With the weather finally clearing we were able to get in some excursions on our last day in Gal Oya.
We got our naturalist up nice and early for an 8am walk down to the lake. There was an array of plants and birds that we stopped to view, one being the pepper plant and him explaining how they make black and white pepper out of it. We saw a few king fisher birds, which are beautiful with their bright shades of blue. We also saw some empty beer cans on wire, like shown in the picture above. Nayshawn pointed out that this was to alert farmers of elephants entering the area. Just beyond the wire in the middle of the field you could see a treehouse like structure, used as a lookout point. Farmers would take shifts and stay there overnight, scaring off any elephants that would walk onto the property and try to eat crops. The beer cans were filled with beans so they would shake and make noise as the elephants approached, then the farmer would set off firecrackers to try to scare off the elephant. The last night we stayed at Gal Oya we head a lot of firecrackers.
At breakfast we were visited by a giant squirrel which the host then fed a banana to for my amusement.
After breakfast we were picked up by our naturalist again to go on a Vedda Tribe walk. The Vedda people are a small tribal community, making up just 1% of Sri Lanka's population. Written into existence by the Mahavamsa in the 5th Century CE, the vedda people were said to have been the descendants of King Vijaya (The Sinhala king who first encountered Sri Lanka) and Kuveni (a native yakka, or devil, who was already inhabiting the island). The veddas are therefore descendants of the aboriginal people of Sri Lanka and are more shrouded in secrecy, mythology and mystery than any other group of people on the island. Referring to themselves as ‘forest-dwellers’, the veddas form several distinctive groups across the island. The veddas of Gal Oya once lived in caves protected by the forests of the areas, but were moved out by government developments in the early 1950s. These days the Gal Oya veddas mostly inhabit small mud houses within the forest and many of them have modernized and integrated into the local community. Recent years have brought developments such as TV and internet into the Vedda communities and as such their language, unique religion, extensive knowledge of natural medicines, and ritual customs are being slowly lost. This was described to us during the walk, that the chief we were walking with was the last true generation of the tribe and all of the younger generations are adopting more modern practices.
The chief carried the traditional axe over his shoulder and wore the traditional Vedda cloth and showed us how he used the bow over his shoulder as a slingshot to occasionally hunt or scare aware elephants or leopards. He spoke no English so our naturalist translated for us as we walked through the forest. He told us all about the plants he would use for different medicinal purposes. Some were used for itchy skin, rashes, colds and flus. They even had natural remedies they used in order to help treat Covid, and during the Covid outbreak, though people in their tribe got sick, no one died from the virus.
As we continued on we asked questions about the tribe, how often they moved locations, how they caught food, etc. Because we were engaged he was keen to show us more and paused for a moment by the river to create a trap that would be used to capture animals for food. The one he created was smaller, similar to the image below, but they said that they will create ones that could take 10-20 men to hoist up in order to catch larger wildlife such as warthogs.
After the Vedda walk we went back to the lodge for lunch before a quick dip in the pool. Nayshawn was feeling bummed himself that he hasn't been able to show us an elephant yet, so he asked that we head out one more time later that afternoon to go look for some.
He took us back to around the boulder area but there was nothing down in the grasslands, so he turned to us and asked if we'd be okay driving back to the lake one last time, and off we went. We were in an open air safari jeep and we got to see the sun beginning to set and stars come out. When we arrived back at the lake there was one lone, male bull elephant in the middle of the field eating the fresh grass. Because everything else in the forest was covered by water, he came out to feed, though the female elephants wouldn't risk it with younger baby elephants. You can see in the image all of the people in the background, most of these people weren't interested in the elephant, but were at the lake to look at how high the water line was, the elephant paid them no mind either.
We got back to the lodge, had an incredible dinner and then started packing for our trip to Kandy tomorrow. After all of the rain and mud we experienced in Gal Oya our hiking boots were caked in mud and looked like they've seen better days! They weren't making the trip home with us.