I believe to really get a feel for a place you've got to get out of the city. You've got to meet country folk. Hiriwadunna Village near Habanara fit that bill!
Maybe it's because at heart, I myself am country folk. Even though I live in a city now (Munich), I grew up in a small farming community south of Calgary, Alberta, not far from the Montana border. A type of place where cows outnumber the people at least two to one. We're different from city people. We have more of a connection with the land, with nature...with each other...
Hiriwadunna is a village of approximately 2500 people, similar in size to the town where I grew up. While I can't say that cows outnumber people here, I can say that onions do - or at least at the onion farmer's house, our first stop.
According to our guide TK, They are very rich, maybe not by city standards but they have everything they need. They produce their own food, barter their crops with their neighbours. If you peeked inside their bedrooms you would likely see two years worth of rice stored there! And if you happen to be one of the cats living there, you have the added bonus of always having toys to play with!
Next was the trek portion of our Hiriwadunna Village Trek tour, but a more accurate description would have been an easy twenty-minute walk stopping to look at butterflies along the way. It was enjoyable, but not trek-like in the least, something that hard-core trekkers should be aware of before they go.
After our trek, it was time to relax and let someone else do the work as we were paddled in a catamaran type boat across the man-made reservoir.
I kept expecting to see frogs jumping from lily pad to lily pad, but no frogs sadly...sigh and I love frogs! We did however spot grey and purple headed herons! Travel tip: Keep your hands inside the boat and not dangling in the water...there are crocodiles! If your soul needs soothing this is the place to be!
Disembarking from the boat, it was time for our guide TK to show us what comes so naturally to villagers - climbing a coconut tree! An impressive feat, but not one I was inclined to repeat!
Sorry, couldn't resist the rhyme. As we dug into our coconut milk straight from the coconut I learned that cats love coconut milk! This guy couldn't get enough!
Next up, was one of the most interesting people I met in all of Sri Lanka, a farmer who also bore the title Elephant Scarer ...or something along those lines....I confess to making that title up, I just think that it sounds really cool!
Crops are easy food for elephants and a herd can decimate an entire crop in a matter of minutes devastating the farmer. So the farmers have built watch towers where they stand guard all night and then yell as any elephants approach. There's more to the complex human-elephant encounter situation than that though, which I'll describe in more detail in an upcoming post.
And for the third time on my village trek, I saw more cats, these ones living with the Farmer/Elephant Scarer. Hiriwadunna is a paradise for cat lovers like me!
We finished our tour of Hiriwadunna riding in a cart led by oxen past rice paddies where we saw farmers buried up to their knees in mud.
I enjoyed the Hiriwadunna Village Trek, even though it was less of a trek than I was expecting and more of an insight into village life in Sri Lanka. It was one of the places I felt most at peace during my entire time in Sri Lanka, even though it lacked the WOW factor of observing elephants in nearby Kaudulla National Park or climbing Sigyria, the most famous rock in Sri Lanka (also nearby) or seeing leopards in Yala National Park. It seems as if time slows when you're in Hiriwadunna, you breathe a little deeper, your shoulders start to loosen and you start to connect with nature and with the villagers.
The Hiriwadunna Village Trek is a part of a grassroots program organized by Cinnamon Nature Trails to benefit the surrounding communities by providing self employment and partnership opportunities.
Travel Guide to Hiriwadunna Village and Habarana:
- You can book the village trek through Cinnamon Nature Trails.
- I stayed at the nearby Chaaya Village Habarana, or if you want something truly luxurious, you can stay at the neighbouring property,Cinnamon Lodge Habarana.
- Bring bug spray, or ask your guide for a natural remedy, which he provided to us en route.
- When you're in the area you may also be interested in visiting Kaudulla National Park, climbing Sigyria as mentioned or visiting the ancient city of Polonnarowa as Sofie from Wonderful Wanderings did, which looked fantastic! (I missed choosing to do the trip to Hiriwadunna instead).
Note: I was a guest of Cinnamon Nature Trails. As always, all opinions expressed are my own.
