April 23: Nuwara Eliya

After breakfast leave for St.Andrew’s Hotel, Nuwara Eliya for two nights. Afternoon, visit Victoria Garden for Himalayan migrants Kashmir Flycatcher, Pied Thrush Indian Pitta and Indian Blue Robin. Other highlights include Yellow-eared Bulbul, Sri Lanka Hill White-eye and Dull blue Flycatcher.

Today was a relatively relaxed start as we didn't have to leave until about 8;30. As Frances and I strolled across to the breakfast facility we were greatly amused by the antics of a bunch of Grey langurs (ie monkeys) playing around in the bushes and then leaping – with loud thuds – onto the rooves of chalets.

As it was still before opening time we went up to the observation deck to look out over the lagoon. That was a nice view, but what really caught our attention was the sunbirds feedng in the trees below us. Due to the hour and their position they were catching the sun beautifully and really stunning us with their looks. The purple rumps stood out like neon signs – which presumably is the intention!

Once esconced for breakfast we were most amused by a squirrel invading the next table - fortunately unoccupied - and stealing the packets of sugar.

Heading off down the road there was a minor kerfuffle amongst the local dogs and accompanied by a larger kerfuffle in the local Muscovy Duck population. It was later apparent that the cause of this was the need for the assembled stock to remove a fairly large Rat Snake from the area.
There was some excitement when some birds were spotted on the roadside these were Brahminy Starlings (a lifer) and Rose Starlings (added, in a poor sighting, to my life list the previous day after many years of wanting to see one of these birds).  Even on this occasion the image of the Rose Starling was not worth reproducing, but the Brahminy was more obliging.

Our progress was temporarily interrupted by a herd of cattle.  They were a pretty ratty bunch of beasts but did show the 'hot wire brands' rather well.

 The next interesting sight, some kms down the road was a large colony of fruit bats circling their roost tree. (NB: we had seen horseshoe bats flying through the eating area at Martins Simple Lodge.)

As we drove along there was some confusion about distances. It then emerged that the modern, authoritative distance markers were in kilometres, but there were some old Colonial era, markers still showing the distances in miles. Sri Lanka adopted metric measures in 1975 (about the same time as Australia).

Every village seems to have a vendor of clay pots for buffalo curd. They keep them piled up, which caused some small confusion for a while. Buffalo also crossed our path – fortunately, with one exception, not literally by being dead beside the road. A rather more significant road hazard than a dead 'roo. As an aside it is a miracle - due to the concern of the local drivers - that the whole country is not covered with dead dogs: their preferred spot for a sleep is about 60cm out in the road, but thus far we have seen none flattened. (That continued throughout the trip.)

After a couple of hours we turned on to the road up to Nurawa Eliya.  Up was definitely the word as we then climbed steadily for the next two hoirs . We stopped for a look at a large waterfall, linked to the story of a local king stealing a bride from Southern India.  This is not a Bollywood yarn but a very old legend. Most picturesque with specular green-winged dragonflies decorating the rock at the bottom.

 

The best snap of a sari was this one of a lady at the falls.

We ascended the road somewhat further and called in at a tea house (elevation 1014m), where we were sponsored, not by the letter T but the letter P.  This image shows the roads weaving up and across the steep hillsides.

On on towards Nuwara Eliya. Sights seen along the road included:

• Ganesh sitting on a oil drum outside a Hindu Temple; and
• Buddha sitting in the back of a truck.

There were temples of both Hindu

 and Buddhist persuasions all over the place as well as the occasional Christian edifice.  This roundabout, seem dimly through the customary rain, was an attractive part of a rather crummy town.

In an agricultural sense there were many many acres of terraced hillsides covered with tea plants or, particularly as we neared Nuwara Eliya, vegetable fields. As we had left the low lands some of the rice paddies had been flooded – whether by intent or just as a result of the rain was not clear – and the water was cascading down through openings in the walls.

After reaching NE and checking in to the St Andrews Hotel we headed off to look at some grand buildings (see the Buildings post) Victoria Park to check for Himalayan migrants. They seem to have migrated already as despite an hour or more searching we failed to find any. There were a number of interesting signs observed by Rob, Carol and Frances who decided that looking at the garden was more interesting to them than scouting a polluted creek.

• Refrain from playing in the park;
• Refrain from plucking the flowers;
• Refrain from removing the plants;
• Behave decently.

Surprisingly there were no jobsworths around to enforce these rules.

There are a couple of images of the gardens taken by Frances.

and one by Rob (which also says something about the weather)

 We went back to another spot near the Grand Hotel where Hettie thought the migrants might be lurking. They weren't but we did spend a little time watching a Velvet Nuthatch, which is a cute little bird.

I then decided to give battle in the Bale Bazaar (sort of collection of factory outlet shacks for Sri Lankan clothing factories) to see if I could get a more waterproof jacket. Many stalls from which the boys were keen to sell me their stuff. All was said to be waterproof and all was Gore-Tex. None of the labels mentioned that trademark but instead said things like 100% nylon on the label. Rob commented that it was very easy to sew in a label, but I reckoned it was even easier to just say something. The final insult was when one of the boys said his offering was 9000Rs (about $A75) and didn't even counter offer to my suggestion that I only had 4000Rs!

Back at the hotel - where this view of the town was taken

 and dinner happened. A waiter tried to serve us two entrees but having eaten one I was keen to move on my “Asian Spacial” featuring vegetable biriyani and grilled paneer. Very tasty it was too.

As a point of interest, at Yala there were several honeymoon couples. At Nuwara Eliya a couple celebrated their 29^th wedding anniversary.

Bird of the Day: Brahminy Starling

Other vertebrate of the day: Squirrel stealing sugar;

Pattern of the day: Sari

Bad taste of the day: the spiky hair style at the next table.

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April 25: Keilani Forest Reserve

After breakfast leave for Kithulgala Resthouse, Kithulgala for one night. Afternoon, cross the Kelani River in a dugout canoe and reach the Kelani Valley Forest Reserve, which is a lowland tropical rainforest rich in endemic fauna and flora. The Kelani Valley Forest Reserve is ideal for any missed lowland endemics such as Sri Lanka Myna, Green-billed Coucal, Spot-winged Thrush, Sri Lanka Blue Magpie, Sri Lanka Spurfowl, Brown-capped Babbler and Red-faced Malkoha.

Some comments about the St Andrews Hotel are in order, in part to balance what we see as unwarranted criticism on a website. We all quite liked the place as an echo of the Colonial period which seems to have been well maintained. Very Pukka. It included a billards room available at 200r for 30 minutes with a sign prohibiting beginners and noting that the first rip in the baize would cost 50000R!

The gardens around the hotel were very picturesque, especially the large bed of red salvias.

Breakfast was incredible with a vast array of diet-threatening tucker. I ordered a cooked-while-you-watch omelette and was intrigued to watch the performance as the chilis were fried first then the egg added and finally cheese (this bit was unique to St Andrews: in other places everything was cooked together as I usually do it). The whole deal was flipped about 4 times.

After leaving we drove through an area in which the local vegetable entrepreneurs flogged their wares beside the road.

We then got into a tea growing area.  In many places the pickers (by tradition, nearly all Tamil women) were at work

while in other areas the visible rock suggested that the soil wasn't really deep in this area.

Eventually we got to a tea factory which we took a look at and an explanatory tour.  The process seemed to have quite a lot of manual labour about it (as we were told, machinery is imported and expensive and labour is cheap).

My favourite element in this image is the big old ledger book on the table.  I am sure that the role of the book could be fulfilled by a 14 year old with a cell phone, but am personally pleased the old traditions continue.  We were told a lot about the different styles of tea, summarised in this poster (click on it to make the words legible).

In addition to the different processes there are different qualities according to the altitude at which the tea is grown.  Nuwara Eliya is High Altitude (the best quality) above 1200m.  Other divisions are Medium Altitude 600m to 1200m and Low Altitude (below 600m).  We were given a free taste of the Orage Pekoe tea. A considerable quantity of tea was acquired plus one nice polo shirt.

We didn't buy any tea pots!

The road onwards was a new route since the traditional way is subject to road works and very muddy so takes longer even though shorter. We were able to resolve one of human society's major problems , namely "How do you transport a long bit of downpipe?"

 I think it was the passenger, rather than the driver who was holding the pipe!
The by-pass was very twisty, which in conjunction with two cups of Orange Pekoe meant that I had to be counselled with about 45 minutes to go. The advice could be summarised as “Tie a knot in it and man up”. That I managed to achieve until we got to the Kithulgala Guest House.

After putting our stuff in our rooms we started to bird around the compound. Within a few minutes we had ticked off Alexandrine Parakeet and Layards Parakeet. The latter gave very good views of their backs as they played on a tree about 30m away.As  well as seeing the birds we also watched the antics of a group of Indian tourists. Apart from their flaunty posing it was interesting to watch them wandering the leech infested grass in bare feet. Fortunately they soon hopped on their bus and departed.
To my surprise the Hotel TV system had access to Channel Australia.  This meant that we were able to watch the last quarter of the Essendon -Collingwood AFL game on TV.

The game was very exciting and until 1 minute to go looked as though there could be a good result.  Unfortunately the forces of evil triumphed.  In despair that such things are allowed to happen I wandered outside to watch a load of school kids being ferried across the river to their village.

We then went to an area near the Kithulgala Police Station to look for Hornbills and Chestnut-backed Owlet. The main place was a bloke's house and tea plot. Neither of these targets were found but a Spot-winged Thrush turned up and walked around under a tea bush about 2m from me. Rather excellent, and despite my history proximity to a nick did not result in me being arrested.  At some point here our first Green Forest lizard was photographed.

It then started to rain so we retired to the Guest House where the view across the river was rather murky. 

As it got dark, and the rain having stopped, I headed up to the main street to see if I could find an illuminated Buddha. To my surprise there was one in the grounds of the Guest House: a bit difficult to capture the lighting but I ended with a reasonable shot.

There was another shrine by the main bridge and on investigating that it turned out to be Hindu, rather than Buddhist.

It was also accompanied by

• loud recorded chanting as well as flashing lights; and
• some local youth who seemed keen on getting to know me better- or at least better than I wished to know them!

So I headed back to get ready for tea only pausing to snap the strange edifice at the gate to the Guest House.  Hettie advised the next morning that this was a disused clock tower.

It appeared that we were the only people in the Hotel even though a few of the tables had reserved signs on them. We wondered what implications this would have for events and it all started to get weird when Rob tried to order some wine for the meal. Despite a reasonably long wine list it turned out they had no wine! I wandered over to a display near the entrance and although there were wine bottles stacked artistically there it emerged that they were all empties! The only beer they had was Lion Lager!  The food filled a void, but wasn't that flash.

Returning to our room we noticed that the reason for the musty smell was the quantity of salt damp in the walls. The place is really run down.

Bird of the day: Lesser Yellownape

Other vertebrate of the day: Green Forest lizard

Pattern of the day: Sarong worn by owner of the birding site

Bad taste of the day: Indian tourists

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