KNUCKLES WILDERNESS

BEST FOR: Endemic lizards such as the dwarf lizard and Tennant’s leaf-nosed lizard.

DRIVE TIME FROM COLOMBO: 5 hours.

WHAT’S NEARBY? The medieval hill capital of Kandy with the Temple of the Sacred Tooth Relic.

The Wilderness is an area of rolling grasslands and cloud forests home to species of plants and animals found nowhere else. The area is also rich in legend with battles from the epic Ramayana poem having been played out here.