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

Read on

 

April 27: Gardens and Tooth Temple

Morning, visit Peradeniya Botanical Gardens, the largest and finest garden in Sri Lanka, covering almost 150 acres and stuffed with a bewildering variety of local and foreign tree and plant species. The area around the entrance is largely given over to small- scale flora, including an orchid house, a spice garden and a tiny rather unimpressive Japanese Garden. Afternoon, visit Temple of the Sacred Tooth Relic, Kandy, which is an object of veneration to Buddhists and the most important sacred relic in the country. Also do a city tour.

While I have tried to reduce the volume of this post by putting many images in special posts it is still pretty big.  Sorry (well not really, it is a lovely town).

After the drama of the previous day this one dawned most peacefully.  I think I had the best nights sleep of the trip so far.  Rob had a good enough kip that he went for a run, spotting our driver washing the van en route.  We went for breakfast in a rather plush area:

Some other photographs of the dining arrangements at the Citadel are on the food page.

Our replacement guide, Nandana – referred to, at his invitation, as Nanda – fronted at 9am to take us around the Kandy Botanic Gardens.  Before we got there we passed some wedding houses where the rich of Kandy were marrying off their kids.  This was pretty spectactular!  Most of the images are in a special page, but here is a taster

 I have little idea why all this stuff was going on at 9:30am on a Saturday - but it did mean mean we could pass on the evening cultural extravaganza, having seen the real deal.

The gardens are rather large – about 150 Ha – and seemed to be set up for a number of purposes .  Most of the specimens are well labelled (a major lesson for ANBG) and the colour of the label indicated key attributes (green being for medically important plants. Unfortunately when Nanda explained this I was distracted by the behaviour of a bunch of Middle Eastern Yoicks who were behaving like stereotyped yoicks who have escaped from the doctrinaire minders i.e. disgracefully (see below).

I questioned the labelling of a Queensland Kauri Pine, thinking it was a misprint of NZ Kauri.  Uncle Google assures me the Sri Lankans had got it right.  Various birds were heard and a few seen.  We also found a large colony of Flying Foxes which were the likely source of the flock seen flying up the river past the hotel.

I will confess to being very slack and not recording the full details of everything we saw.  I do know that the first two images are of the Cannonball tree - so named because the fruit from these flowers resemble those weapons.

This is the whole tree:

and here is a sign commemorating the planting of one.

Some other flowers were recorded:

as was a turtle (in life, its neck had pretty orange spots - these may be visible in an enlarged image)

The others went to a jewellery workshop while I stayed outside to photograph the chaos on the street.

 We then returned to the Hotel for a bit of R&R before heading out again for a City Tour to check the Tooth Shrine and various commercial establishments.  And the Kandy Cricket Ground.

The tooth shrine was quite excellent with many interesting statues and carvings.  Most of the images are in a special page.  It is also an active place of worship: at one point we got slightly muddled with the queue to go and view the casket in which the tooth is stored.  At the entrance Nanda pointed out how and where terrorists had reacted to that by using a lorry bomb in 1998.  While there were a few other tourists around the majority of the folk in the Temple seemed to be ordinary Sri Lankans doing their religious observances, or children being educated

which I see as making the place far more interesting than just an historic ruin.

Here are a few images to give an idea of the place.

 This third image shows the votive offerings left by people seeking the assistance of the Buddha (eg in recovering from illness) .

 There were animals around the place.  Some cute

while others such as the inhabitants of this wasps nest are neither cute nor welcome.

After spending the time there we headed off for the city tour.  I got things off on a reasonable footing by acquiring an extra pendrive since I had filled the 2Gb one I was using to back up my photographs.  I lost a few points with Nanda by paying too much for it (1500R rather than 1000R) but it was generally agreed that the shopkeeper could see that he was going to sell me one anyway so I was in a poor haggling position!

The next stop was a Batik factory and retail emporium.  A very nice young lady explained how batik is made and then conducted us to the showroom where we could buy some of the produce.  Frances obliged in a moderately large way (getting a special discount - ie the one given to everyone who doesn't actually beat up the employees of the place).

 Next door to this was a wood products factory in which we were shown the various types of wood used (most of which we had seen growing in the morning) were able to seen the craftsmen creating stuff and were then given a demonstration of the properties of rainbow wood.  Some wood was given a good rasping and the shavings treated with various liquids which changed colour dramatically.  Proving that everything is on the internet You-tube has a video of a similar demonstration plus text of the various things added.

 After acquiring some additional drinking water we visited another important site for Sri Lankans: the Kandy Cricket Ground at which test matches are played.  It is the home of the Old Trinitonians  (I think - it might have been the Old Trininians although the Upper Sixth were unfortunately not seen).  The ground was rather small - I think the capacity was 5,000 and for a Test the tickets cost $50 a head.  This was a strange visit as the entrance we used was a building site and I am sure we would not have wandered in without a local guide and Nanda would probably have been told to go away if he didn't have foreigners with him!  The action on the ground was training for the local hockey teams.

 Street cricket was also happening. Robs photo (1st)  and mine (2nd) capture the poetry in motion of the game.

According to the posters around town Rugby was also popular!

In the evening I decided that a bottle of refreshing beverage from the minibar would be in order.  Using the hotel wall mounted opener I managed to wrench the top off the bottle.  A call to the receptionist resulted in a man coming to inspect situation and another beng despatched with a replacement bottle.  The man with the replacement looked very dubiously at the opener and used it very carefully to avoida repeat.  All done very pleasantly and efficiently.

That evening as we were finishing our meal Nanda turned up at the table saying he had found a Collared Scops Owl in a tree outside the Hotel.  It would have been discourteous of me to not go to look, plus they are cute little birds!  He does everything he can to show us stuff.

Bird of the day:  Indian Shag

Other vertebrate of the day:  Flying Fox

Pattern of the day:  Tooth Temple generally

Bad taste of the day:  The behaviour of some middle-Eastern-ancestry yoicks at the entrance to the Botanic Gardens.


There were a couple of strong contenders who walked the red carpet in category 4.  These were:

• a pair of tennis shoes with 6" high soles seen at the Gardens and 
• the question - fortunately not heard by Nanda - "How long does a tooth last?"

Read on

April 28: Rock Fortress

After breakfast leave for Amaya Lake, Dambulla for three nights. Afternoon, visit Sigiriya Rock Fortress, which was the pleasure capital of a single king called Kashyapa in the 5Th centuries A.D.

I started the day with a 30 minute run along the road from the Hotel.  This basically followed the River and was thus pretty flat.  One place had some large guard dogs who went ballistic, giving the local street dogs bad ideas.  I reverted to Bali mode, scooping my hand along the road  as though picking up a rock while the locals who observed the situation went a little further: yelling at the dogs and casting that all important first rock!

As always the driving was very interesting as we go through a lot of towns and villages with interesting stuff going on.  The driving isn't fast - if Sri Lankans drove at Australian speeds the death toll (both human and canine) would be horrendous - but if all interesting things were stopped for I suspect we wouldn't have got out of Colombo in the first week!

The town of Arakuna was notable for a very high Islamic population: approximately 75% of the residents are of that religious group.  I picked up comments from a couple of folk that they were not a popular group within the general community.  This seemed to relate to them having a lot of money and using it to gradually establish closed communities.  (The source of the money was subject to some speculation.)

A little later we came to a large Hindu temple to which we were taken.  Shoes off quick smart and one of the locals attached himself to us as an interpretive guide.  Obviously both of these events led to a few rupees disappearing (as well as the formal entrance fee).

Another local - I believe to be the main priest of the temple - was busy adding good karma to the vehicle of a learner driver,  I don't know whether this was immediately before the driving test was taken or just general prophylactic chanting and laying on of charms.  A Rob photo.

The principle God at this temple was Murga, although Ganesa (which seemed to be the preferred local transliteration) was very evident and both Shiva and Vishnu were represented.  I enquired about the whereabouts of Kali (I was particularly hoping to seek her intervention in the fortunes of an AFL team) and was told that she is very aggressive so cannot be allowed in the same temple as other Gods.  In Australia this would earn a rating of "Does not play well with others." and might suggest that she has been adopted as the unofficial mascot of said team.

Most of the images are on their own page but as usual here are a few favourites.

A tad further up the road we went to a spice garden where a very knowledgeable guide told us a lot of things about spices and gave us a run down of the medicines and herbal products available there.  Cloves are known as the dentist as they are good for everything to do with teeth while nutmeg is in some way the active ingredient in the mace spray.  We got a massage using some of the products and then a chance to buy them.  The massage oils seemed pretty good so a (rather expensive) sample was acquired.  Here they are being tested.

The following images are of things seen along the way which interested me.

The temple gate is an interesting design.  However what gets this image in the post is the different roles of the laity, busy with the paint brushes, and the supervising monk!

This is the flower of Sri Lanka's National Tree, Mesua ferrea.  It is a rainforest species, but in this case was growing near the temple.

 I have included this here as these small tractors are everywhere, doing everything from pulling carts slowly along the road (with headlights but no tail lights which can make night-time driving a challenge) to cultivating the rice paddies.  The reason for the long handlebars is to allow for cultivation fittings to be installed when the trailer is removed.

 I had thought these were Papayas but Nanda advised they were cucumbers.  The angle of the tray suggests a visit to a shock-absorber vendor might be in order!

We ended at the nominated Hotel after getting some further fuel (diesel at 115.2R or about $A0.95 per litre).  It is pretty magnificent with a very large large lake at the end of the lawn.  There were notices on the lawn saying it was dangerous to swim in the lake: this didn't seem to bother the many villagers bathing and doing the laundry a few hundred metres away.

In the afternoon we went to the Sigiriya Rock Fortress.  En route some birding was done, finally scoring the endemic Sri Lankan Woodshrike.  

As there is a fair narrative to this set and the images are interesting I have included them here rather than on a separate page..  As we got closer the size and steepness of the rock became more apparent 

and the silhouette of part of the climb - note bottom LHS of the main rock face - was rather daunting.  

The site was surrounded by moats with the sign "Dangerous to bathe crocodiles go about." fairly prominent.

To begin with the climb was up steps until we got to a metal spiral staircase (visible above the yellow wall)

leading up to some murals.  

 The staircase going up was quite OK, but the one coming down had a fair bit of air underneath in places.  Keep looking inwards seemed to be one solution (adopted by me) , while Carol's approach is to look up at the photographer (Rob)! 

There was a long rock face to be crossed and from the ground one could easily see a set of planks with rope cables on the outside going past the face.  

That turned out to be where workers maintaining the outside of a wall - known as the mirror wall - earned their rice and curry.  I was extremely pleased that we walked on solid rock inside the wall to a spot known as the Lions Paw due to a bit of sculpture at that point.

Beside the paws was an interesting sign: "in the case of wasp attack stand still and keep quiet".  We then started to climb the very exposed metal steps - shown above - with a number of very large wasp nests hanging off the rock alongside.  Nanda commented to some noisy tourists that if the wasps come they will want to jump straight down.  We got to the top where there were a large number of schoolchildren and (as for everywhere) a happy seeming dog!  

Also a soaring Shaheen Falcon.  The view was rather excellent and the amount of human effort involved in carting the bricks up to the top was astonishing.

 This large rock was near the bottom.  Clearly it has just dropped off the cliff beside it!

On the way back we swung into a Cargills store to buy some beer.  This involved going to a separate part of the store up stairs accompanied by locals carrying empties.  Carol was the only female in the place and scored a few stares for her trouble.  It was all very easy going however, and the price were a lot lower than the hotel.  The guy behind me in the line had a polo shirt emblazoned with Rough Club and when I asked if this was a Rugby Club he replied that he didn't know the sport, he just wore the shirt: this got a lot of laughter from everyone.

We got back to the hotel - after some of us, in the more forward seats, saw an Indian Palm Cat run across the road.  We were in time for a swim before dinner.  The meal was pretty good with the usual buffet of European and Sri Lankan dishes.  This was accompanied by a three person band playing Sri Lankan music which was a nice touch.  Less nice was a male European person - accompanied by a very strange looking European woman - who was a complete chain smoker.  My guess is that he smoked approximately 5 cigarettes an hour.  When he left a sign saying "Reserved"  and naming him was visible through the cloud of fumes.  

Bird of the Day:  Shaheen Falcon
Other vertebrate of the Day:  General award (sort of triptime achievment).
Pattern of the day: those in the Hindu temple
Bad Taste of the day:  The Smoker

A strong contender for BTATD was a European "lass" on the top of Sigiriya who I decided was the winner of the award for "Miss Road Safety 2012 (Air Bags Division).   Steamy spectacles were put down to the toughness of the climb despite some alternative explanations.  A far more modest young European lady wearing a red sari in the dining area looked so good and was so obviously delighted with her attire that she was given a new award for Good Taste of the day.  In this case steamy spectacles were put down to some rather spicy curries.

Read on