With more than 15+ yearsof experience, Walk With Jith is a tour operating company in Sri Lanka which organizes cultural, bird watching, wildlife, whale watching, safari, nature photography, honeymoon and other types of tours and holidays. Walk With Jith team consists of expert birding tour guides, wild life guides and well-rounded cultural tour guides, mostly licensed from Sri Lanka Tourist board.
Our tours and excursions are personally organized by Jith (Prasanjith Caldera). Jith is one of the country's most experienced trekkers and birders as well as a top tour guide. Our mission is to give you a relaxing holiday, a wonderful tour and a taste of Sri Lanka as Sri Lankans live it.
Even though we are well established in Sri Lanka starting in about 2002, we are not a large-scale venture and we will not promote commercial sales aimed at tourists. Rather we ensure that our rates are reasonable, and that the money you spend will directly and positively affect people at the village level. We seek to improve the lives of the people who affect & conserve the bird habitats by buying products and services including home staying, guiding services etc. In our tours, you will have the rare opportunity to share experiences with local village people, visit their homes, and immerse yourself in their lives and culture.
From us, people around the world can get free travel advice and tips as well as culture, bird and wildlife information regarding Sri Lanka.
'Walk With Jith' is a corporate member of the Field Ornithology Group of Sri Lanka, University of Colombo, ResponsibleTravel.com, and Blue Sky Wildlife. We are also linked to "Fatbirder.com".
Prasanjith is the 'Jith' in 'Walk With Jith' and he is its founder. He will personally lead your tour, showing you some of the spectacular places he's seen in a long trekking career, and introducing you to the friends he's made in his travels.
Prasanjith has had varied career as a Lieutenant in the Sri Lanka Navy and in marketing and industry. Interested in nature from childhood, he went back to school to study Wildlife Conservation and Management at the Open University of Sri Lanka. Subsequently, he has worked with several scientific agencies exploring Sri Lanka's bio diversity.
He was a founding member of the National Bird Ringing Program in Sri Lanka. From 2003 to 2005, for about 3 years he has served as the field supervisor of bird studies in the Sinharaja World Heritage Rainforest, studying mixed-species flocks and vocal mimicry. (Goodale, E., Caldera, P. and Kotagama, S. W. 2006. Twenty-five years of research on the mixed-species bird flocks of Sri Lanka. Siyoth 1: 22-28.) In January 2004, he was among the first group to observe the nesting behavior of the rare Sri Lankan endemic bird Ashy-headed Laughing-thrush. Though the bird was first recorded in 1852, its breeding was unknown until March/April 1984, when the first authentic discovery of a nest and eggs was reported. (Jayarathna, A., Caldera, P. & Goodale, E. 2005. Observations on the nesting and parental behaviour of the Ashy-headed Laughing Thrush (Garrulax cinereifrons). Forktail 21: 163–164.)
As a nature sound recordist, Prasanjith co-composed the "Sounds of Sinharaja" audio CD. (Goodale, E., Caldera, P. and Jayarathna, A. 2004. The sounds of Sinharaja. Audio CD. Field Ornithology Group of Sri Lanka, Colombo, Sri Lanka.).
Prasanjith holds a Tourist Guide License from the Tourist Board of Sri Lanka. He is a member of the Field Ornithology Group of Sri Lanka, the Oriental Bird Club (UK) and a former member of the National Geographic Society (USA). A cricket enthusiast, he serves as a cricket umpire for "The Association of Cricket Umpires Sri Lanka" in his spare time.
Eben and Uromi have worked with Prasanjith for many years in the past and are pleased to serve as scientific program advisors. They currently live in China with their son David Parakrama Goodale.
Uromi Goodale received her Bachelor's degree from the University of Colombo (Special degree, Botany) and her Masters in Forest Science from Yale University, studying the allometric relationships of native pioneer tree species. She finished her Ph.D. at Yale concentrating on the ecophysiological adaptations of pioneer species along the forest gap-understory continuum, and their dynamic response to changes in environmental conditions. She is keenly interested in Sri Lankan rural culture and customs and their scientific basis. Currently she is a Post Doctoral Scholar at Xishuangbanna Tropical Botanical Garden, Chinese Academy of Sciences and continues ecophysiological studies on tropical Asian flora focusing on seed biology. www.researchgate.net/Uromi_Goodale
Eben Goodale received his Bachelor's degree from Harvard University, and has studied mixed-species flocks of birds in Sri Lanka since 1995, working in both lowland and montane forests. He completed his Ph.D. at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst, studying interspecific communication within mixed-species bird flocks. Eben is currently an Associate Professor at the Xishuangbanna Tropical Botanical Garden (XTBG), Chinese Academy of Sciences. As a behavioral ecologist, Eben continues to focus on the connection between behavior, community ecology and conservation. At XTBG he is exploring interactions between fruiting trees and frugivores, as well as continuing other projects on bird behavior and conservation in Asia and Melanesia. www.researchgate.net/Eben_Goodale
Lalith works as a consultant for Walk With Jith. He is Walk With Jith's web master, advertiser, concept builder and promoter.
After studying biology in the University of Colombo and studying Painting in the Vibhavi Academy of Fine Arts he moved in to web developing and computer graphics. Being an artists, he is associated to Theertha International Artists Collective, Sri Lanka. At present he is a visiting lecturer in Visual Art at the University of Moratuwa.
Laith is practicing martial artist starting first in 1989 and specialize s in Jeet Kune Do. Being certified in guidance &counseling Lalith has an understanding of business psychology and counseling philosophy. When he is not pecking the keyboard, he plays his GG eastern flute...
Dinitha’s first involvement with Walk With Jith was to pose for a photo with his binoculars for the birds of Sinharaja Rain Forest conservation poster. He was probably 5 years old. Since early childhood he had travelled extensively in Sri Lanka visiting all the major wildlife and nature sites. His interest fell on indigenous medicine used especially in forests and wildlife expeditions; the connection between humans, animals and plants in illness and cure.
Dinitha was a member of the Field Ornithology Group of Sri Lanka and Young Zoologists Association at the Sri Lankan National Zoo. He was a leading member for the Nature Club of Lyceum International College.
Dinitha has participated in the past 3 years at the British Birdfair in Rutland, at the Walk With Jith’s stall.
Photo: Dinitha Caldera with Prasanjith - Photo by Alistair and Carol McLee