A few flowers and foliage of Sri Lanka

The Sacred Temple of Tooth - Shri Dalada Maligawa

There are very few sacred places remaining, where the Buddhist world can actually worship. The Sacred Temple of Tooth in Sri Lanka being probably one of those very special places. This magnificently decorated palace enshrines the sacred left upper canine tooth relic of Lord Buddha, which rests on a solid gold lotus flower, encased in jewel caskets that sit on a throne.  The tooth is on view to the public twice a day and we were lucky to go to a viewing in the evening.

As with all temples shoes are left outside..

The casket containing the tooth

A few more Sri Lankan birds..

Black-headed Oriole

White Bellied Drongo

Sri Lankan Green Pigeon

Red-vented Bulbul

White-rumped Munia

Yellow Billed Babbler

Black Bulbul

Black-throated Munia

Red-wattled Lapwing

Painted Stork

Barred Button Quail

Brown Shrike

Red-vented Bulbul

Peafowl

Pintail Snipe

Shikra

Stone Curlew

Sinharaja

What can I say about Sinharaja - well it’s very hot and humid, it’s full of leeches and it has one of the bumpiest windiest roads leading up to it but it has fantastic birding!

Yellow Naped Woodpecker

Crested Treeswift

Green Imperial Pigeon

The track up to Sinharaja (Wayne and Chaminda)

Chaminda feeding the chickens! Jungle Fowl were never this easy in Thailand.

Blue Magpie

Changeable Hawk Eagle

Leeched again!

Hill Myna

There’s nothing like a good cup of tea…

…and us English know a good one from a bad one and I can confirm that in all our travels around the world Sri Lanka out performs everyone in the tea stakes! So….

Tea at the Blue Magpie Lodge, Sinharaja where not only did they produce the best cup of tea in Sri Lanka but also the best “rice and curry”

Tea Plantation at Nuwara Eliya

Tour of the tea factory!

This was unbelievable - a tea grinding machine made over a hundred years ago in a town ten miles from where we live in the UK!!

Lunch at the Blue Magpie Lodge

Indian Pitta

Totally unlike any Pitta I have seen - this one seemed to love posing for the camera, normally Pittas skulk around in the dark and you get a fleeting glimpse if you’re lucky.