Sinharaja Forest

My third bus of the day; two bus changes, covering just 120 kms in only 5 1/2 hours! I was so happy to get on this; the third and final leg of today's trip back to Colombo from my weekend at Sinharaja Forest that, had there been any aisle space I would have been compelled to do a 'Bollywood' dance routine up the aisle.

I'm a seasoned bus traveller now, know all the protocols such as the first row of seats are reserved for buddhist monks, the second row of seats for pregnant women or mums with babes in arms and the third row of seats reserved for the disabled. After that it's anyone's............ I love the hawkers who sell peanuts and bhajies etc and always announce themselves in the same manner - they sound similar to auctioneers I think, but instead call out 'Lukalukalukaluka' in a loud, strident voice. And then, how frequently, somebody who is clearly disabled/disadvantaged will embark before a bus leaves (often with a certified sheet of paper confirming their ailment) and give a lengthy spiel to the bus passengers, their audience, then walk down the aisle collecting any monies offered - and it is generally always given, which is nice. It's all become rather enjoyable if I travel light and I was, as I knew I had a 2-3 km walk up the forestry trail ahead of me on my arrival to reach my lodgings for the next 2 nights.

The return leg was by bus but going to Sinharaja forest and Martin's Lodge I'd felt it wiser to hire a driver and suss out the lie of the land first and try to remember the towns we would pass. I guessed that it'd be far easier to explain I wanted to head to Colombo on the way back than it would be to mispronounce the names of three towns on the forward trip. What a good job I did even though it cost $110 as opposed to $1.20 by bus; I would never have found the place and my driver was a wonderful guy, resolving all the usual conflicting advice about where the 2 1/2km forestry track up to Martins Lodge began when we finally reached Sinharaja forest. The last town on the bus route according to my notes which was 'Kalawana' was still well short of Sinharaja itself and I would never have been able to explain or understand how I needed to cover the last stretch so having the driver was good.

I'm back at the Colombo City Hotel for my final night nowand have showered and cleaned up - I arrived to a rainy Capital City last Friday and it wasn't looking any better Saturday morning when we set off for the drive to Sinharaja. It really didn't look good for birding as the sky remained overcast and the walk up to Martins Lodge hadn't produced much birdlife since it was 3pm and not the ideal time of day anyway. I looked forward to an early start on the Sunday birding for all the wet zone endemics in this famous world heritage site. However, it poured all through the night Saturday with thunder claps too - so much so that I was seriously worried that flooding or landslides would hinder me getting back to Colombo for the flight home and I had a restless sleep, Still raining Sunday morning and over breakfast Martin commiserated with me, but then the rain stopped and held off for the most part, long enough for me to bird a trail to the village (3 1/2 kms) taking me back down to the forestry office to pay the daily entrance charge and then back up through the trail I'd used the day before. Still had some downpours between the dry spells so I was rather a drowned rat on my return but the birding has been good and the endemics are reasonably easy to get here. Drying my clothes was a problem in the damp environment but Martins Lodge is fantastic and the food was the best I'd had in Sri Lanka. He has a family of Sri Lanka Blue Magpies (endemic) arrive every morning around 6am to hunt insects around the communal verandah area and they were not at all shy. Also a pair of Sri Lanka Grey Hornbill (endemic) come daily to attack their reflections in the glass window of the bathroom of the cabin I had.

Altogether I got13 endemics here without much effort and the best birding was Monday morning, which dawned dry and sunny, I left the lodge shortly befoe 8am to slowly walk back down the forest trail and onto the village to catch the 10.30am bus, the first of 3 that would take me back to Colombo. On that walk I got a couple of mixed feeding flocks that were just great and the last endemic that wrapped up a great trip overall, has been most fitting as it was one I especially wanted since I'd named the http address of my blog after it - 'eumyias'