March of the Leech Zombies - 24th November

We woke early to try our luck again in a slightly different spot for the especially tricky Green-billed Coucals near to where we had seen the Serendip Scops Owl. My  trousers hadn't dried out from yesterday's deluge so I decided to wear shorts. After all, we weren't going to go off track.

Soon after our arrival we heard the first calls from the forest. Straining up into the canopy I managed to get part views of one of the coucals, then a whole view of the bird in flight. I found myself standing at the edge of the road, and realised that my trainers were crawling with leeches. So I had to try and brush them off quickly before they got into my shoes or started crawling onto my legs. As you do this, they latch onto your hand, so you have to pinch them off with your finger nails, roll them into a ball and flick them into the verge like an unpleasant bogey. As you get rid of them, more emerge from the verge towards you like a bad zombie film and you have to deal with these the best you can, meanwhile checking your legs all the time in case any have managed to hide and then started to crawl up toward your shorts where they would sink their jaws into you and start sucking up blood. You aren't supposed to be able to feel it, but that isn't true because you sense a slight nip at the first bite. One made it through and got a bit of a blood meal before I managed to prize it off and flick it away. Paul was in a similar predicament to me and decided against leech socks. Three leeches got into his shoes undetected and he discovered that his socks were soaked in blood. And because they inject an anti-coagulant, the wounds carry on bleeding!

Anyway, in spite of this drama, we eventually all got quite a good look at these normally very secretive birds. Three of them were sparring and calling, and it is perhaps the sound of them that I will remember for longest.

After breakfast, we checked out and took the long drive to the coast. The road is under re-construction with thousands of people along its stretch engaged in this massive civil engineering project. I wondered how the country could afford to do this. Then noticed a couple of Chinese supervising in places, and it soon became apparent that, as in many developing countries, China is investing heavily in their infrastructure. When we got to the lowlands, we were able to take the brand new motorway that runs between Colombo and Galle in the south. No doubt this was financed by PR China as well.

It was a completely different world at our hotel in Welligama near Marissa - the whole coastal strip is highly developed with lots of new buildings to replace those battered by the 2005 tsunami, and lots of repaired older buildings that clearly survived the tidal waves. All very different and more frenetic than the peace we enjoyed in the interior.

Fishing boats in Welligama

Beautiful bay adjacent to the hotel

One of many fish markets along the coast