Stanley has made it clear that it is entirely up to us where we go, which is great, and he has already made some suggestions as to how we might fill our time over the next day or so, all of which sound ideal.
As we drove along the Kandy road, I was amazed to see a whole colony of absolutely colossal fruit bats flying over a stand of palm trees and the surrounding paddy fields - at 9 am! We have seen fruit bats plenty of times in other countries, but these just be the biggest I have ever seen, coming close to being the size of a turkey vulture in flight. Amazing. According to my mammal guide book they were Indian flying foxes (Pterops giganteus), which have an average wingspan of 1.2 m. We actually saw one flying along Galle Face last night as we were eating the kottu.
We just stopped of for some pineapple from one of many stalls lining the road. They are in season right now and very tasty. We were impressed by the knife skills of the seller, who made cutting up a pineapple look like child's play.
Our main plan for today was to visit the Pinnewala Elephant Orphanage. Trip Advisor and Lonely Planet both present mixed views of this place, but we found it to be nothing short of wonderful. We parked up around 11am, in time to watch the daily bathing session. Stanley bought our tickets for us (2,000 LKR each) and we wandered down to the river where we were greeted by the awe-inspiring sight of around 50 Indian elephants in the water. The herd comprised mostly mothers and their calves, but there were a couple of enormous bulls there two. The youngsters were having the time of their lives rolling around in the water! It was such a privilege to get so close to so many of these magnificent creatures. I imagine it is only possible because they are habituated to humans, as most of the adults will have been brought up by mahouts from a young age as a result of coming to the sanctuary as orphans. Since then the elephants have been breeding on site and the numbers have risen considerably.
After the bathing session, all 45 elephants were paraded down the street, across the road and back into the sanctuary. We followed them in and got to see two incredibly sweet baby elephants, both under a year old. I was also invited to get up close and personal with one 65 year old bull elephant with huge tusks, who had been in the orphanage for many years and was sadly blind in both eyes. It was both terrifying and exhilarating to touch such a large mammal. I kept thinking he might forget I was there and sit on me or something. A brilliant experience.
After the elephants we drove halfway to our hotel and then stopped for a bite to eat by the side of a reservoir. We were serenaded by palm squirrels as we demolished an omelette and yet more amazing curry. As we were eating I spotted a large water monitor swimming through the water. I went down the bank to photograph him as he reached the shore, but he saw me and disappeared under water. Missed my chance.
A few hours later we arrived at the dirt road leading to Vil Uyana, which is to be our home for the next two nights. We have been expecting great things and we have not been disappointed. This place is my idea of heaven: luxurious wooden apartments raised up on stilts and connected by waterways over water and paddy fields. We have a split level apartment complete with plunge pool, balcony over the water, walk-in shower, huge stone bath etc. Amber is in her element. On the way to the entrance, Stanley spotted a green vine snake. I was gutted to miss it, but have resolved to see one at some point. The note in the room and the information boards dotted along the pathways both state that this species and several others are commonly seen here. The signs are good: We went for a late afternoon stroll and saw plenty of snake trails. We even saw a mongoose, which has to be a good sign that there are snakes around!
After our walk around the complex we had a brief dip in the plunge pool, ate our congratulatory cake from the hotel, supped some champagne, and then sat down to write our diaries. Whilst writing this entry on our balcony I have seen a whole bunch of bats foraging, including more flying foxes. I have also been treated to a spectacular chorus of frogs and geckos.
In 15 minutes' time, we are going out to meet the resident naturalist, who will be taking us on a night walk through the forest for a spot of loris watching. I can't wait.
Okay, so we didn't see any grey slender lorises, which was a shame, but on the plus side it meant that we weren't charged for the tour. This despite the fact that we saw plenty of other cool animals including, to my surprise, an otter! Somehow Sri Lanka has the same species of otter that we have in the UK (I know, it makes no sense to me either) and as serendipity would have it, I spotted one swimming in a forest pool. This probably counts as one of the weirdest wildlife moments I've had in recent years, given that I have been involved in otter survey in England and never seen an otter there. We also saw several butterflies, a few sleeping birds (Indian pitta and white-browed bulbul), a Blanford's rat, a couple of toads and (to my joy) a male green tree lizard sleeping on a large leaf. Not a bad haul for an hour spent wandering a forest trail in the dark equipped with red-light head torches. I was impressed with our guide's animal spotting skills, so although we didn't pay the full cost of the tour ($30 each), we still tipped him 2,000 LKR for his time.
It's a nice thing they are doing for the lorises actually. Instead of building more hotel accommodation, the owner has agreed to set aside the area of forest where the lorises are found as a loris conservation area.
The night hike left us ready for dinner, which was well presented if somewhat mediocre in taste - a sort of weird European-Asian fusion. It didn't quite deliver all it promised to, although the cup of tea at the end was excellent. This ambience of the restaurant certainly wasn't helped by the amateur fumblings of their live musician who, as backdrop to our meal, performed an original composition on his sitar that I can only describe as 'tuning up'. In a bid to avoid listening to any more of his epic performance, I am sorely tempted to opt to have dinner delivered to our room tomorrow!
It has been an amazing couple of days for wildlife sightings. Here is the list of everything we could ID:
- Indian elephant
- palm squirrel
- yellow-billed babbler
- Indian roller
- water monitor
- garden lizard
- brahminy kite
- Bengal monitor
- white-breasted water hen
- Indian pitta
- Ceylon swallow
- white browed bulbul
- red-vented bulbul
- Asian paradise flycatcher
- common myna
- yellow-wattled lapwing
- red-wattled lapwing
- Indian peafowl
- black-headed ibis
- grey heron (seen first in Colombo)
- little egret
- cattle egret
- Indian pond heron
- spot-billed pelican
- little cormorant
- Asian openbill
- painted stork (seen in Colombo)
- house crow (seen first in Colombo)
- rock python (seen with snake charmers yesterday and today)
- spectacled cobra (seen with snake charmers yesterday and today)
- purple-rumped sunbird
- green forest lizard
- white throated kingfisher
- pied kingfisher
- spotted dove
- rose-ringed parakeet
- Brooke's house gecko (pictured below)
- otter
- short-nosed fruit bat
- ruddy mongoose
- Blanford's rat
- crested porcupine (family pets at side of Kandy road)
- Indian burrowing frog (Sphaerotheca breviceps)
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