> ## Content Index
> Fetch the complete content index at: https://tombrewer.co.uk/llms.txt
> Use this file to discover other available public pages before exploring further.

# Lost in Nature
- URL: https://tombrewer.co.uk/lost-in-nature/
- Published: 2026-03-18T12:17:15.000Z
- Updated: 2026-09-21T09:31:11.000Z
- Author: Tom Brewer
- Tags: Newsletter, #Migrated-1789982889005, #Import 2026-09-21 09:29

Leaving Hikkaduwa was easier said than done. The strip hummed with tourists as we negotiated our exit not from the crowds, but from our driver, who opened with a figure of 23,000 rupees for the journey inland to Sinharaja. After some back and forth, and the driver trying to sell us on his knowledge of the local roads, we settled on 13,000\. He was, he assured us, the ideal guide. He knew this part of Sri Lanka intimately. We would stop along the way. He would tell us about the places we were passing through.

The 2.5-hour journey took four, long, winding hours.

We did stop along the way. Not, as it turned out, to receive local insight, but for our driver to wind down his window and shout across at locals in Sinhala, asking for directions. Somewhere between Hikkaduwa and the rainforest, his intimate knowledge of the roads had disappeared. After nearly getting stuck several times, we resorted to calling our hotel, sharing our live location via WhatsApp, and letting them talk our driver in by phone like some kind of low-stakes air traffic control.

We arrived at Forest Edge as the light was softening. The name requires little elaboration: we were, quite literally, on the edge of Sri Lanka’s last primary rainforest Dinner dress code: rainforest casual. Trousers, long sleeves, and a bottle of insect repellent whose label announced, in red capital letters, MAX EXPEDITION STRENGTH.

![](https://tombrewer.co.uk/content/images/2026/09/0796a8e6-8c76-494a-9803-ec746630f2f4_2048x1365-jpeg-1.jpg)

It turned out we were sharing the hotel with only one other guest, the remoteness of ‘Forest Edge’ is self-evident and no doubt the conflict in the Middle East had made it more difficult for the kind of traveller who might otherwise have made the journey. The other guest was Jonathan, and that evening we ate together on a covered platform overlooking the rainforest canopy.

Another chicken kottu. I have yet to tire of them, in fact I have been quietly running a mental ranking system since arriving in Sri Lanka, cataloguing each one with the seriousness it deserves. As the evening drew in, the forest grew louder, the cicadas building to a pulsing, relentless hum, you were reminded that the rainforest is not ours, we’re simply its guests.

Breakfast the following morning was an act of hospitality that defied reason and set new records for generosity. Fresh melon, papaya, banana, pineapple. Pancakes with coconut and honey gathered from the forest. A stack of rotis, a spicy coconut dhal, a Sri Lankan omelette, a fish curry. We ate as much as we could but could not make a dent in what had been put in front of us, and were quietly relieved to notice later that the remainder had not gone to waste. The birds, at least, had no complaints.

![](https://tombrewer.co.uk/content/images/2026/09/7943b29b-2552-4991-9ede-3da06b32138e_2048x1365-jpeg.jpg)

Our guide for the day was Sagara, who greeted us with leech socks and yet more food packed for the hike, apparently unconvinced that breakfast had covered it. At the forest gate he stopped us to rub salt into our shoes - a precaution against the leeches. We had lucked out with Sagara. Sagara could identify things we could barely resolve with binoculars, let alone with the naked eye. And he didn’t just know what things were, he knew them three times over: the Sri Lankan name, the English name, the Latin name. He offered each one with the smile of a man that took great pride in his work.

![](https://tombrewer.co.uk/content/images/2026/09/ca753863-af78-468c-ae06-d68a65e0446b_2048x1152-jpeg.jpg)

Sinharaja is not simply a forest. It is Sri Lanka’s last viable area of primary tropical rainforest, what remains after everything else was cleared, logged, or lost. Over 60% of its trees are endemic, and 95% of Sri Lanka’s endemic bird species are found within its boundaries. It was saved from the worst of commercial logging largely by its inaccessibility , designated a UNESCO World Biosphere Reserve and, eventually, a World Heritage Site. That it still exists at all is partly luck. That it continues to exist is harder work. Illegal timber felling and poaching remain ongoing concerns, and the forest’s boundaries are under persistent pressure. The opportunity to explore such a place felt like a privilege.

![](https://tombrewer.co.uk/content/images/2026/09/8a681ad7-f255-4fd1-b8fd-90d0b3800d74_1152x2048-jpeg.jpg)

What followed was a procession of sightings that felt implausible. A Green Pit Viper perfectly camouflaged in vegetation. A Hump-nosed lizard poised vertically on a spindly tree. A kangaroo lizard ‘hopping’ its way up a tree. The biggest Asian Hornet’s nest I have ever seen. A scorpion lurking under a rock. Sagara moved through the forest pointing out things we would never have found alone; wild cardamom, coffee and ginger, all through the sculpted Lianas (vines) that twist their way through the forest. He even showed us a giant snail whose saliva serves as a traditional toothache remedy.

![](https://tombrewer.co.uk/content/images/2026/09/1fca9c21-979b-47b7-9a84-99d5fbd2a72f_1365x2048-jpeg.jpg)

By midday the heat and humidity was getting uncomfortable, not helped by how thoroughly we had covered up against leeches and insects. Sagara led us to Lankagama Kekuna Ella, where we swam beneath the waterfall until we cooled off and felt better prepared to take on the return leg.

![](https://tombrewer.co.uk/content/images/2026/09/91cc3a34-a404-48b0-b131-2e17bb4a47df_2048x1152-jpeg.jpg)

We were nearly back at the forest gate when the last gift from the rainforest showed up: a family of Purple-faced Langur Monkeys in the canopy above the path, closer than we could have imagined, keeping a watchful eye on us as we passed through what was clearly their patch.

![](https://tombrewer.co.uk/content/images/2026/09/ff3377e5-19ea-4784-8b4e-946202efeef0_2048x1365-jpeg.jpg)

We left the rainforest just as it decided to live up to its name. As it emptied down with rain I caught site of another guide’s branded polo shirt which read “Wonder of the world, Pride of the Nation”. They’re not wrong.

The coral reefs, the turtles, Sinharaja. None of it belongs to us - but that’s not quite the same as having no obligation to take care of it.