Up at 5am and off on Safari at 5.30am. The moral of this story is to keep your expectations low and maybe, just maybe you will be delighted. And such was the case.
Now, Safari Sri Lankan style is never going to be the Serengeti with its overwhelming and diverse array of grand African animals, but we had a fantastic safari for the elephants, crocodiles and bird life. We had spoken with other tourists on our way down here who described seeing maybe 4 or 5 single elephants. So when we saw herd after herd of up to 14 elephants with their babies we couldn’t have been more thrilled.
The other lovely thing is that we came across herds and we were the only people there sometimes for ages. The elephants were right by the jeep, sometimes a meter or less from us…Rose at one point thought one was going to try to kiss her and she leapt out of her seat!! Another time we saw a large herd bathing in a dam and playing with the very little ones, having a ball. Sometimes we’d find a herd and other jeeps would join us in a bit of a bustle but other times we had it all to ourselves. The driver was great and just turned off the engine for us to sit quietly amongst it. It really was a delight.
Incidental animals included Jackals, huge Monitors, Mongoose, Crocodiles and Water Buffalo. And especially for Hammy I made big effort to remember the names of the birds we saw which were another highlight of the trip…a Serpent Eagle, White Throated Kingfisher (superb), Green Bee Eater, Malabar Pied Hornbill (incredible, like a double-beaked toucan) and a truck load of Peacocks and Peahens. Our guide was very knowledgeable about different sorts of Sri Lankan birds and had a bird book on hand at all times so we knew exactly what we were looking at.
We were there for 5 hours and when we arrived back the guesthouse we had a huge breakfast waiting for us – samosas, stuffed rotti, friend lentil patties, dhal, hoppers, eggs, honey and coconut wraps!! etc. The other exciting thing for me was that I climbed up into the back of the truck, and back down without too much indignity!!
We were at a bit of a loss about what to do when we got back. The only other think around here is the Elephant Transit Home. Baby orphan elephants are kept here until they can cope back in the National Park. We got in a Tuk Tuk and went there for 12md feeding time. We weren’t going to go there but it was lovely to see all these baby elephants being fed. One elephant (that wasn’t a baby) had lost a leg and had a prosthesis. Rose was particularly intrigued by this.
We came back and went into the little town and got supplies of wine and beer and came back here to hang around for a couple of hours. Then we went to the poshest resort in the area for a drink, and walked back (a life threatening exercise with buses and tuktuks storming past) to await the meal supplied by our guest house. I must say, for my part, that you really can get sick of ‘curry and rice’!!! But they do it very well here.
After another delicious, massive meal cooked by our hosts its back and time for bed.
I have a friendly gecko living behind my toilet and during our meal fruits bats were flying around us…Rose wasn’t too keen on that idea. There is now something on the roof…probably a monkey or a squirrel.