Sri Lanka by tuktuk

Our hotel is on the banks of the Bendiwera Lake, a massive piece of water.

At about 6pm we were treated to a fabulous sunset, then the strangest thing happened.

Initially I saw a huge bat fly overhead. Not the small frantic flappy types were used to, this fella was a brute and used his wings much more slowly, like a bird. However, the silhouette was pure Gotham City, certainly no bird.

Then there was another, then another, then absolute squadrons of them, all flying in the same direction down the lake. Over about 30 minutes we estimated over 1,000 flew overhead.

Sam (clever youngster, always bring a clever youngster) identified them as flying foxes. T’interweb confirmed that they roost in a spot a few hundred metres from our hotel and this daily migration is a well known thing.

To see it, though, was pretty mind blowing. A real David Attenborough moment.







IMG_0486.jpgIMG_0487.jpgIMG_0946.jpgIMG_0938.jpegIMG_0931.jpegIMG_0927.jpegIMG_0926.jpeg
 
Magnificent. I mooted the possibility of continuing our holiday by Tuktuk. The family did not bite. Kudos to you sir.

BTW it seems everyone here in Sri Lanka has a bike or a scooter, I’ve not seen one bigger than 250cc yet.
 
We set out to find where these flying foxes roost during the day. Not far into the forest, the trees were absolutely full of them.


IMG_0988.jpegIMG_0987.jpegIMG_0986.jpeg
 

Attachments

  • IMG_0981.jpeg
    IMG_0981.jpeg
    504.4 KB · Views: 1
You don’t need much in life - we have seen quite a few locals using these 2 wheeled diesel agricultural devices to plough their land, run pumps, pull trailers with towering loads or just take the kids to school - fabulously useful bits of kit


IMG_0949.jpeg
 
In the late afternoon we met up with our local fixer and took two fishing boats out onto the lake in search of elephants. We had some great sightings. IMG_1019.jpegIMG_1017.jpegIMG_1015.jpegIMG_1014.jpegIMG_0998.jpeg
 
Here are some we saw on our journey from Demodera to Yala in February.
They were huge!
In the last one you can see how they got the name 'Flying fox'.


IMG_0205a.JPGIMG_0208.JPGIMG_0209.JPG
 


Back
Top Bottom