Saturday, May 16, 2009

Birds I have seen

Oriental Dwarf Kingfisher


At my journey to Kithulgala I saw a tiny little bird which is very colorful.
It was on a tree near to the Kalani River which is flow through the Kithulgala.
At that time I had bird guide and I searched it to identify the creature.

It was the smallest and the most beautiful Kingfisher who lived in SriLanka
who named as Oriental Dwarf Kingfisher. His length is about 13cm and
he rarely see in open areas.
Its call is high-pitched and usually lived in mid hill wooden gardens.

It was the nicest and colorful bird I have seen at that time.
Please be alert when you passing a river bank near to a forest so
you will be lucky as me to see this nice bird.

Thursday, May 14, 2009

Trip to Kithulgala

I spent my Vesak holydays with my brothering low and his friend at Kithulgala Rafting Retreat holiday restaurant ant it was great trip which add lots of experiences to our life. That was a marvelous place. The cottages are fully made by using natural sources and those are almost at the kalani river bank. The cottages were not fully closed and the bathrooms also made in a eco friendly way.

The first day we had a bath on the cold river water and we spent the night at the cottages. Since the river was next to us the sound of the water gave a very clam feeling to our ears and the cold winds made out bodies relax.

Next day morning we visited to nearby forest. Since the time was not so early we couldn’t see lots of birds but we met a rock squirrel and a wolf spider on the journey.

After the breakfast we had a white water rafting which was the main target of our journey. We went from two boats and we had to pass 7 rapid areas through the river. First three ware not that much difficult to pass, but they let us to familiar with the boat. The fourth one was the most dangerous one and the guide ask whether to rollover the boat not. We said not but my brothering low has said to do that. So on that rapid area the boat crashed with a rock and the boat rolled over and we fall in to the water. That made us confused very much and my helmet was removed from the head. I picked it and after that I noted that the boat was over me. I pushed away it and looked for my sister. She hanged on my brothering low’s hand and the others were floating over the river. The guide told not to be frightened and let the body floats and after few minutes we were able to get on to the boat. That was the nicest experience we had in that trip. We saw the remnants of the blasted bridge at the Bridge On the River Kwai film shoot on 1950s.


The bridge before it blasted

We finished our rafting journey with marvelous experiences and after the lunch we came back to Colombo with a great pleasure. That was a trip which will not forget from my mind.