Sinharaja

PLACES TO EXPLORE

Sri Lanka compresses an astonishing diversity of landscape and culture into a landmass smaller than Ireland. Within a few hours’ drive you can move from ancient kingdoms carved in stone to rainforests dripping with endemic birdlife, from surf towns to elephant corridors, from colonial forts to cloud-wrapped tea estates. Each region holds its own character, rhythm and reason to arrive slowly.

Sri Lanka’s last viable lowland rainforest is a UNESCO World Heritage site protecting 64% of the island’s endemic tree species and over 20 endemic bird species found nowhere else on earth. The forest’s interior receives up to 5,000mm of rain annually, creating a perpetually mist-filtered canopy environment of exceptional botanical density. Mixed bird flocks moving through the canopy here are a naturalist’s spectacle.