The tunnel of trees on Madu river, Sri Lanka

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Half way through the safari on Madu river in Balapitiya, Sri Lanka, we had sudden rains which made the boatmen abandon the original plan of visiting the islets and the mangroves. It rained quite heavily and disappointed, we went to the Galle fort for sightseeing and hoped that the weather would be fine in the afternoon to try again. Galle is a beautiful city, but more on that later.

All things seem to be for the best. We got to enjoy boating in the Madu river both in the rains, where the water looked lovely and in the late afternoon, where all the leaves looked fresh and reinvigorated from the morning rains and it wasn't as sunny or sweltering.



This is a little watercolor sketch I made. We had just visited an island where the locals spoke about growing Cinnamon and when we made our way out of the marshland, one of the boats ahead of us, it made such a charming picture, with most of the horizon covered with foliage from the mangroves. It was like we were in a tunnel of trees, with clouds and the islands reflecting in the water in the distance.

In December 2004, Sri Lanka was badly affected by the Tsunami. Apparently, the mangroves here protected the area by acting as a barrier.These forests are mysterious and some of the islets unexplored.



















Location: Madu Ganga , Sri Lanka

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