Morningside – a twilight to the upper regions

I think you already know about Amazon. It’s crisscrossed by thousands of rivers, including the powerful Amazon. So what else we have to talk about that. He is the big daddy of the world. Maybe you heard about Sinharaja Forest Reserve. UNESCO declared this forest a world heritage site. This is the last undisturbed area of rain forest in Sri Lanka. Let me tell you something.

“When the Last Tree Is Cut Down, the Last Fish Eaten, and the Last Stream Poisoned, You Will Realize That You
Cannot Eat Money”  Native Proverb

Got it. Some highest places still can’t understand this. We don’t need to waste our time for this.

Anyway, I’m not going to talk about Amazon or Sinharaja. So my destination close to Sinharaja. Actually, it’s not a forest but it’s a part of a forest. It’s a beautiful site. Everything on the earth, I mean made by the earth is gorgeous. But this remote part is perfect. Misty just like up countryside. The climate is wetter and mist has laden throughout the day. The area was named as ‘Morning side’ as it feels like it is morning all day. The morning side always shadowed in the evening. The land being located in the east part of the Rakwana range. There you can see tea plantation located between the Sinharaja forest side and the driveway from Rakwana to Deniyaya. Because this lands having been opened for tea in the colonial era.

Morning side is the home to most of the lowland endemic birds of Sri Lanka as well as the highland endemics. You may here birds are mostly heard rather than seen. The Green-billed Coucal, flocks of Yellow-eared Bulbul & Sri Lanka White-eye along with Dull-blue Flycatchers, Sri Lanka Junglefowl, a Black Eagle soaring through the low clouds are some of we can find here.Also, there are Leopard, Sambar, Mouse Deer, Otter, and even few remaining elephants.  Also, many species of amphibians are also found in this forest side.

If you wanna visit Morning side, I think Rakwana to Deniyaya through the tea plantations of Hayse and Lauderdale Estates is one of the most picturesque driveways. Throughout it is a series of hills(“Kanda”), starting from Anin Kanda to Panil Kanda, Buth Kand and the last is Suriya Kanda. You can see Gongala hill (Bull’s hump) in Rakwana range in every turn of the road.I think this is the route must be one of the best driveways to down country, with this kind of landmarks.

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