Thursday 19 March 2015

Humbled in the Jungle (Sinharajah Forest Reserve)

The Sri Lankan coast was proving far too enjoyable. Beers on the beach, working on our tans, eating super fresh seafood... Bah! I'll take Nix back to the jungle, she loves it there.

The UNESCO listed Sinharaja Forest Reserve is the last main undisturbed area of rainforest in Sri Lanka and sounded to me like the perfect place to end our journey through this magical country.

Upon arriving at our guesthouse (Deniyaya National Motel) in Deniyaya, one of the main towns nestled alongside the forest, the owner, Sidney, immediately shoved us in a tuk-tuk and sent us up the mountain given the day's good weather.

We pulled over on the way up for a couple of photo ops over the gloriously lush mountainside.




We also paused on the way to view this chubby little skink who was very nearly decapitated by some anti-skink hooligan on a motorbike.


And about halfway up we stopped at an old temple to observe more different species of moths than we think we'd collectively seen up to that point in our lives.

Hairy guys.


Horned guys.


These speckled dudes.


Moths on Buddha.


So. Many. Moths.



Sri Lanka engages you with the environment like you never thought that you could be. We're truly in love with this country.

After Mothdom we headed to the top of the mountain and went for a walk through some forest and a tea plantation.


The highlight was finally laying our eyes on the Purple Faced Langurs. These monkeys have thick, woolly fur for the higher altitudes that they live at and I've signed up to become a poacher so that I can take one of them back to Oz to keep me warm in winter.

The following morning we awoke bright and early and headed off in search of a waterfall for our morning bath with directions that went like this - 'take your first right, don't cross the new bridge, cross the stone bridge and then turn right at the concrete building' - oh yeah, doesn't sound very ambiguous at all.

We found the "waterfall" and had the place to ourselves.



Sitting quietly in the cool morning air we heard a Barking Deer barking from somewhere in the scrub and then watched it come down to the water for a drink, watched a giant squirrel cross from one side of the river to the other and watched monkeys bouncing around in the trees. 

We walked back to a chorus of Jungle Fowl making their presence felt and finally caught sight of the Sri Lanka Grey Hornbill. He's a little bit less horny than his more well known relatives but no less cool.

On our final day we again woke early and took a tuk-tuk out to the rainforest on dirt tracks that become increasingly treacherous the closer we got. Half an hour later we'd made it, picked up our guide and off we trekked. 


Wildlife sightings included the Hump-Nosed Lizard,


Green Pit Viper,


"Sri Lankan Kangaroo",


more Purple Faced Langurs and the possum-like Western Giant Squirrel,


and these creepy crawlies.




At the midway point we'd worked up quite a stink so it was time for a dip.


Given this was only the shorter trek and essentially just a taste of the jungle (I can be a good husband sometimes) we then turned around and set a cracking pace back to the exit, the guide was clearly done for the morning.

Speaking with our guesthouse owner I learned about his passion and love for the rainforest and commitment in trying to preserve it for future generations. The threats of over development, government corruption, animal poaching and gem stone trading are but a few of the issues he must attempt to tackle. He's using profits from the accommodation and tours that he offers to fund his campaigning efforts and is in the process of getting all his ducks in a row before tackling the issues head on. 

So, what can you do? Just by staying with Sidney you'll be helping his efforts but if you're looking for a really amazing place to volunteer, helping out at his jungle camp and in the organic garden, get in contact with him and go and spend some time there. You would not regret it - spending days bird and mongoose watching in his garden are reason enough.


And that's the end of our time in a county that delivered everything it said that it would and so, so much more. Lovely people (who have a shared disdain for the "mother country"), phenomenal food, wildlife that you couldn't escape if you wanted to and transport that's so much fun and so ridiculously cheap. Sri Lanka really is the full package and we feel like it's only a matter of time before we return to explore it some more.

Monday 16 March 2015

Life's a Beach (Marakolliya and Mirissa)

You must really feel for us sometimes. It's been a hectic couple of weeks in Sri Lanka - climbing mountains for spectacular vistas, chasing animals around Jungle Book conjuring national parks and traipsing through tea plantations. Never fear, we decided to kick back on the Sri Lankan coastline for a while to recharge the batteries. First stop: Marakolliya Beach.


Awaiting us was the smartest beach bungalow we've stayed in complete with a bathroom trap door, a showerhead made of a shell, polished wood everything and a massive, super comfortable four poster bed.



The nice bungalow came at a cost though - the sWANK dial was turned right up.


The staff had been carefully moulded into droids devoid of anything that resembled a personality, other guests would do absolutely everything within their power to avoid eye contact and communication (f*cking fancy office workers on holiday hey...) and even the dogs were grumpy and ignored our affection enticing whistles, clicks and every other noise that a dog has ever responded to. 

Our days were spent down the beach with Brahminy Kites and the odd Fish-Eagle circling overhead watching us get smashed by waves. The respective highlight and lowlight were Nicola getting smashed so hard by a wave that she swallowed sand and came up to give me a look like 'woah, what just happened, I haven't been smashed that hard by a wave in about 15 years' to then go on to get smashed again three times over and almost give the beach an eyeful in the process, and one dastardly wave pounding me and then sucking my wedding ring clean off my finger. I sold that as, "At least a part of us will forever exist in Sri Lanka now."

We then undertook the gruelling 300m hike to our next accommodation that would be set on a lagoon rich with bird life.


The lagoon left a bit to be desired, as you can see.

It was a fair trade off. Sitting on our balcony we watched this skittish little part rodent, part Chihuahua Mouse Deer creeping around in the garden along with the veritable bird park flying in and out of the trees in front of us.







Spent our nights being watched over by two guard frogs who would scuttle up the wall nightmare inducing Exorcist-style.

And were awoken one morning by an elusive Jungle Fowl crowing (if you can call it that) at the top of his lungs. That awesome little bird has skyrocketed to the top of my favourite birds list and the top of both of our favourite bird noises list. 

Next up was Mirissa, a beach that gets a bad rap from being too touristed and crowded and not worth a visit by any real 'travellers'. However, we quite enjoyed it. Happy Hour beer prices were cheaper than anywhere we've found and that's for a beer with your toes in the sand and the waves literally lapping at your feet.


The free entertainment was world class too watching foreigner upon foreigner who were clearly very inexperienced when it comes to rough seas getting ploughed over and over by massive waves. 'Nix! Look.. Look..', BAMM!

However the key factor that allowed us to look past the recommendation of people we'd met to avoid Mirissa was the potential to see one of Mother Nature's most impressive feats - a Blue Whale. Growing up most kids loved dinosaurs, amazed by the idea of these massive blood thirsty creatures that once roamed the earth. I thought dinosaurs were cool but as far as I was concerned they hadn't existed for millions of years and the closest you would ever come to them was a pile of old bones in a museum. The Blue Whale on the other hand still lurked in the depths of the ocean and seeing an animal that is bigger than a bus, and any dinosaur for that matter, is what truly piqued my interest - I even constructed my thoughts using the word 'piqued' when I was seven years old.

So we signed up for a tour and by 630am set off in search for that serious creature of the deep. 


The boat took an easterly direction along the coast and a few hours passed in which we saw a pod of dolphins (nature's contribution to the sea when it couldn't be bothered making whales any longer) and a handful of flying fish. By this point the entire boat's sea sickness tablets had kicked in and everyone was a drooling, drowsy mess and the boat turned around for home.


The crew then went into overdrive trying to spot one but we saw nothing more than the odd crashing wave give off what looked like a spurt from a whale's blowhole.

The crew announced that you could get half your money back or go for free again tomorrow. The thought of another seven hours at sea, drugged up to her eyeballs, didn't really appeal to Nix so she took the following morning off but my belief that patience and persistence are rewarded meant that I felt I had try again.

Going solo for one of the rare occasions of the past 18 months I headed off, egg rotis in hand, prepared for another fruitless seven hours at sea. The boat headed straight out into the depths with the crew desperately hoping that it would get paid today. We pushed through rougher seas than the day before and one bloke spent the whole time bringing up his dinner and breakfast as I chowed down on my roti but despite seeing those effing dolphins again we had no success until we'd almost made it back to the port. 


A group of boats were huddled around something and were very excitedly pointing and snapping photos and I thought this was my big moment. We edged closer, trying to keep a reasonable distance between us and whatever had been spotted, to finally lay our eyes on...........a Whale Shark. Oh come on... Really? Are you taking the p*ss now ocean? 

All of these people leaning out of the boat to see a Whale Shark. Haven't you been to that still unnamed island in the Philippines where they congregate in a group of 20? Sheesh. I received the whale booby prize.

And that was it, I arrived back at the port having spent 14 hours at sea to no avail. 

The consolation was Nix's refund went towards a Red Snapper for dinner that blew our socks off. Cooked and spiced to perfection it made the Blue Whale nonevent much easier to swallow.


After a week and a half at the beach I felt it was my obligation to take Nix back to one of her favourite places.

Thursday 12 March 2015

Bundala National Park, Bird Nerd's Wet Dream

The alarm goes off at 4.45am, time for some extreme birding action at Bundala NP.

Despite not being known for non-bird sightings we still spotted an elephant on his morning stroll and nom,


land monitors and a baby land monitor,


heaps of grey langurs and toque macaques and


crocodiles.


But the birds were where it was at.

Nicola weed a little bit when she saw her first purple marsh hen. "Look, it's a purple marsh hen" she beamed as she just about fell out of the car.


Spoonbills have been declared as soooo 2014 as well - Asian Open-Bills are the bird of 2015.


We also spied our first and only Sri Lankan Jungle Fowl, the country's national bird. Google it, it's like the coolest rooster that you've never seen.

Other bird and scenery highlights were the following.

Purple Heron with
a fish in its throat





The early start and breakfast consisting of an omelette in white bread were worth it.  Bundala NP was much more peaceful than Yala NP and a nice note to end our run of nationals parks on.

HOWEVER, the animals experiences didn't end there. To access Yala and Bundala NPs we stayed at a super smart little guesthouse called River Face Inn (www.yalariverfaceinn.com) that's set on the river and was essentially a mini national park in itself.

Over breakfast and during the day we spotted heaps of palm squirrels, Sri Lanka's national animal the giant squirrel, tortoises, a snake, land monitors, heaps of birds and at night thousands of fruit bats would fly overhead in search of that night's dinner. The food and staff were also brilliant and made for one of the best accommodations we've stayed at.

Bird Nerd Notes

Asian Open-Bill
Black Headed Ibis
Black-Crowned Nightheron
Black-Winged Stilt
Bluetailed Bee-Eater
Brown-Capped Woodpecker
Cattle Egret
Chestnut-Headed Bee-Eater
Cormorant
Eurasian Spoonbill
Great Thick-Knee
Greater Coucal
Green Imperial Pigeon
Grey Heron
Grey-Headed Fish-Eagle
Indian Peafowl
Indian Pond Heron
Intermediate Egret
Lesser Whistling Duck
Little Green Bee-Eater
Orange-Breasted Green Pigeon
Oriental Darter
Oriental Magpie-Robin
Painted Stalk
Pheasant-Tailed Jacana
Pied Kingfisher
Purple Heron
Purple Swamphen
Red-Wattled Lapwing
Spot-Billed Pelican
Sri Lanka Jungle Fowl
Sri Lanka Spurfowl
White-Throated Kingfisher
Yellow-Wattled Lapwing