When you start doing research to prepare for a trip to Sinharaja, you will notice a common theme (other than raving about the beautiful birds).  LEECHES!  Everyone will tell you that you MUST have leech socks to prevent these disgusting slimy creatures from using your blood as a meal.  I wasn’t about to become the plat-du-jour so I set out to find some leech socks in Australia……………..and failed!  I could have ordered them from Amazon.com and had a nice choice of colours (affiliate link).

Unfortunately there wasn’t enough time to have them shipped to Australia so I had to make do with the much cheaper ones ~ $5 available at the park entrance which were a bit too small for our large feet.  The guides showed us how to use them properly – over your regular socks and pants.

I noticed with envy the much trendier birders with more colourful leech socks!

I also took the precaution of spraying the socks and our pants with DEET repellent and using the strongest possible anti-mosquito & leech cream on our skin before we got dressed in the morning.

We may not have been on trend but at least we stayed free from leeches during our visit to Sinharaja!