the road North (A9) from Dambulla was subject to road works for about the first 30km which meant it was very slow going.  Of course there were 'men with flags' trying to stop the traffic in various places  but they only had moderate success: motorbikes in particular just seemed to swerve round them.  The ways in which things get transported possibly doesn't help:

The second image is someone's roof moving from a coconut grove to their dwelling!  Given the amount of traffic and the narrowness of the roads it was astonishing that there were so few prangs: we had only seen one crash so far in the trip.  This could be attributed to the slow speeds used even when the road is clear.  (Before anyone gets excited about introducing even slower speed limits to Australia I'd point out that travelling at Sri Lankan speeds it would take about 4 days to get from Canberra to Adelaide!)

Part of the issue with the road works was the number of bridges over small canals and drains.  Rob estimated that we must have gone over 50 or more of them and in each case they were fixing up half the road so it became effectively one lane wide.  As we were basically going through a flood plain of paddyfields for most of this time, with the road on an embankment, it wasn't possible to simply stick in a diversion.  Frances noted that one Ministry was that of Water and Drainage, indicating that the issue was more getting rid of the water than finding it!

As the day's schedule was pretty full we didn't stop much.  Once for a Brahminy Kite posing in a tree close to road and again for a sneak preview of the main stupas (stupae?) from across a lake near Anuradhapura.

It must be confessed that by this stage of the trip we were suffering a little from Temple Fatigue (and also Long Name Fatigue).   Thus I will not, at this stage at least attempt to name all the edifices we visited, and I suspect in this area we only did a small proportion of those available.  At each place we had to take our shoes and socks off and our hats.  Not only did this show respect to the Buddha but enabled - in most cases - an entrepreneur to earn 25R each for minding them.  The site post has more images.

The first place we visited  involved a climb up a small number (relative to Sigirya) of steps to a viewing area next to a small stupa.  On the way down Nanda pointed out a slot cave well supplied with roosting bats.

The next major site we visited was noted as being that of the oldest tree in the world at 2,300 years.  It is a Bo tree (Ficus religiosa) and is a cutting from the tree in India under which the Buddha sat to achieve enlightenment.  From a list of oldest trees it appears that this needs a bit of qualification, in that it is the oldest tree for which the age is based on documentation rather than ring-counting.  This site was attended by quite high security as it had been targeted for terrorist activity in the past.

The associated temple had just finished a morning ceremony which meant that it was fairly packed with pilgrims muttering their prayers, giving the place a very different feel to  other temples we visited.  The religious folk didn't appear to object to tourists wandering through, and we did of course try to do this a respectful way.  Possibly Buddha smiled on me for my good karma,  as on emerging my camera dropped from my bumbag and bounced down the road.  While a few scratches were added it was undamaged in terms of function.

The next major site was the tallest stupa in Sri Lanka.

 We were a little delayed in getting there as we thought we heard Nanda's phone go off, but he got excited as it was not his ring-tone but the bird on which it was based, an Indian Cuckoo.  We had to pursue the bird for some distance but eventually got very good looks at it.

On entering the compound around the stupa - without our shoes or socks - we discovered it was rather hot underfoot, especially on the red tiles.  Frances decided to remain with her feet on some shaded tiles, rather than getting third degree burns.  The rest of us made it round, noting the odd bucket of whitewash sailing overhead on a sort of flying fox wire as the guys up top repainted the stupa.  The wire is visible in the centre-top of this image from Rob, which also shows the bamboo ladder the guys climbed up (I would take second prize).

Nanda pointed out that if one put one's toes against the base of the stupa the pinnacle was not visible, but moving out 0.3m allowed it to reappear.  This effect is consistent around the entire edifice demonstrating the considerable mathematical - and construction - skills of the builders.

After a few more ruins we headed off towards Minneriya National Park.  En route we saw our second prang of the trip where a coach had speared into a ditch and the LH front had crumpled into a tree.  If the front passenger had not been wearing a seat belt I suspect they were not at all well.  We stopped a little later for some curries, arriving at the park about 3pm.

We then transferred to a jeep acquiring as usual a driver (from the jeep company) and a tracker from the NP team.  (The use of trackers is a way the NP 'compensate' the local community for curtailing their exploitation of the area.)  In this case the two new folk did not work well together: when the tracker tapped the rail (with a stone, rather than the traditional 5R coin) the driver often didn't stop immediately or went forwards when the tracker wanted him to reverse.  We decided this was a bit like Laurel and Hardy (without the humour).

There were very few birds around also so the driver started adding stops for species such as peacock - of which we had had a surfeit.  Earning a few more bangs with a rock on the frame of the jeep.  Things improved somewhat when we got to a large lake.  In the dry season this is the only water around and attracts large numbers of elephants  but they were all thought to be far away as there was plenty of water in the Park.  We went and parked on the lake shore and the tracker then spotted a Golden Jackal which was shortly joined by two others.

Good call!  The driver earned himself a trip down the red carpet later in the evening by standing on the bonnet, making a noise.

Movie references continued when another 'jeep' appeared.  This was a 2WD ute and the driver tried to take it through a swamp and got bogged.

His tracker and our driver then pushed him backwards eventually getting him to dry ground.  To general astonishment he then came forward getting bogged again in the same spot!  Surely he was a Sinhalese version of Mr Bean.  More pushing and he disappeared back to the track.  Our driver was affronted by this challenge to his incompetence and drove forward into a very wet area: fortunately he realised that all other people had gone and there was no-one to push if he sank (other than us, which would have caused a major ruckus) and he engaged reverse in time.

Back on the track and good things continued:

• Nanda spotted 4 elephants hiding behind a large clump of bushes;

 

• the tracker and/or Nanda spotted a Blue-faced Malkoha - soon there were two of them - and we got pretty good looks at them.  Yowza: that completed the set of three possible Malkohas!
• a large flock of Sri Lankan Green Pigeons were seen dining in a fig tree, along with two Malabar Pied Hornbills.

By the time we got back to the Park HQ it was nearly dusk so the Spotted Deer were about

but we headed for the Hotel.  En route we stopped for playback for Nightjars and, after that was unsuccessful, were astonished (again) to find 2 Jerdon's Nightjars sitting on the road!

Back at the Hotel a different band was playing and allowed me to take a photograph.

 Largeish bats were flying through the dining room.  The Fumigator was back in the room and still chain smoking.

 It is astonishing that someone, visiting the place for a health cure would do this to:

• himself; and
• other guests.

As we left the dining room my best insect photo of the trip was taken.

I cannot think why there were so few insects around, other than the shortage of flowers for them to feed on.  I didn't object to the shortage of bities!

When we got back to the room we found that the room boy had been at it again.

What a wonderful idea.  I did my own pattern the next morning involving a few items of currency, hoping that the same guy did morning and evening shifts!

Bird of the day:  Blue faced Malkoha
Other Vertebrate of the day:  Gloden Jackal
Pattern of the day: Moonstar at Anuradhapura
Bad Taste of the Day:  Driver stomping around on bonnet.

There were unsuccessful nominations in each Category:

• Bird: Indian Cuckoo (call like ringtone); White-bellied Sea-Eagles (speccie fishing activities by very atractive bird); Jerdon's Nightjar (ruled out as one of the group didn't see it); and Malabar Pied Hornbill.
• Vertebrate:  Bats; Elephants; Bullock pulling cart, Sugar-raiding squirrel
• Pattern: Dwarfs on guard-stones, Buddhist flags; Stupas
• Bad taste: A client discussing the edibility of Buttonquail in the presence of that genus.

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