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Park managers in London are to sow grasses and wildflowers in an...
Bill Oddie's most excellent adventure in Sri Lanka
Bill's trip to Sri Lanka was full of wildlife highlights, including elephants, leopards and sloth bears.
On assignment for BBC Wildlife Magazine, Bill Oddie gives blood to the rainforest, meets some familiar feathered friends, experiences the ‘Rainforest Rainbow’ and has four game drives in which to find a leopard…
I am alone, it is dawn and I’m in the lodge’s dining area.
We arrived last night in the dark, and all I know is that I’m in the middle of a forest called Sinharaja. It is slowly getting lighter and I can now see some trees. Nothing but trees, in fact. To the left, to the right, below, above and beyond.
It’s as if the land is enveloped in a gigantic leafy duvet, and it’s steaming like an England scrum on a chilly day at Twickenham. I can see no sign of active life. Typical rainforest!
Rain or cloud?
Or maybe it’s not rainforest. Maybe that’s not steam, maybe it’s cloud. Just as I realise that I don’t know the difference between rainforest and cloud forest, a male voice says, “We call this Forest View.” Can’t argue with that.
“Is it rainforest or cloud forest?” I ask. For a moment the man is perplexed, and then he explains, very slowly, as if to a child, “First, the cloud, then the rain.”
“Aaah!” I exclaim as if enlightened. My mentor then utters the words he knows every tourist wants to hear. “Later, maybe sun.”
My host shuffles off, and I listen to the calls that are typical of jungly habitats the world over. There is always a bird that sounds like a Clanger, and another that sounds as if it is laughing. I can hear both but see neither.
The truth is that first light in this forest – rain or cloud – can’t hold a candle to a British dawn chorus. My mind wanders to the New Forest in May, as somewhere a bird chortles mockingly.
Name that tune
I find it frustrating to hear calls and songs and not have the faintest idea which birds are responsible. I scan the vista of trees and mist, and, suddenly, the first winged creature of the day flaps slowly across the valley.
A butterfly. Not one of those huge, luminous blue butterflies that you are supposed to see in tropical places, but something small and yellowish, rather like a brimstone, only – well – duller. It disappears into a treetop. So far, I’m not overly impressed.
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This would a trip of a
This would a trip of a lifetime. There is so much that you can see and do here. This is why they you have to take this trip in the future.
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I like the account of his
I like the account of his travel to Sri Lanka. I think it would be a great experience for anyone who wishes to get closer to nature. As the wildlife slowly becomes endangered, we do not know how long more we can get to see those majestic elephants. It is time to get out of my Barcelona apartments and book a trip there.
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