Painted Stork, Udawalawe National Park, Sri Lanka

Our final park of the visit was Udawalawe in the centre of southern Sri Lanka.

This often described as being Sri Lanka's answer to the African savannah country - it offers lots of elephants plus huge numbers of birds. In early October, it is right at the end of the dry season and the birds and animal are all concentrated around the waterholes and the hugely shrunken main lakes. Once the rains get started in mid-October the water levels in the lake rise by several meters. Tempted to go back later in the winter to see the transformation.

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