This is used to guide for your traveling .

1. No need to go solo in Sri Lanka: The colourful island is open
again - and a group tour is a wonderful way to take in its
sublime attractions
Max sets off on a 10-day tour of Sri Lanka with Titan, which begins in the capital of
Colombo (pictured)
There are 19 of us, with a median age of around 60, and my fellow Titan passengers
are not just delightful, but well-travelled. Antarctica, Namibia, Ecuador, Cambodia. You
name it, they’ve been there.

2. In their youth, they were back-packers. No cheap youth hostels this time for these
grizzled globe-trotters. The hotels on our journey, mainly in the Cinnamon group, are
comfortable and well-appointed.
Our ambitious ten-day itinerary, beginning and ending in the capital, Colombo takes
us on a sweeping circle of the country, across thrillingly varied terrain.
Sigiriya, Sri Lanka's answer to Uluru, takes nearly two hours to scale. 'It is worth the
effort, just for the wonderful views from the top,' says Max Davidson

3. From Colombo, with its fine old buildings, parks and statues of Queen Victoria, we
head north to Habarana, in the historic heartland of Sri Lanka, where the highlights
include Buddhist shrines and a sacred tree more than 2,000 years old. ‘Would you like
to climb Lion Rock tomorrow?’ asks Shiromi. Yes please, we chorus, a little nervously.
Sigiriya, Sri Lanka’s answer to Uluru, rises steeply from the plain and was built as a
fortress by a mad 5th-century ruler with many wives. It takes nearly two hours to
scale, up some vertiginous flights of steps, but it is worth the effort, just for the
wonderful views from the top.
Our next port of call is Kandy, a city in the centre of the island, situated on a large
river and surrounded by rolling hills dotted with tea plantations.

4. Max and his group call at Kandy (pictured above), a city that's situated on a large river
and surrounded by rolling hills dotted with tea plantations

5. According to Max, the Temple of the Tooth, pictured above, is the main attraction in
Kandy
If the Temple of the Tooth is the main attraction, conceived on an epic scale, the
Botanic Gardens are even better. We spend a lazy couple of hours wandering through
alleys of banyan trees and giant coconut palms, listening to the birds.
By now, our group is getting on famously, there is some terrific banter and our
appreciation of Sri Lanka is deepening by the day. A hallmark of Titan tours is that, as
well as taking in obvious tourist sites, they give you glimpses of day-to-day life.
After Kandy, it is onwards and upwards to Nuwara Eliya, an old colonial enclave,
6,000 feet above sea level. High tea at a fusty gentlemen’s club is followed by
snooker and a whisky before bed.

6. The city of Nuwara Eliya, pictured, is an 'an old colonial enclave' that's set 6,000 feet
above sea level

7. Elusive: Max went looking for Sri Lankan leopards at Yala National Park (pictured) -
they are notoriously hard to spot

8. Max was taken by the 'brilliant blue wings of the bee-eaters' that he saw in Yala
National Park
The next morning, we are off to the Yala National Park and a chance to spot the
elusive Sri Lankan leopard on a safari.
No leopards, alas, but none of us is complaining because there is just so much else to
see, from wild elephants marauding through the bush to buffalos wallowing in the
mud, with white egrets perched on their backs. Speckled lizards zig-zag along the dirt
tracks, their tongues hanging out as if they are desperate for a beer.
The bird life on view is quite majestic. The brilliant blue wings of the bee-eaters will
live long in the memory, as will the grave white faces of the fish eagles, looking for

9. their prey in the waters below. A huge peacock treats us to a full-on mating display,
fanned feathers and all.
Eastern chic: The final leg of Max's journey started with the 'splendid' old Dutch fort at
Galle on the Sri Lankan coast (pictured)

10. Max recalls seeing women in bright saris plodding across tea plantations with baskets
on their backs. Pictured are Tamil tea-pickers at work near Nuwara Eliya
The final leg of our journey starts with the splendid old Dutch fort at Galle, overlooking
the cricket ground beloved of sports fans, before snaking along the glorious sandy
beaches which stretch along the south coast.
Titan promises its customers ‘perfect moments on tour’, and it delivers: a kingfisher on
a telephone wire, catching the last rays of the sun; schoolboy cricketers in spotless
white; an old man sitting under a banyan tree, remembering days gone by; a
snake-charmer in front of a temple, squinting at his mobile phone.
I could go on — and I will: perfect sunsets; delicate curries; exquisitely painted statues
of the Buddha; women in bright saris plodding across tea plantations with baskets on
their backs.
And a langur monkey with a face like Jacob Rees-Mogg eyeballing the lime in my gin
and tonic.
It’s hard to imagine a much better introduction to this sparkling jewel in the Indian
Ocean.

11. TRAVEL FACTS
Titan Travel (titantravel.co.uk) offers a 13-day ‘The Best of Sri Lanka’ escorted tour,
from £2,099pp, including flights, transfers, accommodation, meals and excursions. All
visitors must apply for an Electronic Travel Authorisation (ETA) at immigration.gov.lk
and complete a pre-travel health form at srilanka.travel/helloagain. Fully-vaccinated
tourists must show proof of a negative PCR test. Unvaccinated travellers must also
have a negative test and stay in a ‘bio-bubble’ in which they can visit approved tourist
sites.
Advertisement
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WNPS partners LOLC to establish multi-regional monitoring
system for conservation of Sri Lankan leopard
February 21st 2022 (COLOMBO) The Sri Lankan leopard (Panthera pardus kotiya) is
the largest of the four wild cat species found in Sri Lanka, and the apex mammalian
predator on the island. The sub-species of this charismatic animal is endemic to Sri
Lanka and widely distributed across the island’s dry zones and low country wet zones
with habitats ranging to the cloud forests of the highest elevations in the hill country.

12. It is believed that there are less than 1,000 leopards roaming in the wild within the
island. Further, the leopard is threatened globally by habitat loss and illegal wildlife
trade, while in the human-dominated land-use areas in Sri Lanka, the impacts of
habitat loss prevail critically. To initiate and sustain a science-based conservation
strategy it is imperative to further understand the distribution and the ecology of the
Sri Lankan leopard, specially, in under-studied areas nationwide.
In addressing this knowledge gap, the Wildlife and Nature Protection Society (WNPS)
will partner with LOLC Holdings PLC, Sri Lanka’s leading and largest diversified
conglomerate to establish a network of specialized leopard conservation locations and
research centers across identified geographically important areas, within Sri Lanka.
These Research Centres will focus on understanding the species function in
populations or meta-populations that exist at much larger scales than individual
management units, at a regional level.
Through this initiative, the WNPS hopes to create a common knowledge and
data-sharing platform to drive a research-based island-wide leopard monitoring
programme. Through the establishment of these Research Centres nationwide,
smaller monitoring efforts will be easily integrated into larger programs and
databases. It will enable scientists and conservationists access to deeper and wider
sets of data to understand local leopard populations, regionally and countrywide
In the initial phase, six research stations will be set up in identified locations across
Okanda or Panama, Morningside, Killinochchi, Belihuloya, Maskeliya or Nallathaniya,

13. Sigiriya or Ritigala. The Project will monitor the presence of leopards in selected
geographical areas, using camera traps and surveys.
The Research Centres will liaise with local wildlife and forest officers, and also serve
as educational hubs to generate awareness amongst the local communities, including
knowledge dissemination and generating research-based human-leopard conflict
mitigation measures. This is timely and critical, in addressing the increasing number
of leopard deaths in Sri Lanka, predominantly through snares set up in a
human-dominated landscape.
The Project will provide a critical context for the management and conservation of the
Sri Lankan leopard, currently listed as Vulnerable on the IUCN Red List. Recent
research has shown that leopard habitat suitability in Sri Lanka is heavily influenced
by forest cover, patch size, connectivity, and the level of protection of the landscape, a
critical requirement to conserve the island’s biodiversity.
“As the Sri Lankan leopard is the largest predator in our ecosystem, it is important that
we know the current position related to its habitat, the threats faced by it etc. Hence,
it is vital to do a more coordinated island-wide data collection effort to mitigate any
conflicts or issues faced by this predator” said Mr. Kapila Jayawardena, Group
Managing Director/CEO of the LOLC Group. “To this end, we are pleased to step
forward and join hands with the WNPS to support them in this endeavour, which will
enable them to make informed decisions to protect this endemic species” he went on
to state.

14. “Multi-stakeholder partnerships play a key role in influencing the course of
conservation. For lasting impacts, a range of extraordinary partners, including
governments, local communities, businesses, scientists, academics, and individuals
must collaborate. We are happy that Sri Lanka’s largest Business and most diversified
Business Group has partnered with us for a 5-year project. The WNPS will bring the
wild cat research community to work together and share the findings for a collective
conservation effort” said Spencer Manuelpillai, the President of the WNPS.
Speaking further Prof Enoka Kudavidanage said, “The Sri Lankan Leopard is
threatened by our unplanned land use, intentional wildlife crimes, lack of awareness,
economic intentions especially in the tourism sector with minimum respect for wildlife,
obstacles for enforcing adequate penalties for wildlife crimes, limited understanding of
its ecology and resource requirements, and finally the delay in translating knowledge
into action.
“I am hoping that this initiative by the WNPS and LOLC Holdings will assist to
combine findings of the past and the ongoing research and conservation measures,
identify the data gaps, addressing them through collaborative pathways, facilitate data
sharing, and fueling a collective and science-driven long-termed leopard conservation
strategy for Sri Lanka with the participation of multiple stakeholders. The project will
benefit from the knowledge, of all researchers studying leopards in Sri Lanka, of those
who are actively working for the conservation of this charismatic animal, and of those
who are willing to initiate new research in data deficient areas, as our ultimate
objective is to ensure the existence of healthy populations of leopards in Sri Lanka”. If
you want to read more

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