“Most tourists to Sri Lanka focus on the big animals, like leopards, but we have more,” Chaminda said when we started our night walks. Putting on headlights with anti-glare red filters, we quietly walked alone along a small forest path behind the lake. Fireflies flickered overhead, but Chaminda soon found the two brighter spots he was looking for: the reflected gaze of a foraging slow loris. Through binoculars, we see this fascinating creature, with hunched shoulders and skinny forearms, strutting through the clutter. It seized a cricket in its nimble little fingers and slid it in with a crunch.
As we moved on, Chaminda’s torches spotted other forest dwellers: a retreating palm civet checking us out; a green vine snake coiled appropriately on a vine. But while he combed every gleam of water diligently, the fish-eating felines hid.
beyond footprint
We did take multiple excursions during our 10 days; with UNESCO World Heritage Sites in every direction, it seemed criminal not to. In Dambulla Caves we admired the stunning “Gallery of Buddhist Art” carved into solid granite, and in Sigiriya we climbed to the breathtaking summit of a hill with ancient water gardens. We also visited the beautiful Wasgamuwa National Park, where the forests spit out some of the larger animals that draw crowds, including sika deer, wild boar, and most importantly, large elephants that emerge in the afternoon shadows and trail egrets accompanying.
However, what Vil Uyana taught us is that you don’t need wilderness to enjoy nature in Sri Lanka. At the resort, birdsong plays with the sounds of the surrounding rural community: the shouts of rice farmers, the hum of passing motorbikes and the faint sound of a Fur Elise as local bakers do their tuk-tuk.
