28th February - Colombo to Udawalawa, Sri Lanka

We were off on our travels once again, this year a little later in the winter to miss the gloom.  We returned to the island of Sri Lanka, we have visited before but have concentrated on the south coastal area.  This trip we were adventuring a little further, heading inland to some of the other wonderful national parks they have in this lovely country.  Having spent holidays in India and enjoyed the madness that exists there I always look on Sri Lanka as an "India Lite"

Rather than fly direct we opted this time to travel with Emirates through Dubai, something that comes back to bite us early in the holiday.  But for now we arrived in the afternoon of the 27th and endured some horrific traffic on our way to our first hotel on the coast just south of Colombo.  We were only staying the one night, but had time in the morning to take in the beach front and warm sunshine, something that has been in short supply here in the United Kingdom so far this year.

The hotel was an old colonial house left over from the British rule and still retains a lot of the colonial history.

It was a four hour drive from the hotel to Uda Walawa, initially quite fast on an expressway, but then on single roads inland north a lot more interesting as it wound its way through the towns and villages.

We were staying two nights in Kalu's Hideaway.  Set in five acres of beautiful gardens surrounded by shrubs and forest, the hotel neighbours the impressive Udawalawa Reservoir, and just ten minutes away from the gates of the Udawalawa National Park, the hotel is owned by the famous Sri Lankan Cricketer Mr. Romesh Kaluwitharana who was part of the Sri Lankan World Cup winning team in 2014  Kalu turned hotelier after his retirement from cricket.  And there are photographs and momentos around the hotel.

We had a top floor room that looked out over the tree tops of the jungle that stretched out towards the Udawalawa National Park.

After we were settled in the room I decided to spend some time around the gardens.  But first I spent sometime on the balcony.  There were plenty of birds in the tree tops and my first encounter was with a White-throated Kingfisher.

Rose-ringed Parakeets flew back and forth calling as they did so, while this Green Imperial Pigeon was a welcome sight, a lot better than out native Wood Pigeons here.

There was a butterfly garden in the grounds and there were some beautiful butterflies around the flowers.

A large butterfly about the size of a Swallowtail, the Common Crow, it doesn't look much in flight but does look good when settled.

Then a Common Tiger, similar in size and colour to a Monarch.

A Smaller butterfly and comparatively common, the Common Four Ring, which has five rings, but there you go!

This Blue Tiger was absolutely stunning.

The gardens lead down to a river and there was quite a bit of wildlife along the banks.  The Red-wattled Lapwing, a wader that turned out to be almost everywhere and had a rather annoying call.

Another bird that turned out to be almost everywhere we went was the Indian Pond Heron.  It doesn't look much here but when in flight shows off it's brilliant white wings.  A little smaller than a Squacco Heron which it could be confused with, but they are not found here.

Where there is water there were dragonflies.  This looks like a species of Darter but I haven't been able to get a definite identification.

On the other side of the river was a group of tall trees and there was some loud calls coming from within.  The Merlin app identified the calls as belonging to the Malabar Pied Hornbill and I managed to find them in the centre of the tree.

Smaller birds around the shrubs, some of which I had seen before, Red-vented Bulbul and these Purple-rumped Sunbirds, their song very similar to that of the Dunnock.

The Sunbirds were nesting in the shrubs, avery intricate nest made of woven grasses and domed like that of a Long-tailed Tit.

A White-rumped Munia appeared in the same bush as the Sunbird.

Walking up the stairs to the room I came face to face with the male Purple-rumped Sunbird at the top of the trees.

Back on the balcony a Shikra flew over, similar in size and behaviour to a Sparrowhawk, its presence set of the alarm calls of the surround birds.

Sunset comes at the same time every day here in the tropics, at about 18:20, before hand the House Swifts were teasing me in trying to get some photographs, this was the best I could manage

The sun dropped amongst the clouds sending a red orange glow across the clouds.

It was time for dinner, but when we returned to the room it was to the news that the Americans and Israelis had commenced bombing Iran, the problem though was that Iran was retaliating by bombing US friendly Gulf States, one of which was UAE and the air space and airports around the UAE, Qatar and Bahrain was closed.  This meant if this continued, we would not be able to return home though Dubai with Emirates.  For now all we could do was speculate, check the internet and worry.  We told ourselves we have to enjoy the holiday, but it wasn't easy.  Tomorrow though were off into the Udawalawa National Park and an early start