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10 Apr 2011
Day count: 7
Trip count: 7
Day Lifer count: 4 (Nicola), 3 (Pieter)
Trip Lifer count: 4 (Nicola), 3 (Pieter)
Departing from Johannesburg at noon on 9 April, we arrived in a steamy Mumbai just after midnight on the 10th. We spent five hours keeping weary eyes on the circling mosquitoes in the domestic terminal, pretending to not feel the sweat trickling down our backs and listening to 107 repeats of Hammer and a nail. We caught a connecting flight to Nagpur and then endured 7 hours of being shaken, stirred, tossed, turned and thoroughly mixed along the 250km of potholed, corrugated, twisting, “bicycle path” to Kanha National Park. At 4pm we checked into Pugmark Resort, welcomed by our host, Rahul and his father. After 32 hours in transit, we collapsed for 2 hours before our first Indian dinner – a fantastic meal of rice, chicken and vegetable masala. We lasted long enough to have a quick shower and look up the few new birds we’d seen along the torturous drive before collapsing into bed for the early start the next day. Our first new birds were: Large-billed crow, Greater coucal and Black-rumped flameback (woodpecker).
11 Apr 2011
Day count: 45
Trip count: 49
Day Lifer count: 36
Trip Lifer count: 40 (Nicola), 39 (Pieter)
At 04:45 we woke to get ready for our day’s outing, looking for the King of Cats in Sal forests of Kanha National Park. Following a quick cup of Indian tea (ginger and cardamom spiced chai), we drove out to the park gate, settled formalities and picked up a park ranger to accompany us. Rahul drove quickly to get us a place in the “Tiger show” but despite this, we saw a few chital (spotted deer) and Indian gaur and also picked up some exciting new birds: Indian cuckoo, Indian roller, Red-wattled lapwing, Common hawk cuckoo and the striking Racket-tailed drongo. At the picnic site where we got our “Tiger show” number we only added Large-billed crow but then made our way slowly around the park. Mammals we saw included sambar and bharasinga deer, wild boar and a family, including boisterous puppies, of very tame spotted jackals. Our favourite birds were: Grey-headed fish eagle, Crested serpent eagle, Changeable hawk eagle, White-throated kingfisher, Red-vented bulbul, Sirkeer malkoha, Jungle and Spotted owlets, lots of Indian peafowl, Alexandrine parakeets, Rufous treepie, Red-headed vulture, and to our delight, Red junglefowl (ancestor of the domestic chicken)! Unfortunately, even though the elephant mahmouts were out the whole morning, no tigers were seen, so the “Tiger show” for the day was cancelled. Back at the resort at around 10:30 it was warming up intensely and we took a siesta until late in the afternoon. Rahul’s father then took us for a short walk around the local village where we added an Oriental white-eye. Dinner at 7pm was followed by watching some IPL cricket on the lounge TV before heading for an early bed.
12 Apr 2011
Day count: 49
Trip count: 63
Day Lifer count: 10
Trip Lifer count: 50 (Nicola), 49 (Pieter)
Another early start to get a number for the “Tiger show” which yet again proved fruitless as no tigers were seen. However, our drive did yield a few new birds: Black ibis, Lesser whistling duck, Paddyfield pipit, Brown crake, Scarlet minivet, Tickell’s blue flycatcher and Spangled drongo. We were back at the resort before noon where we quickly packed our bags, had a hasty lunch and then bundled into a cool air-conditioned car for the 5-hour drive to Bandhavgar National Park. At Tiger Trails resort we were welcomed by the manager and led to our room, almost right next to a small pond where a Little cormorant, parakeets and Indian pond herons were in residence. Our room’s aircon was an ingenious design of blowing air over a pool of water – clever, but perhaps not quite the best choice considering the fantastic mosquito breeding site it provides. A short walk around the area before dinner got us Plum-headed parakeets, Common tailorbird and the haunting call of the Asian koel (kind of coucal).
13 Apr 2011
Day count: 56
Trip count: 80
Day Lifer count: 14
Trip Lifer count: 64 (Nicola), 62 (Pieter)
For the third day in a row we were up before 5am, and entered Bandhavgarh National Park through Gate 2. Several fresh tiger tracks got us excited early on. A few spits of rain saw us scrambling to get the open jeep’s cover on – unfortunately the humans inside ended up being the poles holding it up so for about 15 minutes we had an uncomfortable ride, not being able to see anything at all. It soon cleared though and we got to see Coppersmith barbet, Eurasian hoopoe, Chestnut-shouldered petronia and Long-billed vulture. However, the tigers remained elusive. We had breakfast at a small outcrop and spotted our first Indian robin before heading slowly back towards the gate, hoping for some tigers along the way. Alas, this was not to be, but we soon forgot this when our guide spotted a Savanna nightjar sitting perfectly camouflaged on a tree stump right next to the road. Other first sightings included Crested treeswift, White-rumped shama and White-eyed buzzard. Back at Tiger Trails resort we rested over the hottest part of the day, had some lunch and then took a walk into town, doing some birding along the way. Although we only added a Common woodshrike and Small minivet, taking our first walk through an Indian town was interesting. We haggled for a saree before making our way back to the resort for dinner. The resort manager, Eric D’Cunha, was very helpful and informative and pointed out flying foxes feeding off the Indian butter trees and also a Grey nightjar calling.
14 Apr 2011
Day count: 53
Trip count: 95
Day Lifer count: 14
Trip Lifer count: 77 (Nicola), 76 (Pieter)
By now we’ve had enough of rushing out on jeeps to see tigers that are hiding away, so we decided to bird around the resort and towards the National Park’s boundary. Our decision paid off immediately when we saw White-rumped munia and Common rosefinch barely 100m from the resort. Further on we took our time to identify a Plain prinia and then Nicola spotted both the Yellow-wattled lapwings and Asian pied starlings. At the park’s boundary fence Nicola pointed out a Black-naped monarch that she’d already seen the day before and after we sat down for a while, an Oriental turtle dove came to sit in a bush right next to us. We wandered back to the resort in time for breakfast and added a Pintail snipe, Indian silverbill and a White-breasted waterhen – a walk of less than 2 hours yielding 10 lifers! After breakfast we sat quietly in the garden and waited for the birds to come to us. Lots of Red-vented bulbuls obliged, along with an Asian paradise flycatcher, Tree pipit, Chestnut-bellied nuthatch and Common iora. After lunch we retreated to our room to escape the heat but after a shower and some rest, emerged again just after 4pm. Before our driver arrived at 7pm, we added a few more new birds for the day, but unfortunately, our lifer list for the day remained at 14. We were then driven out to the Umaria train station where we supposed to catch a train at 20:50. While our driver found out that our train would be 20 minutes late, we shared a waiting room with 3 backpackers and got stared at and even our photos taken by the curious locals, while we had some dinner. Then our train got delayed another 25 minutes and at 10pm were told the train would be an hour and 15 minutes late. Half past ten our driver informed us that the train would be there in 15 minutes and shortly after came to fetch our luggage and carried it to the next platform. Our train then promptly showed up at 11pm. We climbed onto our car, a “A/C Two Tier” class car which means you have aircon and only double bunk beds to share, as opposed to the 3-tier classes and lower. It was a big difference to the South African trains we’re used to: there were no compartments, just cubicles covered with curtains, each containing a 2-tiered bunk bed. And on the opposite side of the aisle, another 2-tier bunk bed. It appeared that we were not able to share a cubicle as every single bed was occupied apart from 2 left open for us – one on the bottom bunk opposite the aisle for Nicola and one on the top bunk in a cubicle for me, sharing with a family of four. The aircon was a great relief and we immediately settled down to try and sleep – rather unsuccessfully in the end.
15 Apr 2011
Day count: 6
Trip count: 97
Day Lifer count: 1
Trip Lifer count: 78 (Nicola), 77 (Pieter)
Nicola managed to get some sleep during the night but a stuffy nose and noisy cubicle partners kept me awake throughout the night. At 6am I joined Nicola on her bunk bed and we had a quick Jungle bar for breakfast before braving the horrendous toilet for morning ablutions. At the first station we stopped at in the morning, we realized we still had a long way to go and since we were already 2 hours late, we could only hope that our driver in Agra would wait for us. The train stopped regularly in the middle of nowhere for no apparent reason and when we finally did arrive in Agra at 12pm, having covered 700km in 13 hours, we were rather daunted stepping into the crowds at Agra Cantonment train station. Our driver was nowhere in sight. Feeling overwhelmed we started walking towards what appeared to be the exit, when a guy came around the corner bearing a placard saying “Welcome Mr Very”. We smiled in greeting and he immediately took Nicola’s bag and guided us towards his car in searing midday heat. I asked him if he’d be able to give us a quick glimpse of the Taj Mahal before we left for Bharatpur and he dutifully drove us onto a busy road from where we could see the majestic dome in the distance. Much more impressive though, was the Agra fort we drove past – a phenomenal edifice towering in red sandstone over everything else. Then we experienced some hectic traffic through narrow, crowded Agra roads, tiny little shops spilling their wares onto the street and everywhere tuk-tuks, rickshaws, taxis, horse-drawn carts, buses and trucks fighting for every inch of space, massive speakers blearing out Hindi music in the middle of the road. After 5 minutes of gawking, we decided to trust our driver, and fell asleep in the back as he made his way to Bharatpur, about an hour’s drive away. We woke up suddenly as he pulled into the entrance of Sunbird hotel and we got blasted by the hot air as we stepped outside. The hotel manager/receptionist was very friendly and offered us a glass of Fanta while we checked in. We then got booked into a cosy cottage, complete with aircon and TV – no SABC though. We had a late lunch, then took a shower and rested in the cool room before taking a quick walk at 5pm to see where Keoladeo National Park was located. At 19:30 we had a wonderful Indian vegetarian dinner and then hit the beds hard.
16 Apr 2011
Day count: 71
Trip count: 126
Day Lifer count: 21
Trip Lifer count: 99 (Nicola), 98 (Pieter)
At 05:30 we were up and smearing ourselves with suncream and mozzie repellant. The hotel manager had already arranged our cycle rickshaw and we quickly wolfed down breakfast before getting on the –rickshaw and heading for Keoleadeo National Park. Our rickshaw driver spoke reasonable English and seemed to know his birds fairly well. The first 2km or so we rode through scrubland looking almost exactly like South Africa bushveld. Most of the species we’ve now come to recognize easily were about, and we quickly reached a tally of 20, including lifers in Grey francolin, Bank myna and White-eared bulbul. Further on we saw the first patches of water and while our rickshaw stopped in the shade, we took a walk out on a narrow path. Immediately we saw a large group of Painted stork and with a few Black-necked ibises foraging in between. The water edges held large numbers of waders and egrets and we notched up Little, Intermediate and Great egrets, Common and Wood sandpipers and a few Common greenshanks. Further along we ran into a fellow birder who’s also staying at Sunbird hotel. His guide identified the Pheasant-tailed jacana we spotted in the distance and then also noticed a Greater painted snipe hiding in the grasses. Just before the end of the trail I spotted a Grey wagtail, quite common in the are but this time we got a much better view of it than the sighting back in January in Walter Sisulu Botanical gardens that caused such excitement. On our way back, we were very happy to see two Sarus cranes that have landed in the wetland, barely 20m from us. What magnificent birds! Reaching 175cm tall, these are the tallest flying birds in the world. Back on our rickshaw we drove deeper into the park and stopped at a Hindu shrine from where we could walk on our own again. Patches of wetland either side of the track produced Garganey, Bar-headed goose, Spot-billed goose, Egyptian vulture, Black-necked stork, Spotted redshank, Ruddy shelduck and Eurasian spoonbill while we were glad to finally see a woodpecker other than the Black-rumped flameback – the very spotty Yellow-crowned woodpecker. It was now almost 11am and very hot. We got back on our rickshaw and slowly made our way back to the entrance of the park, picking up Black redstart and Citrine wagtail along the way. At sunbird hotel we had lunch under the thatched lapa together with our fellow birder (Belgian) we met in the park, and another Brittish couple who’s birded in India for many years. We all agreed to go to the Chambal river tomorrow as the water birding there is apparently also very good and a bit different to Keoladeo. The rest of the afternoon we cooled down under the aircon in our room and at 4pm, headed back to Keoladeo to see if we could add anything for the late afternoon. Although we got much better views of Greater painted snipe this time, we didn’t add anything new.
17 Apr 2011
Day count: 46
Trip count: 144
Day Lifer count: 14
Trip Lifer count: 113 (Nicola), 111 (Pieter)
Our wake-up call at 04:30 got us dressing quickly and then joining the others for the 1.5 hour drive to Chambal. We boarded a small but neat fiberglass boat and started our cruise downstream. Immediately we added our first lifer for the day: White-browed lapwing. We had glimpses of the Gangetic river dolphins but never enough to see it properly. However, many of the endangered fish-eating gharial were around and it was special seeing these strange-looking reptiles. The small beds of reeds and shores of the river were covered with birds and it was difficult to try and ID birds while eating breakfast. Ruddy shelducks, Garganey and lots of Wood sanpiper, Common greenshank and Ruff were around. Cathy then pointed our River lapwing and soon after we also spotted Great thick-knee. We got fair views of Black-tailed godwit and Temminck’s stints but our day was made when we saw a whole bunch of Indian skimmers nesting on a sandbank – these soon started taking off and we had fantastic views of them skimming for food close to the boat. As we made our way back to the launch site we added more lifers: Plain-throated martin, Little ringed plover, River and Black-bellied terns and a large flock of Small pratincoles. After this excellent morning out, we made our way back to Bharatpur since we had to leave for Delhi at noon. A horrendous traffic jam saw us stuck in the exact same spot for an hour and a half and as a result we only got back to the hotel at 12:30. Our driver was already waiting but there were no haste as the hotel manager had already informed the driver that we’d be late so we quickly had some lunch first before heading off. A five-hour drive later we arrived in a wet Delhi and made our way to Pahar Ganj to stay at Aster Inn – slightly dodgy location but the hotel turned out to be very good value for money. Dinner was yet another plate full of Indian vegetable masala, roti and cumin rice – we’ve come to really enjoy Indian food!
18 Apr 2011
Day count: 7
Trip count: 146
Day Lifer count: 2
Trip Lifer count: 115 (Nicola), 113 (Pieter)
The cold that I’ve been trying to get rid off for the past five days has now properly passed onto Nicola. After a comparatively poor breakfast, we left just before 08:30 but it took the better part of 2 hours for us to get out of Delhi. Another massive traffic jam, caused by people just driving wherever and whenever they please across an intersection, held us up for more than half an hour. Then we crossed the Ganges and soon had much better stretch of road on which we almost managed 100km/h. As soon as we turned off towards the National Park though, things got back to normal – between 20-40km/h on truly horrendous roads. We reached the general area of the park at about 3pm but our driver couldn’t find our accommodation. He stopped several times along the road to ask but no matter how many explanations he got and how many times he drove up and down the same road, he just couldn’t find it. For that matter, neither could we. We tried to get him to phone the hotel whose number was clear as daylight on the Confirmation number but he just indicated he didn’t have reception. Why he couldn’t just go into any of the thousands of hotels along the road and ask to use their phone, no-one knows. By some odd chance, the owner of our accommodation drove past and after a brief conversation with the driver, we ended up following the owner to the hotel – it turned out the name of the place changed 2 months ago – thanks for informing everyone. We arrived at 5pm – eight and a half hours after leaving Delhi, 250km away. It was a nice enough place though and after check-in we had a quick rest in our room before we took a short walk around the area. We managed to add two lifers, Jungle myna and Himalayan bulbul, before Nicola’s sinuses finally gave in and we headed back to the hotel with dusk approaching fast.
19 Apr 2011
Day count: 48
Trip count: 157
Day Lifer count: 10
Trip Lifer count: 125 (Nicola), 123 (Pieter)
We got our wake-up call at 04:45 and by 05:30 were ready take a short ride to where an Indian elephant was waiting for us. It was already saddled and our mahmout showed us a staircase to mount to get on top – and then we were off on our first elephant ride! We soon found out it was too shaky to watch birds using binoculars and then just sat back and enjoyed the ride. We crossed the river running past all the resorts and then spent about an hour walking around the secondary forest on the other side before returning. Short but great fun! We went back to our accommodation for breakfast and afterwards took a stroll in the forest and along the river, picking up another Grey wagtail, Blue whistling thrush and Chestnut-headed bee-eater. After bathing our feet in the Himalayan glacial run-off, we returned for lunch and a rest before our afternoon safari. The rush for tigers here at Jim Corbett was no different to the other parks but we quickly found the roads here to be particularly bumpy. Even so we still picked up a couple of lifers with Great hornbill being the highlight. We also saw our first barking deer, or muntjac. Another bumpy ride to get back at 7pm, followed by dinner and then bed.
20 Apr 2011
Day count: 28
Trip count: 162
Day Lifer count: 5
Trip Lifer count: 130 (Nicola), 128 (Pieter)
Another early wake-up call got us onto our safari vehicle just before 05:30. We took a long drive to a different gate of the park this time – a good 500m higher into the hills. We entered into Sal-covered slopes, much thicker and cooler than we’ve seen so far. The birds were quiet here but as yet another very bumpy road descended to the Ramganga valley, the calls came more frequently and soon we were struggling to keep our driver from rushing off before we’ve identified the birds. We were disappointed to not have more time to do this very pretty drive slowly and look for birds, especially since the few lifers we did manage to pick up were very colourful and exotic: Emerald dove, Golden-fronted leafbird, Blue-capped rock-thrush and Long-tailed broadbill. All too soon we were driving back to the top. Back at our accommodation we quickly packed up, had a 2-minute breakfast and then left for Delhi. The drive back was just as tedious and uncomfortable and we had another massive hold-up at the same spot we had 2 days ago. This time our driver was a bit less cautious and we managed to squeeze through on one side, after only 40 minutes in the jam. Soon after we lost 15 minutes when we hit something on the road and got a flat tyre. I helped the driver change it and not long after we were in Delhi. We reached our hotel without too much difficulty, despite some very heavy traffic, 7.5 hours since we left Corbett – a full hour better than the journey in. We were a bit taken aback by the location of the hotel – smack in the middle of the extremely busy bazaar section of Pahar Ganj. Our relief was apparent though when we entered and found a reasonably modern hotel, although it probably could’ve done with a bit more frequent cleaning. We checked in, got a nice room and had a quick rest before dinner and bed.
21 Apr 2011
No birding done
For the first time on our trip we slept late (7am), had breakfast and then ventured onto the streets of Delhi, looking for bargains. After two hours of haggling, and saying no-thank-you about a million times, we were happy with our purchases and made our way back to the hotel for a shower before checkout. We spent a few hours on the complimentary internet updating the blog and browsing the web before a late lunch and then a taxi to the airport. Checking in went smoothly and so was our passage through customs and security although it was a bit tedious compared to SA. We watched IPL cricket in the Delhi Daredevils Sports Bar and then boarded our overnight flight to Kuala Lumpur, capital of Malaysia.
22 Apr 2011
Day count: 3
Trip count: 163
Day Lifer count: 1
Trip Lifer count: 131 (Nicola), 129 (Pieter)
We spent a few hours trying to get some sleep on Air Asia’s uncomfortable seats before landing at roughly 02:30 Indian time, 05:30 Local. We caught a bus to KL Sentral station and then took the monorail and got off a block from our hotel. To our relief they could check us in early so we spent a few hours unpacking, doing laundry and getting a few minutes shut eye. At 1pm our tummies were rumbling enough to overcome our fatigue so we went to the nearest shopping mall and were bewildered by the food floor where 10’s of little restaurants offer local cuisine for anything from R10-R100 a meal. We ate quickly and then headed off to explore KL. We discovered Chinatown market offering curios, clothing and knock-off Gucci handbags. A few blocks away we discovered Central Market where we bought some curios (Malaysian masks and a wooden folding bowl), and ‘treated’ ourselves to a foot spa – a Dr Fish foot spa! Yes we dipped our feet into a pool full of little fish which frantically fed off the dead skin on our feet using their sandpapery lips (no teeth). A tremendously tickly experience but good fun watching the tourists’ first expressions when the fish start nibbling away! And our feet were beautifully smooth afterwards. We then headed back to the shopping mall for dinner and then to the hotel where we slept like logs after two days with only a few hours sleep. Although we didn’t do any serious birding we did manage to pick up a lifer in the city – the Eurasian tree sparrow.
23 Apr 2011
Day count: 20
Trip count: 181
Day Lifer count: 18
Trip Lifer count: 149 (Nicola), 147 (Pieter)
After a good night’s sleep we got up reasonably early, caught a series of 3 trains and a taxi to Fraser’s Hill – a natural cool spot in Malaysia where the temperature was under 30! We had a fantastic time wandering through the rain forest and picked up 18 lifers, the most exciting being Streaked spiderhunter and White-throated fantail. Other lifers were the Red-rumped swallow, Common green magpie, Silver-eared mesia, House swallow, Lesser racket-tailed drongo and Chestnut-headed laughingthrush. We were sad that the long journey in meant we had only got there just before lunch as the early morning birding would probably have been fantastic. We did discover that there are a few hotels at Fraser’s Hill so on our next trip we’ll spend a few days there and get more of the 257 species recorded here. Our taxi driver was very helpful stopping at a dam and a waterfall en route for us to get some pictures. We also stopped at a natural mountain spring and collected some water, giving new meaning to the words “Bottled at source”. We retraced our steps back to our cool hotel room before having some Chinese food for dinner in the shopping mall.
24 Apr 2011
Day count: 26
Trip count: 195
Day Lifer count: 12
Trip Lifer count: 161 (Nicola), 159 (Pieter)
We ate breakfast as early as possible and caught the monorail to KL Sentral train station just after 7am. Then it was almost an hour’s train ride to Klang. At Klang we managed to find the bus station with our noses but were less successful finding the right bus to Kuala Selangor. But the very helpful locals caught on that we’re struggling and got us onto the right bus. An hour later, just after 10am, we were deposited at Kuala Selangor’s bus station. While driving, I saw the little hill Bukit Melawati and knew where to walk to. But it was still almost a 2km walk to get to Taman Alam Nature park, just below Bukit Melawati. It was blindingly hot and humid and by the time we arrived at the park, we were soaked through. We paid the entrance fee and took some pictures of the macaques before moving into the park. Swarms of mosquitoes attacked as soon as we entered the secondary forest and we had to slap on repellant very quickly. Then we took some time walking the circular route, passing through a large section of mangrove forest and having lunch in one of the watchtowers. The birding was really difficult – not only was it ridiculously hot and humid, the forest, especially the mangrove, was so thick that you couldn’t see deeper than about a metre. Even so, we still saw a few lifers, the most exciting being a Mangrove blue flycatcher, Black-capped kingfisher and Sunda pygmy woodpecker.Just after 2pm we couldn’t take the heat anymore and we retraced our steps back to Kuala Lumpur, arriving back at the hotel before 6pm. We had dinner at the Pavillion mall again and watched some TV before bed. We were happy we picked a few lifers for the day, but this was easily some of the toughest conditions I’ve ever birded in.
25 Apr 2011
Day count: 9
Trip count: 195
Day Lifer count: 0
Trip Lifer count: 161 (Nicola), 159 (Pieter)
Another early breakfast and by 8am we were in Kuala Lumpur’s famous Lake Gardens. It was steamingly hot and our binoculars fogged up immediately when we started birding. The birding in the park was surprisingly disappointing – there are very few walking paths (compared to the SA botanical gardens) and the many roads in the park are quite noisy. Petrol-powered leave-blowers were all over the park scaring the birds away and in total we only saw 9 species – nothing new. There was one surprise though when some raucous calls turned our heads and a couple of Hadeda ibises flew over. We first thought they could be some of the other ibises with a similar call but after we had a good look at them we decided they were definitely Hadedas that must have escaped from the Bird Park. We walked around the gardens until the Bird Park opened up and then entered the largest walk-in aviary in the world – 21 acres! Inside the Bird park we were treated to many of the Asian species and were able to recognize quite a few of the ones we’ve seen so far. Much more exciting were the ones we haven’t seen, like Nicobar pigeon, Asian fairy-bluebird and Rhinoceros hornbill. It was incredibly hot and humid though and we had a drink in the expensive Hornbill restaurant, just to escape the heat for a while. We then visited the Butterfly Park where a much smaller area was closed off, filled with flowering plants, small streams and lots of sweet fruit like pineapples and pawpaws. Thousands of butterflies circled around and Nicola was able to take a lot of great pics. We exited through a small exhibition of butterflies, beetles and other bugs found in the area. Our tummies warned us of the time and we headed for the Central market for Chinese lunch and sugar cane juice. After some cheap shopping we went back to the hotel to cool off before dinner.
26 Apr 2011
No birding done
Our wake-up call came at 2am. We dressed quickly, then hauled our baggage downstairs, checked out and caught a cab to KL Sentral Station. A bus was already waiting and just before 4am, we were at the airport. Our AirAsia flight was on time and soon we were speeding on our way to Sri Lanka – our third country on this trip. Immigration was a tad slow but it wasn’t long before we exited into a wall of humidity, although it wasn’t quite as bad as Malaysia. A short taxi ride got us to our hotel and we were lucky to be able to check in early again. We were both very sleepy so we barely took the time to dump our bags and then we hit the pillows, only waking after noon. We had lunch in the hotel’s restaurant and spent the rest of the afternoon resting and reading before taking a walk around the back streets of Negombo. The friendly locals greeted us and it was quite obvious that although there was a fair amount of rubbish and filth about, Sri Lanka was much cleaner and neater than India. For dinner we ordered chillie fried pork with noodles and rice and then got an early night.
27 Apr 2011
Day count: 36
Trip count: 204
Day Lifer count: 9
Trip Lifer count: 170 (Nicola), 168 (Pieter)
At 05:30 we were up and when we walked into reception at 6am, our driver from Malkey has just arrived, perfectly on time. We got into the small but cool air-conditioned car and were on our way north. Though the roads were pretty good, it took us a surprisingly long time to reach Anwilundawa Wetland sanctuary, about 10km north of Chilaw. Our driver had to ask around a bit but eventually found the access road and as we drove in, we got very excited to see the lotus-covered marsh and wetlands. Our driver parked close to what seemed to be an office and Nicola and I were immediately off looking for birds. The first thing we spotted was an Asian openbill, skulking in the reeds, then lots of Indian pond herons, Purple swamphens, Pheasant-tailed jacanas and Purple herons all over the wetland, stretching as far as we could see. Cotton pygmy goose became our second lifer for the day. We were walking on a raised mud track, separating the wetland from agricultural paddy fields to the west – a scene similar to the Den Staat wetlands at Mapungubwe. We soon realized that the variety of birds here was not fantastic despite this being one of the most extensive wetlands we’ve ever seen. It was still enjoyable birding though but as we carried on on the muddy track, the skies grew dark and lightning streaked above. We had just decided to turn around when the first drops came pelting down and we stopped to put on our R10 ponchos. These helped to keep our bags dry and to accumulate all the wet on the inside instead of the outside. Back at the beginning we turned down a road apparently leading towards the coast but after we walked about 500m or so, it started coming down hard and the walking was getting less pleasant. We headed back to our driver and soon were on our way to the hotel, reaching it just before noon. After dropping some of our heavy stuff, our driver took us to Colombo where we spent the afternoon shopping – we were particularly interested by the array of the most brilliantly done batiks we’ve seen and had to force ourselves to only buy three. Unfortunately, Colombo didn’t have the same street markets we experienced in Delhi so haggling wasn’t an option. We took a tuktuk back to the hotel which took more than an hour due to the heavy traffic and when we arrived at 6.30pm, our eyes were stinging from the traffic fumes. We had fish for dinner before going to bed early again.
28 Apr 2011
Day count: 26
Trip count: 211
Day Lifer count: 6
Trip Lifer count: 176 (Nicola), 174 (Pieter)
Up again just after 5am to catch a tuktuk to another unpronounceable wetland: Muthurajawela, immediately to the south of the Negombo lagoon. A very bumpy ride through the town of Bopitya got us to a Brittish-dug canal. Our boat driver wasn’t there yet when we arrived at 06:30 so we took a walk along the canal, and were ecstatic to pick up three lifers in the space of 15 minutes: Yellow bittern, Little heron and Black bittern! When the boat driver arrived we climbed aboard and then took a very nice 2-hour trip out to the lagoon and back, riding through some very interesting vegetation, past local fishermen and seeing some huge water monitors, and finally the Stork-billed kingfisher we’ve been hoping to see so long. On the way back we stopped at the roadside to get coconut juice – an unripe coconut cut open with a panga and a straw stuck inside! All too soon we were back at the hotel where we washed off the stickiness and rested until early afternoon – a good thing too because it rained hard for most of this time. For afternoon tea we had lychees and ice cream and for dinner we shared chicken and fish.
29 Apr 2011
Day count: 10
Trip count: 212
Day Lifer count: 1
Trip Lifer count: 177 (Nicola), 175 (Pieter)
Just after 7am we caught a tuktuk to Henerathgoda Botanical gardens near Gampaha. Unfortunately the gardens don't have the floral diversity you would expect and the mostly lawn gardens did not have a lot of species to record. We were able to identify a single lifer when we spotted a female Loten's sunbird just as we were about to leave the gardens just before 10am. We were back at the hotel before 11am, took a shower, checked out and headed for the airport. Our first flight at 3pm was to Chennai, back in India and then, just after 8pm, we flew back to Mumbai, arriving at our hotel in Juhu shortly before midnight.
30 Apr 2011
No birding done
For once we didn't wake to an alarm call and had breakfast under and awning outside the hotel. We caught a taxi into Mumbai and visited the crowded Gate of India and then did some shopping along the Colaba Causeway and watching some of the cricket games being played on a strip of open ground in the middle of Mumbai. Back at our hotel we spent the afternoon cooling of from the humid heat and packing up for our last flight for the trip. After dinner we watched some TV and then at 10pm, checked out caught a taxi to the airport and boarded our flight home just before 2 in the morning.
It was an amazing trip! We loved all three countries we visited. The people were friendly and helpful. Shopping and food was in general cheaper than back home, and although we didn't get to see tigers as we hoped, we did see lots of new birds, mammals and reptiles. Now we've seen what its like, we certainly plan to return in the not too distant future, visit new places and explore more of these fantastic countries!
