I love it here! Breakfast was a very splendid affair: huge plate of fruit, lovely tea (obviously), huge full English breakfast with not one, but two perfectly fried eggs, all served outside in glorious sunshine to the sound of Ceylon hanging parrots in the tree tops. Brilliant.
After breakfast we borrowed a couple of mountain bikes and took ourselves off on a tour of the tea plantation. So many smiling faces everywhere we went. Literally everyone we saw said hello, or goodbye, or gave us a wave, or honked their car horns. Okay, so a few of the kids did say 'money', but hey, you can't blame them for trying their luck. Sometimes it probably pays off. We gave them short shrift, however. They smiled all the same.
The sun was fierce, so by the time we got back to the bungalow my legs had been thoroughly toasted. On the plus side, thanks to our exertions on the bike ride we were both ready to face to cool of the swimming pool. We both read a bit on our sun loungers and then took the plunge. Yes, it was colder than we had been expecting, but swimming a few lengths beneath the enormous stand of giant bamboo was wonderfully refreshing.
After our swim we ate a lovely three course lunch and then set of for the third bout of exercise of the day, a leisurely 12 km walk to the Castlereagh bungalow, where we had arranged to have high tea.
The walk was lovely, with plenty to captivate the senses: excitable kids desperately calling from hillside houses in the hopes of getting a wave in return; tea pickers busily going about their business; friendly tuk-tuk drivers offering us lifts and tea bushes as far as he eye can see. All too easy to forget that tea plantations are a biodiversity disaster, they look so beautiful. We saw several more species to add to the wildlife list. The highlight was surely a green forest lizard basking at the side of the road on some equally green vegetation. A brilliant spot, which resulted in several equally brilliant photos.
At Castlereagh we bumped into Johnny again and the three of us chatted for a while over high tea. Johnny reckons that if I want to present documentaries about wildlife then I should just start making my own films. Turns out he works for the Telegraph and is currently working on a piece about sea planes in Sri Lanka. Interesting bloke.
We got a lift back to the bungalow for around 6.30 pm and have been sitting in the lounge drinking Jack Daniels and coke and writing our diaries. Johnny is joining us for dinner.
Dinner was delicious, as expected. We had requested that the chef prepare a Sri Lankan feast for us and he didn't disappoint. We had spicy chicken curry, baby jackfruit curry, fish curry, aubergine curry, fresh poppadoms, boiled rice and even buffalo curd. Yum. We gorged ourselves.
Johnny was great company and full of stories. Turns out his wife was a personal trainer and co-author of 'The Crunch', a best-selling fitness book. Johnny was saying how much he had enjoyed the walk down to Castlereagh earlier today and that, presumably on the back of this, he was toying with the idea of setting up a blog called 'Walking Plus' which would deal with different walks around the world in terms of the layers of history involved in the walk, the sites seen along the way and the personal experience of walking the walk. Sounds like a great idea to me!
We adjourned to the living room where the staff had lit a somewhat feeble fire. Luckily Johnny was on hand, as a self-confessed pyromaniac, to get the blaze going properly. There was another couple sitting on one of the sofas who had arrived earlier today. He was Japanese and she was Korean, but grew up in the States. Interestingly they both live in Afghanistan, one managing UN donations and the other helping to promote peace. It was fascinating hearing their description of life in Afghanistan. I can't imagine living long term in such a controlled environment. Perhaps this is why they have done so much travelling this year. They reeled off a list if countries that most people would be lucky to visit in a lifetime. Anyway, between us, them and Johnny there was plenty of common ground and we chatted away until 1 am, with the all-inclusive alcohol flowing steadily. The most entertaining topic of conversation was when the Korean girl started explaining that YouTube is banned in Afghanistan, so they had totally missed all the hype about 'Gangnam Style', a dance hit by the Korean musician Psy, which has taken the Internet by storm. They had obviously seen all the videos by now and it was god to get a Korean perspective (albeit from a Korean who grew up in San Fransisco).
Today's list is pretty impressive:
- Ceylon hanging parrot
- scaly-breasted munia (nesting at Norwood)
- common skink (Mabuya carinata)
- Ceylon white eye
- great tit(!)
- blue-tailed bee-eater
- Loten's sunbird
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