On the final day of our stay at the Blue Magpie Lodge in central Sri Lanka, we visited Duwili Ella Falls

 

The path down to the stream is steep and a garden lizard with a bright red head watched us trying to negotiate it. Further on, concrete steps and a metal hand rail made progress less treacherous.

The drought had shrunk the usually majestic forty metre waterfall to little more than a trickle. Huge boulders made a series of deep pools. The one under the fall itself was the widest and deepest. Despite the dark, slippery rocks that surrounded it, I could not resist the temptation to plunging into it and floating in the sweet, cool water.

We spent an hour or so relaxing at the water fall which is surrounded by lush vegetation before climbing back up the steep path to the road above. A brown dog appeared from nowhere, crossed the stream along a log placed between two boulders and followed us up the path. At the top, the sun was blazing and the red-headed lizard had vanished. We drove back to the Blue Magpie thinking of cool beer and hot lunch.