French Spring - 2012

French Spring in Sri Lanka was organized this year as well at BMICH for a week or so starting from 15th June 2012. Since I was close by I went there on Saturday, 16th June 2012 for a rock concert featuring a French rock band and Stigmata; who pioneered the rock music in Sri Lanka.

Stigmata

Guitarist of Stigmata

Ceylon Motor Show 2012

Ceylon Motor Show 2012 tool place at BMICH from 8th to 10th June 2012. I knew there isn't much to see in there but anyway I went to have a look. Gladly almost no modified "rice" cars :P

Jaguar XK

Porsche Panamera S

Jeep

Wasgamuwa

Wasgamuwa is one of the National Parks in Sri Lanka which is in the dry zone. It is known for Leopards, Bears and specially for Elephants. On our trip our first visit was Riverstone, a hike to a windy mountains in Knuckles which is closer to Wasgamuwa.

We arrived at Riverstone around 10.30 am Sunday, 3rd June 2012 and the hike took about a hour and a half. There were many kinds of Butterflies alone the way to the top of Riverstone where a telecommunication tower is located. Since it was lunch time when we finished our hike we decided to eat and all that was available there was Roti and Wade, was quite a good meal when you are really hungry :P

Our next stop was Pitawala Pathana, a plain located closer to Riverstone. It was a smaller hike compared to Riverstone and at the end of the hike you find a Mini Worlds End. You can see the beauty of the mountains when you are in the plain, its a good location for landscape photos.

After the two hikes we arrived at Wasgamuwa around 4.30 pm and we went on the first round to see some wildlife. Saw many elephants before the sunset and we returned to the Kadurupitiya Bungalow inside the Wasgamuwa National Park. At night we observed some deers around the bungalow premises. Since it was a full moon it wasn't hard for us to see whats happening around the bungalow.

Elephants on the run

On Monday, 4th June 2012 was the main safari, we had booked a safari jeep and it arrived before 6.00 am as planned. We packed both breakfast and lunch since we were on a full day safari. In the morning we saw many wild elephants and specially Eagles, many different types of them. The safari turned to a real adventure when we crossed a river stream that is also the boundary of two districts Matale and Polonnaruwa. The roads have not been used much and we had to clear the roads many times in order for the jeep to move forward. It was more than a 5 hour adventure when we crossed the boundaries of the two districts and the environment was much different from one side to another.

Eagles

An Eagle in flight

Blue Mormon Butterfly

By 4.00 pm we finished the safari and headed back to Colombo and it was the longest drive back home – a 10 hour drive because of the traffic created by Poson Poya activities.

Carlton Super 7s

For the 4th year Carlton Sports has organized a large scale Rugby tournament in Sri Lanka. This year there were many international players than previous years and the tournament had 2 stages; first stage in Kandy and the other in Police Park grounds in Colombo.

I was lucky enough to get some Free tickets and a shirt from one of the franchises - North Western Blacks. Unfortunately for me I could only attend Saturday, 2nd June 2012 as I was planning on a trip the next day (It would have been much exciting on Sunday). The event was well organized and even on Saturday there were much crowd at the Police Park grounds.

Rugby Players in action

Cheer Leader

Boat Show - 2012

Got to know about a boat show happening at BMICH and since I had no other plans I decided to drop by. Apart from gun boats from Sri Lanka Navy the only interesting thing for me were the Jet Skis.

Control room of a small Yacht

A Jet Ski on display

Link(s): www.boatshowsrilanka.org

Vesak 2012

No fake Vesak theme like last year and the decorations were also not in level compared to last year. There were some decorations around Beira Lake as usual and this is how it was...

Bridge

A model boat on Beira Lake

An Island with a tall building in the background

Spinning disks

Bodhinagala

There are a lot of kinds of birds in Sri Lanka and to see some rare species you normally have to go really far. But fortunately there is one place not too far away from Colombo called Bodhinagala where you can see lot of birds.

We went to Bodhinagala on 12th April 2012, and our journey started early as 5 am from Colombo. It was a bit drizzling but we were able to see many kinds of birds. Hornbills, Honeybirds, Woodpeckers and many kinds of Kingfishers even the rarest Dwarf Kingfisher can be seen at Bodhinagala.

Butterfly

Woodpecker

Chicken

Mushroom growing on a Tree

Honeybird having a look at the flowers

Bird building its nest