Well, I'm currently on my fourth day on the island of Sri Lanka: the flight was long and tiring and I was very grateful to reach terra firma again! The taxi ride to Ranweli was an eye-opener, seeing the poverty was a bit of a shock despite expecting it, although I had to laugh when I saw one man ferrying his poor cow in the back of his tuk-tuk!
Ranweli is situated on the west coast, and we are about 100 metres from the Indian Ocean: as you can imagine, some beautiful sunsets. The village is situated between the ocean and a long, winding river flanked by mangroves, a haven for a plethora of birds and water monitors. On Saturday I went on a river tour on a boat, and saw enough kingfishers to last a lifetime: pied, stork-billed, white-throated, even our own little blue and orange Eurasian! Coupled with some impressively large basking monitors and countless egrets, herons and waterbirds it was a wonderful experience.
To be honest the rest of my stay here has been unashamedly lazy: sitting by the pool, walking on the beach, swimming and acclimatising to the spicy food. But, I figured that Ranweli is going to be my only luxury stay during my time here, so why not?!
Tomorrow I head off to Wasgamuwa National Park to join the Sri Lankan Wildlife Conservation Society as a volunteer for four weeks. Elephants here we come!
I'm so jealous.......hope you're taking plenty of pix.xx
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