Hot, humid and very wet rain forest of Sinharaja

Sunday, February 25, 2018
Sri Lanka
Time to leave Ella and negotiate the continuous twisting switch back roads down from the highlands.  There was rain in the air for the first time during our trip and low clouds hugged the landscape.  Our destination is the Sinharaja Forest, Sri Lanka's most important biodiversity hotspot but despite this it is one of the least visited!  As the guide book suggests walking through a hot steamy jungle inhabited by lots of creepy crawlies, leeches and snakes, is not everyone's idea of a fun day out!  But we are hoping to see some of the wide variety of birds that inhabit the forest and experience that jungle vibe.   We are staying at what could be a very special hotel, could be because it's set amidst boulders and a cliff overhang where the restaurant is set out. Our room and the location is lovely but it has seen better days and is poorly maintained, one feels the jungle taking over!  Apparently it was designed by a well known Australian architect and you can see the attention to detail.  Just to add to the jungle feel it's been thundering and pouring down all afternoon. There is nowhere other than our cave like room to sit so we are roaming in gloaming, well just relaxing .
We'll be up and out to the forest early in the morning for our next adventure.......encounters with ?? 
Dawn was breaking  as we drove to the forest. This is a really beautiful rural area of Sri Lanka and we were looking forward to our hike in the forest where it rains most afternoons so an early morning visit is the best time.  I decided to purchase some canvas leech protection gaiters  but not  Mike, even though he was just wearing sandals!!  A guide is obligatory but that was good as he was really knowledgeable and we spent nearly 5hours hiking and looking out for jungle inhabitants many endemic to Sri Lanka or in some cases just this rain forest.  Birds are so difficult to spot as they flit about but we did find a mixed variety feeding flock which apparently is a birders dream!  Our guide pointed out so many varieties but unfortunately pics were very difficult and we only got one really good photo that was quite a rare bird so we were happy.  We hiked to the oldest tree in the forest which is 500 years old and now sadly weeping  sap and dying and there perched ready for a photo shoot was the  Sri Lankan blue magpie.  A curious bird like our magpies but far more beautiful. Top photos Mike!  Our guide scrambled through the undergrowth to find the pair of nocturnal frogmouths and we scrambled after him.  A bit like a small owl and so cute. A great find.  Also we saw some beautiful butterflies.  One endemic variety was just gliding through the trees and  almost translucent.
Feeling wacked, hot, sweaty and hungry it was back to Boulder Garden before the heavens opened to an almighty topical 4hr downpour and more "cave" time. Plus Mike with bloody feet from the blood sucking leeches that penetrated his sandles and socks
Tomorrow we leave the wet zone and travel east to the hot dry lowlands and Yala National Park.

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