I have welcomed the New Year in many a different place, 5 star hotels in Colombo, a cold pub in Bromley, fireworks on the home street and on the streets of Vegas. 2010 however had most of those other times beat, as I returned to a place that has always had a hold on my heart, Yala National Park in the deep south of Sri Lanka. Yala has played a large role in my life, from the lore of family tales to my first memories of wildlife and nature. The dry plains and twisted palu and weera trees formed the back drop to most of my childhood photographs. The half glimpses of the elusive leopard and the lumbering bear and the old men of the jungle trackers formed some of the best parts of my childhood. Despite all this prior to August 2009, I hadn�t been into the park for well over a decade, the vagaries of college and working in the first world having prevented me from any trips on the mostly breathless visits back home. What I found when I went back in 2009, having moved back to Sri Lanka for an...
A sign at the Entrance to the Valley of Flowers (VoF) says it all The passionate forest guard at the gate told me that he had been scolded by a senior officer that the VoF had no flowers, and that he, the forest guard, should put up a sign warning everyone so. The experience I had was entirely different, I saw a myriad flowers blooming and a tranquil Valley. And I thought to myself that: they are really blind those who will not see. These flowers were very different to to those I had seen on my earlier trip in August 2015, view my photographs of the earlier trip at the link here and my blog of that trip over here Flowing water everywhere A kilometer after buying a ticket at the forest check post, I cross the steel bridge across the Pushpawati River and begin the ascent into the VoF. The ticket is valid for three days of which I will visit on two. The mountainsides are striated with waterfalls fed by t he melting snow, whi...
Dive #29 and #30 (and #31), diving off Mount Lavinia with Colombo Divers , Boatman Ravinda, Divemaster Jehan, Dive guide DJ and buddy Karin. Taprobane East Wreck: Bottom time � 35 minutes; Depth � 31.6 meters Imagine a canvas of pure white sand and aquamarine blue , a picture perfect tropical paradise beach with the endless bowl of the blue sky replaced by the ocean. Into this starkly beautiful landscape had sunk a small boat, initially probably sullying the pristine scene with its harsh man-made lines, oil and diesel leaking. Time has however smoothed this out and now it is heaven underwater, the rusted shell covered in green and pink soft corals and fish exploding out of every nook and cranny. Heaven's Gate (picture courtesy of Dharshana Jayawardena off Dive Sri Lanka ) As we sank through the 30 meter plus visibility waters, the rusted wreck looked strangely abstract and as we got closer, amorphous. As we got closer to the bottom the reason for the shape-shifting became obviou...
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