EXCURSIONS FOR NON-PAINTERS during course time

Uda Walawe National Park

Experience a fantastic Jeep safari at Uda Walawe National Park. Its vegetation ranges from open parkland to dense jungle, dotted with waterholes, lagoons and small lakes.Uda Walawe is a superb place to watch elephants. An estimated 500 elephants in herds to up to 100 live here also home to many water buffalo,crocodile, monitor lizards, sambar deer, monkeys and the occasional leopard,

it is also famous for its abundant bird life, with 140 species of eagles, ibis, painted storks and jungle fowl making it a birdwatcher’s paradise as well as a photographer’s dream location.

The experienced trackers are interesting companions, and will show you the likeliest places to spot the animals, usually near waterholes, and you may just be lucky enough to see a leopard.

Mulkirigala Rock temple

Possibly the most imposing temple in the south, Mulkirigala Rock Temple, is situated on an isolated rock 210m high and rises, almost vertically, out of the surrounding forest.

Terraced and dotted with cave temples built beneath overhanging rock ledges, the origins of this temple are shrouded in mystery. Brahmin scriptures carved into the rock tell us that a Buddhist monastery was founded here around 130BC, and it has been a sacred place of tranquillity ever since.

The view from the summit is unrivalled: to the northwest lie the hills of the Sinharaja Rainforest, and to the south lies the coastal plain, beyond which the Indian Ocean stretches over the horizon.