Sunday 8th February 2026

Dambulla Cave Temple: Hurulu Eco Park

When Dave and I left our room early this morning, we leant on the railings and stared at the panoramic vista in front of us.

I noticed a chipmunk climbing up a nearby tree; it rapidly disappeared as we approached it.

 

Dave suddenly said “What’s that?” pointing to a creature on the opposite river bank.  “A dog?” I suggested.  “It can’t be, it just landed!” he answered. A few minutes later we watched the large bird take off, soaring quite close to us.  It was brown with a white collar and the tell-tale beak of a raptor.

After searching the internet, we decided that it was probably a Brahminy Kite.

By 8.30 am, we had eaten breakfast, and our luggage was ready to be put in the minibus when Anura arrived at 9am, today’s scheduled departure time. We only had half an hour to enjoy the elephants.

I made the most of sitting by the river, a young one was playing, flapping his ears and constantly sucking in water and throwing it backwards over himself.

Once again, the scenery included an abundance of birds. It was hard for us to pull ourselves away from such a natural setting.

 

 

 

 

 

But, pull ourselves away we must; we had an itinerary to keep to.

Our first stop of the day would be the Dambulla Cave Temple; we all thought that this would be one of the highlights of our adventure.

The journey took about 2 hours; it included winding roads and stunning scenery.  And also, what would become the norm, lots of folk selling numerous products by the roadside.

Due to a cyclone in November 2025, we also passed landslides.  While many roads had originally been closed due to floods and landslides, they had now been reopened.  But there was evidence from the natural disaster above and below us, including properties that had slid down into the valleys.

En route, there were acres and acres of rubber trees, each had a plastic bag tied on to it which was catching the latex.

A huge contrast in residential properties existed, some with stone balustraded terraces, and big blooming gardens, others, often just a few metres along the road were just shacks with sheets of rusty corrugated iron patched together to make a roof.

While walking up the steps to reach the cave complex which is situated part way up a granite rock outcrop, we spotted a family of toque macaques.

They were totally engrossed in preening each other. The monkeys are endemic to Sri Lanka.

 

On entering the complex of caves, we removed our footwear as required.  The ground was already hot and obviously became hotter as time went on.  I made a mental note to put some socks in my day bag.

Apparently there are 80 documented caves at Dambulla.  Five are accessible to the public.  The UNESCO site is the best preserved and largest temple cave complex in the country.

The caves, dedicated to Buddha’s life, are a sacred Buddhist pilgrimage site. They contain numerous stupas and statues. The majority of the walls and the ceilings are covered in colourful detailed frescos.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We were amongst many visitors to the caves at that time, at one or two of them we had a queue to enter.  But once inside, the caves were vast and spacious.

 

 

 

 

 

I think all of us took many photographs and did a lot of standing and staring. This is truly a wonderful spiritual site to see.

The whole place is absolutely magnificent.

I was pleased to pay the shoe attendant and retrieve my shoes, as by then the ground was much hotter!

As we made our way back down the rocky outcrop, we noticed some more Buddhist flags.

 

This time we had the opportunity to take a photograph.

The four of us were surprised to learn that the apparently international Buddhist flag was created in 1885.  It was designed in Sri Lanka.

The five vertical stripes signify the Buddha’s aura when he achieved enlightenment. Evidently, the flags sometimes incorporate symbols from Buddhism like the dharma wheel.

 

 

Next, we were going on a jeep safari!  According to our itinerary we should have gone to the Minneriya National Park, but unfortunately this was closed due to damage and flooding in the late 2025 weather phenomenon.

Anura informed us that we would be therefore visiting the Hurulu Eco Park.  After arriving at the park, we transferred to a jeep; Anura came along too, sitting up front next to our guide/driver.

In no time at all we spotted a group of elephants.  Amongst them were two babies, one of which was 6 months old and the other just 2 months.  They were fabulous to see in their natural habitat

A few minutes later, we saw a mother with her baby strolling along.

 

 

 

 

 

As you can see from the photograph (above) there were many jeeps, but the elephants did not appear to be fazed at all. In fact, sometimes, they just decided to cross the dirt track right in front of us.

Our guide pointed out a bee’s nest.  Later, when we zoomed in on the photos, it was interesting to see the bees and also the curved marks on the nest.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

In one of the elephant groups that we saw, our guide pointed out a 5 -year- old male with tusks.  While both male and female African elephants grow tusks, only a small percentage of Asian males grow them. Females do not grow them.

Less than 10% of Sri Lanka’s males are tuskers, this is believed to be due to the large bull tuskers being taken out of the wild and used in temple ceremonies. This reduced the tuskers breeding.

Apart from the wildlife, the protected forest reserve with its verdant open grasslands was impressive to see.

Well, it’s 7.20 pm, and we have just arrived at our next hotel, dumped our bags in the rooms and headed for the bar.  This is the type of hotel that is needed after a long day; we have a lovely view of the pool and the plants surrounding it. The lads ordered a couple of beers and Anne & I ordered margheritas.

The four of us relaxed and chatted about the fabulous day; we had seen so much.

When we were almost at the hotel, we remembered that we were possibly going to fit in a cultural show too.  Well, it was too late for that.

Anne and I mentioned that it was quite worrying that on the highway we saw  a few elephants very close to the road.

 

Indeed, one elephant was actually attempting to cross the fast highway.

Anura arrived and told us that he had another idea regarding our itinerary for the following day.

Our original plan was a 4 am alarm to set off to Sigiriya Rock at 5am.  This would enable us to climb the rock before the sun got too hot.

Anura suggested that we now set off at 10 am (wow, 5 hours lie in!), do the village tour, have lunch somewhere and then continue to the rock around 3pm when the weather would hopefully be a little cooler.

All of us said that the 4am alarm was a little daunting and as we were all planning just to go to the halfway point at the rock, we agreed with Anura.

Time was passing and we were hungry.  We headed off to shower and arranged to meet up for dinner.

 

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