Sinharaja rainforest, Sri Lanka

---

In a moment I was racing away from Unawatuna and the south coast, very soon into country roads passing by quaint homes with flowering gardens surrounded on either side of the road by dense, fresh green. Plants, palms and trees grow everywhere. After 20km or so, perhaps less, our path began to rise and the views changed as we passed by tea plantations. I didn’t think this area was known as the tea country. Where there was not hills of rising, layered pruned tea there were flat areas of rice fields but mainly just tea growing wild everywhere. The landscape was incredibly green, abundant, lush and tropical.

I was so excited and felt so carefree watching a new world whiz by. It was a great way to travel being so close to the landscape I was passing. A tuk-tuk is not the safest way to travel and I said an inward prayer, but reassuringly the driver stopped at a Buddhist shrine to say his prayers soon after we had departed. We passed through some very attractive villages and stopped as and when I felt like taking a picture. After we had progressed about fifty kilometres I realised we were actually at a reasonable height. The sun was still hot but the air was fresh.

The driver honked his horn as we drove through each hairpin bend and the views as we passed by tight corners and looked at the gaping chasms below were breathtaking. We eventually arrived in Deniyaya at about 16.00. As we approached the rain came flying down soaking the driver and me. It shouldn’t have surprised me though because one of the main factors influencing the Sinharaja forest, making it so unique, is of course, rain!

Sinharaja is one of the last large areas of unmolested rainforest in Sri Lanka. That is not to say that it has had no problems with exploitation. It was extensively logged as part of government policy in the 1970’s. When later authorities amended this policy there was still illegal logging but in 1989 a large part of the forest was declared a UNESCO world heritage site and this has resulted in proper protection. There are 20 odd villages within the protected area but they have rights to limited use of the forest resources.

The forest is home to about 60% of the islands endemic flowers, fauna, birds and insects. Up to 5 metres of rainfall arrives every year aiding the unique monocultures that exist to germinate such a massive range of life. This is not jungle like I saw in Africa that was so amazing for the mammals. This is a wet area that may be more similar to the New Forest in England in that I will be seeing new types of fungi or odd shaped little plants and mosses growing. There are 2 sizeable rivers running through and the guidebook tells me that the forest is studded with waterfalls, it is extremely high in humidity and a walker needs to be careful of the leeches.

I arrived at the Sinharaja Rest house on Temple Rd in Deniyaya and was greeted by Palitha. When I had been trying to organise my trip back in the UK I did actually speak to Palitha and he remembered me from this communication. Palitha is quite tall, around 40 years old I would say and has a black beard. He introduced me to his daughters and other members of his household. Palitha’s home is a large house with a well-tended garden outside of a large veranda near the front door. Part of the garden has an eating area in it so meals can be taken outside. Inside the house is a spacious, comfortable, communal area with a variety of armchairs and a library well stocked with books on Sinharaja, forests and conservation. There are just a few rooms for guests and I was allocated one near the dining area that then leads onto the family’s private living area.

I immediately felt a welcoming atmosphere and a closeness between the family and the guests. I worried a little about walking into one of their rooms. I got settled into my room and had a shower and a wee smoke and then went out to the sitting area. There was a lad already in there and we soon got talking. His name is Peter and he is from Switzerland. We swapped our travel stories and itineraries. He has been in Kerala and Karnataka in Southern India and is now here. He is a biologist and so also has a professional interest in the rainforest. We were getting eaten alive while we chatted. I went back to my room for some lotion and long trousers.

Palitha came to join us and told us a bit more about the forest and our plans for tomorrow. The 3 of us are off for a full days trek tomorrow morning. Palitha knows the area very well. Palitha not only talked about the forest but also about our countries. We chatted for 20 minutes or so and then he asked us what we would like for dinner. We ordered rice and curry and a beer each and sat in the garden and talked each other’s ears off. I think we were both pretty excited about tomorrow’s trip. The food was excellent, Okra, Pumpkin, Dhal, Rice and Papad. It was a very relaxing evening and I turned in pretty early.

Rose at about 06.30 and we had a bit of breakfast and were out in Palitha’s ancient jeep and soon parked up on the outskirts of Sinharaja at the Mederipitiya entrance. We initially walked along the road and through the village, which is one of 12 that act as buffers between civilization and the forest. Palitha was immediately pointing out different types of birds that were resting on the pylons above us. After about a kilometre the road turned into more of a track and the houses and grocery stalls began to thin out and replacing them to either side of us were rice fields and tea growing, rising up the hill.

It was a lovely clear day with blue skies. The trees were beginning to submerge us replacing the rice fields. The road became a path and the atmosphere grew darker, walking under this thick, moist canopy. Palitha led us at a fairly rapid pace and called our attention to some different types of leaves and fungi that were growing under our feet. We reached the forestry commission’s depot and Palitha filled in the forms and paid the fee. I took the opportunity to have a pee and a little smoke and then we filled up our socks and shoes with some salt and tucked our trousers into our socks, to protect against the leeches and then we were off into the forest proper.

An assortment of characters passed us. We saw some local villagers out in the forest collecting honey. A couple passed us on a motorbike which surprised me bearing in mind the fallen logs that we are stepping over.

Palitha guided us away from the path up into the forest climbing a narrow steep path. Palitha knew the way but I don’t think I would have been able to follow the path. The ground was wet with mulched up layers of leaves and very moist. New species of insects and fungi and plants are often being discovered. It is not difficult to see why. Everything was alive! The moisture gave tree bark a pourus, flaky feel that showcased the insects living inside and the new leaves and plants that had begun to grow within the tree. Every surface is covered with Fungi of some sort. It seemed like one ever growing, pulsating compost heap. It was not dirty, just moist, damp and rich with the scent of growing life.

Palitha is extremely enthusiastic about this environment. It is clear that he cares very passionately about Sinharaja. He told us of some of the problems that the forest faces. Plastic and packaging cause severe damage to all living organisms here. He has spent much time picking up litter and organising gangs to do this. The problem is that until 15 years ago the local people had never really had much packaging, the food they eat being mostly wrapped in newspaper or leaves, which can happily be discarded, thrown away in the forest. So when the new types of plastic packaging arrived the public have not been educated about the harm that it can do and that it is not biodegradable.

I was feeling quite weary already and we had only been walking a couple of hours. Palitha pointed out a giant squirrel and we had a break as we watched its movement from tree to tree. There were not many animals about but as I turned one corner I focused on a familiar sight. I saw a monkey sitting in a tree. As I got a clearer view I could see the flies and parts of its skeletal frame and realised it was a dead monkey. It must have been there for a few weeks, which was further confirmation of the lack of mammals in here and the dense cover that had hidden it from scavengers of the sky.
At one point Palitha turned to Peter and myself and said, ‘did you see that?’ and pointed to a green thin stem sticking out from a tree. It looked like another new variety of plant amongst hundreds I had seen passing me by.

Palitha shot an arm out though and grabbed it and the top of it started moving and changing colour. It was only at this point that I realised it was a lizard or a snake. Wow! That was a surprise and an amazing feeling watching this bright green, long thin leaf metamorphosis into a green snake turning black in a matter of seconds and desperately trying to turn its head and manipulate its body to get a shot at the hands that were holding it!

We passed tall, long and thin red mushrooms and Palitha also showed us some very rare orchids that were growing wild. There was something new to see around each corner. As a biologist, this profusion of life, one thing contributing to another, was fascinating for Peter and listening to the two of them talk, one with biological knowledge and Palitha, a wealth of information on Sinharaja was extremely interesting for me. Peter came across as intelligent and talked quite forcefully occasionally disagreeing with Palitha and reminding him in the logical, forceful Germanic way.

Palitha did not need prompting to describe everything we were seeing and passing. He answered any questions we did have but he was explaining names of birds or spices or butterflies before I had even seen them. And sometimes I never did see them. They were gone before my peepers spotted them. They explained how everything was interlinked in the forest to enable unique ecosystems to thrive that creates such a variety of species.

The forest felt very tropical, not in the sense that it was really hot, but through the altitude and moisture. At times I could see down below through the occasional clearing in the trees and see bright green fields, fruit trees and coconut palms dotted with boulders and streams. Layers of fog often obscured the view adding to the wet. The soundtrack for this parade through nature was the grasshoppers and bugs croaking with a wide variety of bird life on backing vocals. Palitha would occasionally collect a type of spice, seed or leaf and open them up to allow us to tell what they were by tasting or sniffing them. We found wild mint, Cardamom and Cinnamon to name but a few.

We decided to stop for lunch that Palitha’s daughters had packed for us. We found a beautiful waterfall and stopped for a swim and some sustenance. I was soaking anyway, just from the general atmosphere of the forest. I undid my boats and then took my socks off and found my hand was covered in blood. I turned out my socks and found a very large leech. Despite checking my boots leeches had got in and this one was literally regurgitating my blood. It had eaten too much. It was actually fortunate that I had discovered it because otherwise it would have eaten itself to death.
I cleaned myself up and the other chaps also spent 10 or 15 minutes delicing their feet and then we stripped down to our shorts and went swimming in the pool at the bottom of a waterfall.

The water was crystal clear and refreshing and also quite cold so I didn’t stay in too long and I had to be careful about stubbing my toes on the hard rocks. The actual waterfall was quite powerful and I could feel the reverberations in the water a long way away. We sat back down and dried off and prepared to walk again. I felt amazingly free as we lay back in the sun looking into the jungle trees in the distance. I breathed in deeply and satisfied and got up to start the afternoons adventure.

We rose through the paths further in to the trees after crossing the river. As we reached the top Palitha popped into a house and purchased some palm sap. We tasted a bit and it is like honey and looks like the caramel bit in a Crème Caramel. We followed a path skirting the forest area that we had travelled through in the morning. We were outside of the dense, moist cover of the ancient trees of the forest. It was still bright and we were looking down at breaks in the forest where farmland could be seen, small private allotments adjacent to houses.

By about 3.00pm we were following the road back towards the villages and the jeep. Soon after this, as predicted by Palitha, the skies burst and we had a torrential downpour throughout the next hour marching back to the jeep. We piled in and headed back to Palitha’s home. He had an interesting way of starting the jeep that involved touching wires together rather than using a key! He did this in a benign fashion presenting it as the most normal thing in the world, and always, as with most things, with a big smile coming from his eyes. I liked him. By the 5th wire-tapping attempt we had something and were flying off.

There were no doors in the Jeep but a plastic sack to keep the rain off that was leaking. It was nice to sit down and have a fag though as there is no smoking allowed in the forest. We arrived back and took our shoes and soaked top garments off. There was a real downpour. Sinharaja is famous for it but Sri Lanka as an island has a massive array of weather which has the benefit that at any one time you can expect to find some good weather somewhere on the island!

I went to my room and had a very vigorous cold shower and changed into some clean, dry clothes. I lay back and had a smoke and let the day’s scenery float past my eyes. I was physically tired but mentally alert and ready for a beer and a chat. Out in the reading lobby by the front door I continued reading a book on the forest that I had begun yesterday and soon Peter came out. We keenly discussed the day’s events and our plans for the next few weeks. Peter had been up to Pollonnaruwa and Sigiriya, part of the cultural triangle, an area I will be visiting in the next few weeks. Palitha bought us a few beers and sat and chatted through the day and answered some questions we had.

While we sat down there was a tap at the door and Palitha opened the door to a little girl of about 8 years old. Her name was Malsha Pamodani and she was here to collect her scholarship. Palitha helps to organise a local school and between him and some of his associates they sponsor a number of local children to visit the school and aid them with the costs of books. The sponsored child arrives to collect their month’s money but only after showing examples from her schoolbooks of her studies in the last month. This is not done in a manner that has the child having to prove their quality or Palitha diligently checking grades and rankings.

Malsha was delighted and eager to show her work and very proud of what she had
done and Palitha was aware that he just needed to encourage. Palitha prompted her to ask Peter and myself some questions that Malsha was initially reluctant to do. She felt a little shy but once we cooed over a picture she had drawn she was soon very chatty. Her English was good and she wrote her address down for me in a neat script. Neater than mine, (some compliment), as I told her.

This was a lovely 15 minutes with the child showing her natural optimism, warmth and innocence which is an uplifting cocktail to see, even for the most jaded of souls. It was a shame that she had to go. Peter and me had another beer, which I must admit was flying down. Another party had arrived and were to join us for dinner. More wonderful rice and curry. Meaning 4 or 5 Veg curries, 1 chicken curry and the crisp small Papads.

It was a fun evening and after dinner we all had another beer and chatted about our respective travels. The Estonian party were 1 guy aged about 40 and a girl in her early 20’s. They have been travelling with some other friends down through India, which is where their friends still are. They had found India a bit hard going and wanted to come to Sri Lanka for some less frenetic travelling. They were a nice pair and the girl was pretty. It was nice to see a good-looking western Woman. Not that I mind seeing the lovely looking Sri Lankan people. They told us a lot about how Estonia has changed in the last decade and the carving up of the former soviet republic. It was interesting and I kept reminding myself that I was having these conversations with 2 Estonians and a Swiss guy on the outskirts of a Sri Lankan rainforest! I eventually went to bed about midnight but it felt later as it had been a long but gloriously good and full day.

I woke up at 07.00 on Tuesday 6th December with a nasty hangover and a nervous excitement towards an extremely long bus journey to my next destination, Bandarawela. I had chosen Bandarawela as a further stop in the Hill country. It was not the most obvious choice like my next destination, Ella, but it was on route and sounds quite lively. I could have stopped off at Haputale or Badulla instead but I chose Bandarawela in the main because I wanted to stay at the Woodlands network. It had a good write up in the travel guide and the owner Sarojina gives guests the opportunity of finding more out about the local community and I am able to have a cookery lesson.

Peter and I had breakfast together in the garden and Palitha joined us as he phoned to check the buses, but the 08.00 bus to Pelmadulla had been cancelled so it was a leisurely breakfast. I tried to eat as much as possible knowing that I had an 8-hour journey ahead of me. I didn’t really feel like it. Peter seemed particularly strident in his opinions this morning but maybe it just seemed that way due to my head!

Palithas brother had arrived and sat down with us. He is from Unawatuna and he told me about his families experience of the Tsunami. They own a guesthouse and they had some tourists staying with them. Palitha was actually here at Sinharaja on Boxing Day visiting his brother. His wife and children climbed onto their roof when the wave came, along with 2 of their guests. Another guest had gone out to the beach and he never returned. In all I think around 30 locals and 30 tourists in Unawatuna were killed.

He spoke of the corruption surrounding the payments that went out to the locals from the relief aid. Some hotels had only been 1 or 2 stories high before received grants and rebuilt to a much larger specification, whilst other people were still waiting and had received nothing. His family lost all of their belongings and furniture but had successfully applied for a grant to enable them to replace and repair.

Palitha and some of his family ran us down to the bus and we said our goodbyes. I hope I see him again. He was a good bloke with a lot of spark about him.

---

Photos

Paddy fields
At the entrance to the forest

Steam rising
Verdant Sinharaja

Watercourses
There are many of these in the rainforest

A leach
Found in my sock!