I realise that this post about our wildlife safaris in Sri Lanka is very much overdue, but, since my last post, life has succeeded in getting in the way. So, before this aspect of the trip disappears into the depths of my memory banks, I am pleased to share the experience as much as possible in a few short words but with plenty of photos.
Yala National Park – Afternoon safari
On Day seven of the tour, the journey from Nuwara Eliya back to the south coast ended with a delicious lunch (in the company of a couple of much larger tour groups) at our resort for the next two nights, Chaarya Resort & Spa.
After a brief opportunity to check into our rooms, we were driven the nearby Yala National Park where we were divided into two groups and loaded onto the jeeps for our afternoon safari.
There was much talk in the group of trying to spot leopards of which there are a few in the park. Unfortunately, this was not to be, even the elephants kept themselves well hidden until the last half hour. This park was very busy with jeeps driving in different directions, attempting to find some unusual animal or bird. When anything of interest was spotted, the driver would stop and give us a bit of a commentary about what we were looking at.
So, what did we see?
Yala National Park – sunrise safari
Yes, this was an early start, but the sunrise was well and truly over by the time we drove the 45 minutes to the park. The timing was supposed to introduce us to a different range of wildlife, however, the experience was very similar to that of the previous day. Nonetheless, we managed to take some different photographs.
The safari ended with a disappointing outcome to a reported leopard sighting, but otherwise quite an experience.
Bundala National Park
The afternoon of the sunrise safari was a ‘free time’ with an optional safari back at Yala. K had been keen to visit another park, better known for its birdlife. So, on enquiry with our tour leader, we managed to book the afternoon at Bundala National Park.
This safari was totally different in that we were the only jeep in the park and we had our own dedicated ranger. This allowed us to linger where there was something of interest and we were given some in depth information about the birds and animals we saw. When K was taking her photos, I was noting the names of the birds, as described by the ranger. I counted that we saw 32 different species. Here are a select few:
Towards the end of the safari we were privileged to spot a small family of elephants and a lonely 10 year old male sporting the early stages of a pair of tusks.
We discovered on our return to the resort that those who went on the afternoon Yala safari were treated to sighting a leopard.
Finally
One of the pleasures in writing this post after such an extended interim period, is that it refreshed the memory of such a wonderful trip to Sri Lanka.
We are well ahead with plans for our next overseas adventure, so watch this space.