Trip Reports from United Kingdom

Having been to several parts of the Indian Subcontinent on previous trips, Louise and I decided it was time to visit Sri Lanka.  We contacted Manoj Vardhan at Vardhan's Individual and Group Tours (VIGT), who had put five trips together for us before, and he liaised with Prasanjith (“Jith”) Caldera of 'Walk With Jith' to act as our ground agent.

Sri Lanka is recognized as an easy birding destination as the island is quite small and easy to navigate. Roads are fairly good and the birding sites are quite accessible. There are still quite large areas of forest and the current 33 endemics and many regional (southern India and Sri Lanka) make a trip here quite appealing. Sri Lanka also has quite a rich cultural history and many historical sites are well worth visiting. With that in mind my wife and I spent twelve days touring the country.

We had a very enjoyable time in Sri Lanka and our guide proved to be a superb guide for the birds, other wildlife and cultural sites. He made the holiday an excellent experience for us all and we appreciated the great efforts he made to find all the birds he possibly could for us. We only missed 3 targets and all of them were almost impossible to find, no Pied Thrushes - we were too early, Scaly Thrushes weren't calling and were impossible to find and Serendip Scops Owls did not co-operate despite great efforts by our guide and the local guides in Sinharaja.  If we come back to Sri Lanka we will be delighted if our guide were our guide again.
 
We will write a trip report and once it is complete we will send you a copy for your website and we look forward to meeting you again in August at the Birdfar.
 
Thanks again for organising an excellent trip for us

Dr John Poyser and Mrs Jane Lloyd

My partner and I were guided by our guide for a period of 3 weeks in November 2012.

Our tour cover eight important areas of Sri Lanka with an emphasis on Birdwatching, but also including general elements of the natural world as well as important cultural sites.

Our guide has an encyclopaedic knowledge of the birds of Sri Lanka and an ability to spot different species accurately at some distance.  He is patient with his quests and always takes considerable trouble to ensure that they are able to see and identify whichever bird or animal is in view.  He clearly has a passion for ornithology and a deep desire to see the environment of Sri Lankan cared for and protected.

Throughout our trip he was courteous and discreet.  He was never critical when we showed tiredness or lack of interest, but would always do his utmost to ensure our safety and comfort at all times.  He drove us for many miles, but always with care and consideration for our comfort, we both considered his driving to be safe despite many different road and traffic conditions.  He always knew where he was and which road to take to get us to our destination.

Our experience in Sri Lanka was of the highest quality, largely due to the expert care and attention of our guide.

Nick & Carol King and Michael & Judy Bates toured with Walk With Jith in 2011. This is Nick's e-mail comment and comprehensive tour feedback.

This tour contains Ian Hillery from UK did a 7 day tour with us in March 2009. He visited 3 main birding sites in Sri Lanka; 1. Sinharaja Rain Forest, 2.Nuwara-eliya highlands and 3.Kithulgala.

www.walkwithjith.com is the website of Jith, who I used as the guide and organiser of the trip. Partly because I was on my own, but mainly due to the country being difficult to negotiate, and the speciality birds even more taxing to track down without local knowledge, I broke with a birding long habit and enlisted help with my trip. My friends and I had come across Jith at the Rutland Water Bird Fair in 2006, and they had subsequently used him the January following. It is difficult to imagine that he has only been organising tours as a business since 2005, even more so when you observe his excellent local knowledge and identification skills.

One of the beauties of Jith's trips is that he will tailor them to your own needs, with a more than reasonable cost. This includes itinerary, driver, accommodation (half board), and entrance fees. He will even alter the itinerary as the trip is under way to react to local and/or bird conditions...

This tour report is taken from www.birdseen.co.uk >>

Prasanjith Caldera of Walk With Jith first met David Nelson and his friend Bob Crawford from Middlesbrough, UK at the British Bird Watching Fair in 2007. Subsecuently they went on a bird watching tour in Sri Lanka in February 2009. In this very successful two weeks bird watching tour they spotted more that 230 birds including Serendib Scops Owl in Sinharaja rain forest. In Yala national park they were lucky to spot two big Leopards at very close range.

Barrie and Shirley Bird with Peter and Jackie Bourne from Kent, UK met Prasanjith Caldera at the British Bird Watching Fair in 2007. Subsecuently they did a wild life and culture tour in Sri Lanka in February 2009. The tour included whale watching in Mirissa. During the 3 hour boat ride, they spotted about 08 Sperm Whales.

... Another beautiful setting on the beach we watched Terns ,gulls & sea eagles .The Icing on the cake was a boat trip at the end of the day prior to our return flight home. Through the Mangrove swamps we came close to Black bittern, Yellow bittern, Striated heron and many of the birds we had attempted to photograph this time getting excellent results. Indeed it wqs a good job we were using digital photography otherwise it would have been very expensive session. All in All a perfect trip organised at a very reasonable price by a great leader well done Jith & Sammy. ...