The next day, we had breakfast, then started our journey to the dry lowlands. Our first stop was at the Surrey Estate Bird Sanctuary, where Pradeep managed to pick out a Brown Wood Owl roosting among one of thousands of trees. It's a rare skill that these bird guides have for finding birds like these. We stopped at the Ella Falls Grand Hotel for a very pleasant lunch. The hotel garden looks south down a valley towards the coastal plain and proved a great place for birding.
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| A Brown Wood Owl at Surrey Estate |
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| The team at Ella Falls: me, Mike, Paul, Rob, Pradeep and Kalinga |
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| Yellow-eyed babbler |
We stopped off at the lake beside Buduruwagalla, where the pace hotted up with lots of new species for the trip; Malabar Pied Hornbill being one of the more memorable sightings.
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| Stork-billed kingfisher at Buduruwagalla |
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| A peakcock giving it laldy to the curious peahen |
On we continued until we reached the luxury of the Grand Ullawalawe Safari Lodge. Two oversized cricket bats adorned the reception area, signed by the New Zealand touring cricket team and their Sri Lankan opposition. Mike and I took a swim in the hotel pool to freshen up.
When we went for our evening meal, we got a sense of how busy this hotel was, with large numbers of safari-goers enjoying the wide selection of eastern and western food in the buffet.
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