In jungle paradise - on boat safari 2

Inserting Simon's images shortly

In jungle paradise - Gal Oya on boat safari

13-5-1 - Sunday 5th March

Bidding our new friends Ann & Kinnaird goodbye as they too set off on the next stage of their Sri Lankan adventure, with the trusty Sumith at the wheel we left the beautiful Stafford Bungalow and drove due east from Rafaela to Bobile in the direction of Rantambe reservoir. Our three hour trip took us via Walapane arriving at Gala Oya Lodge just outside Gala Oya National Park in the Eastern Province, starting at Stafford Bungalow it was 12º when we arrive at Gala Oya it is 33º.


On the way down the hill from Stafford Bungalow we spot water and land monitors, on the roadside, and Sumith explains that water monitors have yellow rings in bands going down their bodies. We chuckle remembering the Rudyard Kipling poem Rikki-Tikki-Tavi, of our childhood, when we actually get a good view of a mongoose for the first time.

After driving for three hours Sumith started to warn us very seriously about the dangers of being bitten by snakes, the need to wear boots when walking along the lodge paths, especially at night and if it is raining. We were not really prepared for our arrival at Gala Oya, which we now know lies at the end of an unmarked narrow lane. All of a sudden Sumith pulled the car to a halt on a wide, sparsely populated road. It looked an unlikely location for a forest lodge. Then he pointed to a large jeep vehicle parked in a narrow lane entrance. Two smiling green shirted young men emerged and transferred our luggage to their jeep. They greeted us enthusiastically and as the jeep drove the unpromising narrow lane, edged with tall impenetrable grass into the jungle, the main road and the safety of Sumith seemed to close behind us.

However quickly enough the jeep parked up and after a short walk along a soil track lined with cream hurricane lamp stations we emerged unexpectedly into a dramatic clearing - revealing a dramatically positioned infinity pool. Facing it a large thatched straw roofed hut. It was teaming with activity. Smiling staff handed us cool damp face cloths and a welcome chilled and refreshing lime juice hi ball. We were restored!



The manager, Phil a Canadian botanist, greeted us enthusiastically. He explained that not only was Gal Oya an award winning eco hotel, set in the jungle, that they carry out academic research, have four resident full time naturalists, and that he has a specialist interest in fishing cats. Shortly afterwards having unpacked and enjoyed a lunch of chilled curried beetroot soup we were en-route for a water safari led by one of the Gala Oya resident naturists, in the reserve, about a forty minute drive away.



As we sat in the jeep on the way to the reserve I felt so hot I thought I must resemble melted butter - I felt I was simply going to melt and disappear, running down and out of the jeep! The melting process proved a worthwhile sacrifice however - clambering on board a boat we set off across an enormous reservoir, binoculars at the ready.



With our naturalist Amon we stopped at various islands to view the wild life. The spotting went on constantly - the highlights being fresh water crocodiles, herds of elephants and eagles. I am going to posts some of Simon’s close-ups in the next post, but in the meantime am just going to content myself with a list of “what we spotted!!”

After a couple of hours spotting we pulled the boat up onto the shore, just downwind of a herd of elephants. We stopped for chilled beers and lime juice. One elephant came quite close to the water's edge near us, we were still, aware that though they suffer from very poor eyesight they sense movement through their feet. This is why when the terrible 2004 tsunami struck mostly the elephants survived as they had sensed the vibrations of the wave, and had already moved back from the shore edge before the water hit.

Returning to Gala Oya Lodge, we were restored from our melted butter stage by more welcome cool drinks, and later we enjoyed a wonderful dinner from the erie of the elevated dining room which perches above the bar reception looking towards the pool.


Escorted back along paths through the jungle to our bungalow by torch carrying staff, we slept fitfully under mosquito nets aware that our land safari started the next day at 5.30am.


Here's a list of what we spotted on March 5th:

Brahmin Kites, Ceylon Green- Pigeon, Curlew, Crimson backed Flameback, Egrets, Eagles - fish, sea, crested serpent; Green Bee Easters, Green footed pigeon,

Herons - white, small, grey, night; Ibis, Indian Pea fowl, Jungle fowl, Lapwings, Little Cormorant, Lesser Adjutant, Malabar Hornbill, Oriole, Painted Storks, Painted Frangolin, Parakeets Layard, Red Woodpeckers,

Elephants family groups, Fresh water Crocodiles, Feral cattle, Water buffaloes

Travelling with my Trusty Tribly

As many of you know I have a website too, for my millinery work, which I update regularly.

I have just posted a blog on my millinery website about the travels of my trusty trilby around SL, the blog post includes a few more images, of its progress around the island.

Just in case you would like to take a look, here's the link to my website itself https://www.margaretwoodliffwright.com.

Meanwhile if you would like to see the progress of my trusty trilby, this is the link to the blog post itself where there are more images of the trilby's progress around southern Sri Lanka

https://www.margaretwoodliffwright.com/blogs/news/me-my-hat-sri-lankan-adventures-with-my-hat-2

Heading for the Plains

12-4-3 Saturday March 4th

Sumith organised for us to leave Stafford Bungalow at 5.30am - so we had a lovely drive into the breaking dawn through sleepy nearby Rafaela towards Nuwara Eliya - the so-called City of Light. 

As we climbed up the hill and out of the valley the dramatic dawn broke - the golden glow punctuated with dark puffy strands of cloud is layered into the pale turquoise skies. The road was quiet just a few locals muffled against the cold early morning waiting for their work pickups.   

We stopped briefly at the impressively posh The Grand Hotel in Nuwara Eliya, previously the governor's mansion, and then drove upwards to the UNESCO world heritage site national park at Horton Plains.

Just short of the highest railway station in Sri Lanka we stop for roti, chilli paste and sweet tea for breakfast, at a road side cafe Sumith liked. Poor Sumith, he had already had to change a puncture and so we left the tyre there at the cafe in case of further disasters! We noticed that Sumith is really keen on taking photos of us! 

As the road climbed steadily between the villages we spot tree ferns, rhododendrons and fine eucalyptus groves. As we climb up to the plains we stop at the view point to look across to the Peak Pedro, the highest peak of Sri Lanka, and spot tree ferns level with us and hand long giant millipedes. 

Once we got to Horton Plains, Sumith led us on a fantastic circular walk through meadows and cloud forests to waterfall and viewpoints, at 7000' feet. Here he is, wrapped up against the cold, pointing out the view points on the route.

View of Adam's Peak the fourth highest peak in Sri Lanka. 

When we weren't admiring the spectacular views we had time to see the national animals of Sri Lanka - the jungle fowl and the giant squirrel - not to mention the white eye and yellow earred bulbul, red tit, and sambar deer. We stopped for photographs at Martin's pool and Bakers Fall. 

As we walked up the hill from Baker's Falls, we were met by one of Sumith's fellow guides who had spotted a miniature rhino horn lizard in the undergrowth just before Baker's Fall.

And finally below the spectacular view from Little World's End - 700' drop to the valley below.

During the course of our walk we saw all four of the highest mountains of Sr Lanka, and as we drove out of the park were delighted to see a group of Samba deer by the road.

We stopped for tea on the way up to the Plains and again on the way down. On the way up we had just driven through a sensational dawn and on the way down after a great walk around the plains to "World's End" we stopped again - the second time it was chucking it down with rain. The rain lay in huge red swirling pond like puddles. The pattern of the weather since we got to the tea country had been a fine sunny warm morning followed by torrential rain in the afternoon. 

We discovered today that Sumith whose surname we had understood until now was Graph, in fact bears the impressive surname of Samaradiwakara. He is an impressive chap all round. Despite feeling the chill of the cool mornings up in the hill country he led us on a brilliant walk and looked after us very capably. 

Home then to a Stafford Bungalow welcome, and a great dinner with Ann & Kinnaird. 

The staff at Stafford Bungalow are wonderfully attentive and pay great attention to detail at the Bungalow, where service is paramount. One little delightful touch is that every night, for instance, a member of staff would enquire during dinner, if you would like a hot water bottle. Awaiting you in bed after a delicious dinner was a miniature hot water bottle which warmed the sheets beautifully, another delightful touch. 

The sign for the Stafford estate.

Exploring the surrounds of Nuwara Eliya

11-4-2 Friday March 3rd

We set off bright an early before breakfast from Stafford Bungalow, the fourth of our temporary homes, to explore the local area. Walking up the main drive we soon struck off the lane and were immediately surrounded by tea country, as we followed one of the many well trodden tea workers tracks that criss cross the hillsides we were absorbed into the landscape of rows of neatly planted tea bushes.

Chaumi the "maitre de" from Stafford Bungalow, was our guide, to we were immediately immersed in the local environment, including meeting a group of smiling villagers. We have been struck by the good humour and positive welcome extended by the people of Sri Lanka, who seem to smile with their entire faces, up to and with their eyes.

Chaumi was our guide for the walk through the tea country and villages.

When we got back to the bungalow we were greeted with glasses of cucumber and mint juice - an incredibly refreshing combination, and were taken aback once again, by the spectacular view from the lawn down across the local valley that we had just walked through.

The bungalow's lawn is a delightful setting for a leisurely breakfast, which was beautifully laid out on individual tables, we ate our delicious late breakfast of fresh local fruit and Sri Lankan omelettes enjoying the view again across the valley whilst sitting under the shade of big umbrellas sheltering us from the morning sun.

Our project for the day was to explore the tea country on our way to visit the local Botanic Gardens, setting off in the late morning with the trusty Sumith - there is always lots of activity on the road, this is someone we stopped to talk to - this gentleman explained to us, in perfect English, the details of the load of hay and vegetation he was carrying.

So we drove through villages and more hilly tea plantations to Haggada Botanic Gardens, via Nuwara Eliya, where the army doing exercises next to the side of Lake Gregory. On the way we stopped at a roadside Hindu temple and were amused by the resident posse of monkeys continuing their grooming ceremony whilst posing unselfconsciously for the temple visitors.

The Haggada Gardens were founded in the 19th century by the British and are predominantly set on the side of a hillside. The Gardens when we visited were awash with parties of neatly dressed chatting school children. Everyone wisely carries an umbrella - apart from the mad English couple of course, who did have their somewhat (sweaty) cagoules, ignoring the ferocity of the Sri Lanka rain! It was a little early for the gardens' flowering planted beds but we enjoyed walking the paved pathways in the hillier area.

We dashed back to the car in yet another rain shower and returned slowly via Nuwara Eliya to Stafford Bungalow, as the rain stopped we saw breathtaking views of the moody tea country the upper slopes hills shrouded in clouds.

And finally we enjoyed another lovely meal, cooked for us by the resident chef, and enjoyed chatting to the other guests about our day's experiences. 

Chugging up to the Tea Country of Nuwara Eliya

10-4-1 Thursday March 2nd

My hat bids farewell to its third temporary home!

We leave Ellerton and take a long and winding road though the brilliantly hilly countryside to get the The Orange Field Tea Plantation - where a warm welcome awaits from the owner Sebastian.

Sebastian explains that the plantation is a "bought tea factory" and that the tea is completely processed within 24 hours of arrival, and on our whistle stop tour we learned that the factory processes 14,000kg of tea tips per day - 45 kgs of leaves produces 10 kgs of black tea and through the process there is a 45% reduction in the moisture in the tea.

A "withering" process of yesterday's leaf tips uses a conveyer belt with a warm air bed to start the process, followed by a sifter to remove the sand and grit. The tea is then rolled in 300g batches, at 30 revs. per min for 20 mins, then separated, this process is repeated 4 times, gradually what is extracted coarsens as the finest of the separation is gradually reduced. This is known as "five particles".

Cooling the leaves to ferment them at a lower temperature than the outside temperature for 2 - 2.5hrs, oxidises the tea, they are finally dried for 20 mins at 232F.

This is followed by a thorough grading and separation process which includes the tea going through a fibre extractor, an electro static machine and then onto grading, where the "five particles" are graded into five qualities this includes grading according to weight and colour. Finally the tea is colour sorted - the factory now has 25 grades of tea, each tailored to a specific market. After packing in large triple layered paper sacks with foil lining to prevent moisture absorption the process is completed - all within 24 hours of the picked tea tips arriving in the factory.

We rounded off our tour in the best way possible with a cup of tea! We now have a significant understanding and much higher respect for what we tend to think of as that every commodity - tea - we are not sure that we will ever be happy drinking "tea bag" tea again, now we appreciate that it is naturally positioned at the end of the grading process.

Back down the hill we quickly arrived at busy and bustling Gampolla where the trains depart from. Gampolla (sixth in a series of seven capitals ruled by Ceylonese kings) was the starting point for our journey through the high tea country to Nanu Oya, just south of Nuwara Eliya - four hours trip.

We sat on the station platform and admired station life at its best - freight trains and passenger trains passed through with a jumble of parcels and furniture! Lunch sellers walked the platform and then the train once we boarded.

Our first class tickets were vetted by a handsome guard beautifully attired in a dark navy jacket with immaculate white trousers - a resplendent train officers' braided uniform. Declining offers of tea from the mobile urn we took up our seats armed with a picnic lunch supplied by Sumith of sweet bananas, Jacobs cream crackers bottled water and Audley hand wipes - what more can one need!

The train wound its way through the tea country getting gradually higher and at each stop, as this is a single carriageway track, there were pauses for the train baton to be exchanged. Despite the arrival of the rain after the clear and sunny morning, the light rain could not dim the wonderfully dramatic scenery of rolling hills covered with manicured tiered and terraced tea plantations. With no observation carriage on the train Simon stood at the open carriage doors taking pictures for most the four hour journey to Nanu Oya.

We have ridden the train with Ann & Kinnaird in the same carriage, so we're able to swop notes on our journey, and on alighting were delighted to see Sumith who helpfully had already located "The Foreigners Toilet!' especially for Ann & I. The drive to Stafford Bungalow through the tea country was if anything more spectacular than the train itself.

However on arrival at Staffords Bungalow in "higher" tea country - we absolutely blown away by the location, views and service - we received the now familiar welcome of cool hand towels and a welcome fruit juice, but Stafford Bungalow as we learnt always go that extra mile and presented us with lovely welcome garlands.

So my hat has found another new home and after unpacking we enjoyed dinner - chatting to the other guests, and catching up on trips and their latest Sri Lanka experiences.

Falling in love with......Orchids

9-2-3B Wednesday 1st March

The Orchid House at The Royal Botanic Garden, Peradeniya, Kandy was so beautiful that I am posting a few more images of the lovely specimens we saw on our last day at Ellerton, before we moved onto the stunning Stafford Bungalow near Horton Plains.

Getting cultural in Kandy

9-3-2 Wednesday 1st March

Today we are exploring Kandy and bound for Puja - The Offering Ceremony for the Holy Relic of The Sacred Tooth at The Temple of the Sacred Tooth of Buddha, the Sri Dalada Maligawa, at Kandy. Fast on the heals of our latest culture injection we followed this by a visit to the Hotel Suisse and finally the cultural show.

There was no rain on Wednesday morning after heavy storms late Tuesday and overnight. So first a lovely drive down the hill to Kandy from Ellerton - an elegant tea planters bungalow where we are staying. Now a small hotel, Ellerton is set up on the top a steep hill, in the tea country - however the road down the hill has in parts been swept away by the rain. At one of the particularly difficult junctions the locals helpfully stationed at a hut at the bottom of the hill rushed to give Sumith help and gesticulate directions to help avoid the perilous descent over a signifcant drop in the road surface. Sumith a calm cautious patient and very skilled driver, remains unruffled throughout whatever happens and we made it without any undue incident.

As ever my trusty trilby comes with me - in this image it's on the back shelf of the car.

Very exciting traffic & jams in Kandy.... Lots of big roundabouts and traffic junctions controlled like a military operation by policeman in khaki uniforms with white cotton sleeves, a whistle and a walkie talkie! Like all driving in Sri Lanka everything is conducted in dramatic style - a swift dash, swooping weave and so on, at times you need nerves of steel. The great skill is in the avoidance techniques employed, Sumith's style is one of calmness, assured safety, the poop of the horn, and giving way greafeully. It all seems to work even when you have a bus or lorry bearing down on you at great speed, the situation is resolved safely - fortunately the edges of the road are wide!

We arrive at The Temple of Tooth, a venerated relic of Buddha, and is kept on a gold lotus flower inside seven ever increasing in-size dagoba (stopa shaped) caskets, one inside another, behind a series of screens.

To get to the shrine itself you climb the stairs giving access to the upper floor of the ornate pagoda like building. Photography in the shrine and museum is not allowed, but apart from a tantalising glimpse it is hard to see very much in detail. As you do so, you pass those who queue patiently in line to offer flowers to buddha, those with offerings who queuing will get closer access to the shrine. The Sri Lankan blue or white lilies are typical offerings.

So we stand with many, in the large upper vestibule of shrine craning our necks for a shimmering glimpse through the recessed archways of the shrine and its mystical contents. You can only glimpse The Tooth wrapped for safety within its caskets and it is visible only displayed once every five years.

The British recognised the cultural significance attached to the Tooth and its necessity to maintain the stability of the state. They bought it back to Kandy in 1818, after it had endured centuries of migration around Kandy and India, and placed it for safekeeping in the shrine room, where it was guarded at night.

Just up a flight of stairs is the library housing a significant collection of religious books written in script on palm leaves. Paintings suspended in the New Shrine Room illustrate the history of the journeys, tribulations and "migrations of the Tooth" - over the centuries since Buddha died and the relic was rescued from his ashes.

The museum supports these historical saga paintings on the first floor of the museum with written documents, photographs of the destruction of the temple after the Tamil bomb in 1998, and on the second floor artefacts associated with the "processing" of the Tooth. I really enjoyed the flags, banners and decorative doors hanging here too.

Afterwards we visited The Hotel Suisse where Mountbatten was stationed in the WW2 and speculated that Simon's mothers unit worked on there on their code breaking tasks too. The staff gave us a tour, cool towels for our hands, and a welcome drink, proudly showing off the main rooms used by Mountbatten.

After lunch back at Ellerton in the pouring rain, we returned to Kandy for a cultural evening - and enjoyed a great show of acrobatics & gymnastics with loads of energy and drama, not to mention the dance music and sheer volume from from the drums!

Video

I will attach these when I am home - Google Blogger software is very trying!

We emerged outside to find it had at last stopped raining, to watch the fire eating and dancing over hot coals. Finally we were born back to Ellerton by the trusty Sumith.

Video