Vardha had just moved away from Tamil Nadu and transport had just normalized on the previous day, so we were lucky to make it to the Negombo airport with just a 2 hour delay. The drive to Kandy from the airport takes a few hours mainly due to the speed limits despite the fantastic roads. We stopped en route at a spice garden where despite the sales efforts, I spent most of my time photographing birds. A 15 minute break in a small area had black naped monarchs, pygmy woodpeckers, a lesser yellow nape, white browed fantails, yellow fronted barbets and minivets. Got to Kandy late in the evening but we had time to watch a cultural program and spend some time at the temple of the tooth. We entered the temple unfortunately at the time of a daily prayer and had to wait until they opened the main shrine as the crowd built up. The artifacts, architecture and statues inside though were worth the effort.
We headed out to the nearby Royal botanical gardens quite early in the morning and proceeded with a second round of birding. The garden area itself is massive with different areas housing a variety of flora. The main attractions are the orchids and the giant Javan fig tree. Toque macaques also frequent the gardens stealing food whenever they can. Additional birds in this area included the black hooded oriole, white bellied drongo and a smaller raptor that I am trying to identify. As we headed out to Nuwara Eliya, the first stop was at a Hanuman temple on the way. We were a bit late but managed to get in a few minutes before it closed. As we had lunch at a nearby restaurant, our driver pointed out a huge squirrel. While I tried to make out what it was, it jumped and glided over the trees and out of sight.
After a couple of stops at waterfalls on the way, we reached Nuwara Eliya late in the afternoon. After a quick stop at Lake Gregory, we headed out to Seeta Eliya, which is a temple to Seeta where legend says she was kept after Ravan abducted her. A couple of marks on the ground mark where Hanuman had landed. Spent some time at the Victoria park until it got dark, where we ran into a primatologist who helped us spot a couple of Indian pittas and an asian brown flycatcher. Also glimpsed a Kashmir flycatcher which kept to the bushes.
The next morning had an extremely early start to get to Horton plains. The plains has a couple of trekking trails, the most popular of which is a 10 km circular route which goes through mini world's end, world's end and Baker's falls. The world's end viewpoints provide some amazing sights on a clear morning but as the fog rolls in, the cliff looks like it is on top of the world. The trek gets steeper closer to the Baker's falls but is always manageable. The overall path at a brisk pace takes just under 4 hours. The route in and out of Horton plains is quite scenic and has birds and mammals crossing frequently. We were able to see kestrels, sambar, purple faced leaf monkeys, yellow eared bulbuls, Sri Lankan wood pigeons, bee eaters, bushchats, white eyes and grey tits. Heard a whistling thrush but couldn't spot it. We drove down to Yala immediately after the trek stopping for coconuts, few grizzled giant squirrels and hornbills. The day ended at the Katargama temple near Yala which is a major draw for pilgrims, but surprisingly, the deity there is always hidden behind a curtain.
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