SRI LANKA
Formerly known as Ceylon, Sri Lanka is famous for its tea, just as Ethiopia is renowned for its coffee and France for its Champagne. I’m struck by how similar Sri Lanka is to South Africa – a hornbill sits in the tree, a squirrel dashes by in the garden below and I even come across an enormous monitor lizard sliding up the embankment near the sea. Later I hear a striking kingfisher call that’s both familiar and different all at the same time and catch its ash of colour before it settles on an electricity pole. Its bill is unmistakable, but I’m unable to find one with its colouring in the Newman’s bird book. Here the Gondwanaland theory – that all the continents broke away from one large supercontinent – really comes to life and I try to visualise where on the map Sri Lanka would’ve once sat on the shore of Africa.
|
|
