Sr Lanka RFI

Hi all

It looks like I’m going to be making an unexpected work trip to Sri Lanka in the next couple of weeks and wondered if anyone could give me any pointers.

I’m going to be working in the north (Mannar Island & possibly also near Jaffna) – this area doesn’t really feature in trip reports and presumably hasn’t been much visited by wildlife tourists. Anyone been to the north or heard anything about it?

Any free time I have before or after the work is going to be limited (or worse, almost nonexistent) – I’ve had a look through various trip reports and can’t work out the best site(s) to try. I might possibly try to fit in a couple of nights around Sirigaya on the way back south, or perhaps return to Colombo and then head east for 1-3 nights. Any thoughts on the best way to see a few decent mammals in a short period.

Any advice gratefully received!

cheers, Mike

4 Comments

  • paul carter

    Hi Mike
    I was up at Kalpitiya and Wilpaththu NP in Dec 2015; then went down to Sigiriya from there. Wilpathu has sloth bear, leopard etc
    For Wilpathu we (with the Ms) stayed at Big Game Camp Wilpattu at Pahala Maaragahawewa village on the southeast side of Wilpattu. They have some good thickets you can wander around at night; and they do landrover drives into the park.
    You can do whale-watching trips from Kilpathu. Dolphin Beach Resort (Makara group) – good place to stay and they can do small speedboat tours (4-6 pax) – we went 5-10 km offshore but only had spinner dolphins that day.
    On the way up there we stopped at Pilikuttuwa Caves and Temple (30 Km NE of Colombo on the Kandy road) for bats. I will look further into my notes in a day or two and give you more detail.

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