To the Mudhouse!

We were up a little later than previous days after a night still interrupted by my coughing although the bed was very comfortable. Breakfast consisted of a delicious fruit platter, weak coffee and a stone-cold omelette.

Champi picked us up at 9.30 and we had an interesting drive to our next destination. There was a lot to see along the way, and we stopped twice. Firstly to photograph a large Hindi temple, and secondly for a drink at a pleasant roadside café. I also grabbed a few photos from the car as we drove.

The Mudhouse

When our tour company, Selective Asia, suggested we might like a stay at the unique Mudhouse in western Sri Lanka we were in two minds. Would we love the ‘back to nature’ vibe or would we find sleeping in the semi-open with few ‘mod cons’ too much of a challenge? The lodge’s website explains the ethos behind it:

Spread throughout a large expanse of forest on the outskirts of a small village in Sri Lanka, The Mudhouse is a private and seductive jungle lodge, far away from the beaten track. Flanked by lakes and blessed with abundant birdlife, wildlife and natural beauty, The Mudhouse offers a range of rustic accommodation in private and individually designed huts. … The Mudhouse aims to be a positive force for the people and nature with whom we co-exist.

As it turned out, staying here proved to be a great decision. We arrived around 12.30 and were welcomed by a group of the staff at our own mudhouse. Accommodation here is in one of five of these ‘mudhouses’, all of them constructed with natural materials (wattle and daub) in a traditional style with open sides.

We had a refreshing lemon juice and then one of the staff, naturalist Oshi, showed us around. As well as the main hut with a double bed and day bed (like most of the mudhouses it could comfortably have slept six) there was another with a further bed, so we had a choice! Round the back was an open air (but secluded) toilet and cold shower.

We were left to settle in for a short while, then Oshi returned to escort us to the restaurant for lunch. They provide bikes but as I don't cycle we walked. It took rather longer than the 5 minutes we'd been told, but was an interesting walk as we saw an Oriental lizard and a giant squirrel (the national animal) on the way.

Lunch was a large selection of vegetable curries plus chicken curry and two sorts of rice - regular boiled white rice and what we were told was water lily rice. It was tasty but as is quite usual here served almost cold. More to my taste was the refreshing fruit salad that followed.

We had a great view of the lake as we ate, breaking off several times to take photos of the birds. And after our meal we went to sit in the shady lounge area with an even better view. We saw egrets, cormorants, a small brown heron, kingfisher, bee eater and more. Using the bird book provided in our room I believe I identified some of them, including Purple Swamphens, Blue-tailed Bee-eater and Common Kingfisher.

After a while we walked back to our hut, seeing some more birds on the way including an Oriental Magpie Robin, and meeting several of the resident cats. We spent a relaxing couple of hours there and also tested the cold water open air shower - very refreshing!

As it started to get dark we were plunged into complete darkness in our hut when all the lights went out. Our first thought was a power cut till we realised the fan and sockets were still working. There was little we could do about it as by the time we’d walked back to the common areas to look for help Oshi would be due to collect us for our evening night walk.

When he arrived, he immediately called for someone to come and fix what I assume was a blown fuse, then we set out, using red torches. The walk was a bit disappointing however. We got only a brief and distant glimpse of a slow loris, plus a mouse deer and a few roosting birds. The latter included a Purple-rumped Sunbird, Orange-headed Thrush and two Green Imperial Pigeons, all of which I attempted to photograph by torch light, with limited success.

Our walk ended at the restaurant where we had dinner, which was a variation on lunch with different vegetable curries and fish instead of chicken, but again barely warm. But it all tasted pretty good and we were glad to be able to wash it down with beers after alcohol-free Doha and last night's full moon festival embargo!

After the meal Oshi ran us back to the hut in a tuk-tuk, where we were pleased to find all the lights working. We did our ablutions as best we could in these conditions and got ready for bed. We had a choice of the latter and settled on the separate area off to one side as the area around the bed was more spacious and I'd be less likely to bump into the wall if I got up in the night. Although given the mosquitoes and the dark walk to the outside loo I vowed to try not to do so!

PS I did have to get up and to my surprise found it a rather pleasant experience to walk outside at that time of night, feeling as if I were the only person awake in the world!