Off beaten track

One of my favourite hang out spots in the world, the peaceful villa Kos. Find out more here .

The resident clown fish on the Cargo Wreck in Colombo. Resident at least until one of the fish collectors gets him.

The Forest Eagle Owl with a Brahmin kite it has killed, taken in Wilpattu. This is one of the candidates for the Ulama or the notorious Devil Bird whose call is supposed to foretell death for those who hear it. Legend or not the bird must be extremely powerful to have killed a fellow predatory bird.

An elephant feeds in a villu in Wilpattu, for me a timeless image of what once was and can be if we do everything we can to protect our natural heritage for future generations.

The wonderful thing about diving is that you always come across something strange. A heap of sand with a slivery fish poking its head out, a spurt of sand as a ray darts past you. This however was possibly one of the strangest things I have seen. Out of the 2 meters of visibility on a small inshore wreck in Unawatuna, I spotted a tiny black shape where the sand met the wreck. As I moved in closer to take a look, the shape resolved itself into a small object with what looked like two wings on either side, splayed wide as I came closer. The shape of whatever it was so odd that I could not figure out what it was, fish or invertebrate. The surge across the wreck made it quite hard to get a good look or take a photo as no sooner had I gotten close to take a look or focused on the creature, the surge swept me past the creature. Finning furiously and almost standing almost on my head to get as close to it without inadvertently crushing it I noted with some surprise that it looked like an unde...

A wildlife photo from the days I spent most of my time above land. King Gemunu walks his terrain in Yala. Sadly Gemunu has been fed by 'pilgrims' visiting Situlpahuwa and now begs for food from visitors to the park. A king transformed to a pauper and an accident waiting to happen. So much for gaining 'merit!'

Came across an interesting Tumblr site geared towards documenting the excesses in our parks and wild places, click here to see photos and also submit. There's been a lot of issues recently with idiotic jeep drivers in Yala injuring passengers and killing animals including leopards while speeding. You can visit Sri Lankan Wildlife on facebook to see some interesting discussions. The bottom line is that we who visit are those who are responsible for this. I personally was guilty and will be posting about this shortly as well. What can YOU do? 1) Ask your jeep driver to switch of their phone and not to speed. 2) Keep in mind the closing time for the park and ask your driver to make sure he is near the exit as the safari ends so he does not have to speed to get out of the park. 3) Keep in mind that a photograph is just a photograph and a leopard does not sum up Yala National Park, 4) Ask your friends to the same. 5) Take photographs of anything that is not being done correctly in the...