4/6/26 – Yala National Park
It was a 5:30 wake up call to start our safari which we were all were very excited about. Everyone climbed into our safari vehicle, a Mahindra Bolero Ute with 6 comfy seats in the tray with an awning. As we boarded we were handed our little breakfast boxes and water, most of us enjoyed the breakfast as we watched the sunrise on our drive to the gates of Yala National park.
It took a little while for our guide to do all the offical paperwork and get tickets but when that was done we hit the dirt road and started to search the bush for animals. We immediately saw water buffalo which were pretty cool, they are very different to the buffalo we see in East Arnhem Land. The buffalo here are much more skinny but have cool horns, they also appear to LOVE to wallow in the water as we saw so many in the waterholes or in big mud puddles. At one point we saw a buffalo completely under the water with only its nose sticking out, the kids thought it was so funny especially as it was still chewing.
As we continued our search for elephants and leopards we saw heaps of spotted deer, they are very cute and the markings are incredible. Next exciting thing was the Malabar Pied Hornbills, they are quite big birds with amazing beaks. Very cool to watch as they fly from tree to tree and appear to play with each other on the branches. The mongoose were cool too as they scurry across the road and into the bush.
The elephants made us wait nearly 2 hours to show themselves but when they did it was incredible, we saw a gorgeous bull elephant walking along the road then go up the bank to a waterhole for a drink. We were the only jeep so could spend time watching it, which I could do all day to be honest. But it seemed to get annoyed when another jeep arrived so we drove off in search for more animals. This reminded Rhys to tell us about how one of the elephants in the Dickwella Perahera parade went out of control a little further down the road from us, it ran off into the crowd, luckily no one was hurt but it made us reflect how lucky we were as if it had of done it while walking past us we would have been trampled.
As we drove along we saw so many peacocks, spotted deer, buffalo and a lot of gorgeous birds such as the Red-wattled Lapwing, Little Green Bee-eater, White-throated Kingfisher and the Asian Paradise-flycatcher. It was great driving around look into the bush searching for animals, it was a very peaceful way to spend the morning. As we were driving along the main road we saw a small herd of elephants walking through the bush, they wandered up a hill then down into a waterhole and had a great time playing, drinking and pooing in the water. They had a super cute 3 month old calf with them which was great entertainment as it played in-between its mother’s legs. An older elephant, guessing a teenager, walked deep into the water and pretty much lay down then had a great time blowing bubbles with its trunk. We were very lucky to have a lot of time watching the small group before they walked off into the bush again.
Driving again everyone was silent until Patrick said quite matter of factly ‘Elephant’! and sure enough he had spotted an elephant eating in the bush, it is quite incredible how well they camouflage in the bush. We continued driving and came to a large water hole with so many crocodiles, even though we live with crocodiles in the NT it is still amazing to see them in the wild. We also saw Painted Stalks, they are gorgeous birds. They have amazing patterns of black, white and pink feathers and look really cool walking around in the water and seemed very unfazed by with crocodiles.
Driving around Yala National Park is stunning, the numerous waterholes and large rock formations are beautiful. Everywhere you looked you could see some form of life be it birds or mammals, driving along with the wind in our hair looking out was magical. Close to 12 we went to the lunch spot by the beach, there was a huge concrete building with a restaurant and picnic tables. Our guide had packed us a lunch which was delicious chicken drumsticks, vegetables, curry and rice followed by fresh watermelon and pineapple. We then had nearly 2 hours to fill in before we started the safari again, the boys had a look in the very basic souvenir shop and all wanted a teddy, putting our foot down on buying a teddy we distracted them with card games and visiting the beach.
Back in the ute our mission was to find a leopard, we drove down roads we hadn’t been and it was quite exciting driving around searching all the trees and bushes for the elusive Leopard.
As we turned down one road we saw a few jeeps up the road and one flashed us, our driver drove so fast to get to the group of jeeps and as we approved one of the other drivers told us there was a leopard in the bush. We opened the top window so we could look over the roof and searched the bush as our driver edged his way closer for us to get a good view. Sure enough there was a huge leopard walking through the bush, it was incredible! Everyone saw him and we watched as he walked up to a large tree trunk and put his front paws up on it and had a huge stretch. We were getting a great view of the leopard even though it was maybe 6m in the bush. After his stretch the leopard continued to walk into the bush totally unfazed by all the jeeps watching it. Wow what an experience, absolutely brilliant that we saw one.
Our driver was pretty keen to see if the leopard would walk through the bush towards another road so we sat and waited for a while. The silence was quite peaceful, listening to the birds and looking out at the view was lovely. We waited for half an hour and nothing happened so we went for a little drive and were lucky enough to see a cute star shell tortoise crossing the road then around the corner we saw another small herd of elephants with a baby, we couldn’t get enough of watching the elephants. The mother would curl her trunk around a patch of grass pull it out then eat it, it is so clever how well they can use their trunks.
The more we drove around the park the more I fell in love with the scenery, it was stunning. In one section we drove past some huge rock formations and at the very top there were monkey’s sitting on top looking out over the land. We had a stop by a waterhole and refreshed with some soft drinks, Oliver and Arthur had their first small bottle of coke which they thought was pretty cool. It was finally time to head home as we had been on safari for nearly 10.5hours, on the way out we enjoyed seeing more spotted deer, buffalo, peacocks and even the bush fowl which is a very pretty looking rooster.
We passed a lot of jeeps on the way out however stopped at one jeep who had stopped on the side of the road looking into the bush, the driver told us there was a leopard just around the corner so off we went. This leopard was a little more difficult to see however our driver was determined to get us a better view so we waited and as the leopard started to walk away we reversed and waited at the intersection of the road. Sure enough the leopard continued walking through the bush and came right out onto the road, it was incredible! We had the most magnificent view of the gorgeous leopard, the markings are awesome and the way it walked onto the road and sat down was awesome. They have such long tails! What a way to finish our brilliant day in Yala National Park. Our driver appeared to be just as excited as us which was nice to see.
Apparently in Yala National Park there are only 25 leopards and 150 elephants so we have had a pretty successful day.
Our last cool wildlife experience was seeing a herd of about 20 buffalo all in a circle in the water up to their necks, we then saw a large crocodile swimming to towards them and go under the water, Arthur and Patrick thought it was pretty cool!
When we got back to our hotel we walked to the end of the street to get egg hoppers and some curry.
What a day! Absolutely Brilliant.
5/6/26 – Tissamaharama to Udawalawa
All slept well after our big day on safari yesterday. The kids were automatically hungry and had to wait it out until 0800 before they could have breakfast….it was tough but they made it, phew!
After breakfast we made ready to leave. We are loving catching the local buses and decided to do the same today. We began by getting a car out to Pannegamuwa junction in order to grab the bus north to Thanamalwila which saved us a bus change and about an hour of mucking around. The thanamalwila bus had plenty of seats and only took 30 minutes. We made a bus change onto the Colombo bus, thinking this next leg would take us around and hour however it took more like 20 minutes and dropped us right out the front of our hotel!!! Perfect.
At our accomodation we met our host who suggested that we go and check out the elephant orphanage this afternoon that had a feeding at 1430. Raelene don’t need much convincing and after a rest we headed into Udawalawa to grab lunch then watch the baby elephants eat theirs!
The orphanage takes orphaned elephants out of the nearby national park and essentially cares for them until they are large enough to release back into the wild. They feed them a small amount of milk 3 times a day (the elephants can attend this voluntarily) then the my are sent back into the orphanage park grounds to fend for themselves. They have minimal human contact in the hop that once they are released into the wild they won’t be dependant on humans and have the skills to cope themselves.
We paid our money and sat down to check it out…and man was it cute. Little baby elephants running up for a quick feed, playing and bellowing to each other as they went. The park was filled with trumpeting noises and roars of excited elephants. It was beautiful to see them play together and the different relationships that they had formed together.
Apparently the park had managed to successfully release 184 elephants back into the wild since its inception in 1990. With Sri Lanka being the second largest population stronghold of Asian elephants, I guess that’s 184 more elephants than there ever would have been if the orphanage did not exist.
we enjoyed a wander through the elephant journey and learning exhibit then the kids lashed out in the gift shop with their spending money. Arthur got a little wooden elephant (his mothers son) Patrick got an awesome t-shirt and Oliver got a field guide to the national park which had heaps of the birds and animals we saw yesterday and hopefully will again tomorrow.
We have organised another safari for tomorrow afternoon in the udawalawa national park which is apparently home to a large population of elephants, approx 800-900. We are looking forward to seeing more of them!
Finally, Sri Lankan people eat with their hands. There is a sink in every eatery where you can wash your hands before eating. Needless to say we have been using utensils as normal however tonight Raelene and I tried to go SL style….we failed miserably and it looked as if a toddler had been left to wean themselves…what mess.
6/6/26 – Uduwalawa
Patrick decided sleeping 3 to a double bed was too squishy with Oliver and Arthur and through the night joined Rhys and I in bed which meant I had a terrible sleep as Patrick is such a wriggler. So when I heard Oliver up reading his book I finally pushed Patrick over to Rhys and tried to catch a quick nana nap before everyone woke up. When everyone was wake we still had to fill in an hour or so before breakfast was ready, which meant by the time 8am came around a few kids were hangry.
Thankfully we had a great breakfast then made the plan to find a lake which was good for swimming. It was hard to find a tuk tuk so we started to walk in the direction of the lake, eventually our tuk tuk driver from yesterday turned up and we got a lift to the lake. Patrick, Rhys and Arthur were straight in the water and found it lovely. I went to get changed in some rather interesting concrete changing rooms then got in the lake. The water was lovely however the little fish biting us were not so lovely, I seemed to be the only one who wasn’t liking them as it didn’t take Oliver long to jump in once he heard about the fish. We had a great time swimming around and eventually the biting fish won me over and they felt quite good on my feet.
After a great swim we got a lift back towards our hotel to get something to eat before our afternoon safari. The food took a very long time to come so we arranged for our jeep to meet us as the restaurant.
It was very exciting to be going on another safari trip and we were all very excited to see more elephants. Rhys went in to pay for our National Park entrance fee then we were in searching for wildlife. Udawalawa National Park is very different to Yala, it is a lot more dense scrub land with very few wide open plans.
We drove down narrow, rough 4WD tracks through dense bush which was great however made the wildlife difficult to see. We did come across some beautiful bull elephants however, one in particular was huge. He was standing in a waterhole eating the grass having a great time. We got so close to him and were able to watch for quite some time, it was fantastic.
We saw so many elephants which was great, we did not have to drive for long before we saw another one. As we were driving down one road the car made a huge crunching sound and we all assumed we had run over a large branch however Oliver looked back and turned to face us with a very horrified expression on his face. He told us we had just run over a star tortoise. It was horrible, Oliver told our driver who immediately stopped and turned the jeep around. We then confirmed we had squashed quite a large star tortoise (it was could have probably been between 20 – 40 years old). Our driver felt awful and dragged the shattered body into the bush before getting back in the car and driving away.
Feeling a little low from the tortoise we all just looked out and enjoyed the abundance of butterflies, birds and trees. We ended up at the huge lake where we saw large crocodiles and of course more elephants.
Late into the afternoon we came to a rocky outcrop where we could get out and have a walk around, the boys found a little pond which was full of frogs. They had a great time watching the frogs jump across the water, it was pretty cool to watch.
Evening was approaching so we all climbed back in and started to head home, we came across two smaller elephants eating by the road so stopped to watch for a while. Our driver said they were most likely elephants from the orphanage as they were not frightened of the car. One of the elephants became quite curious and ended up coming right up to our jeep looking as if it was going to steal Rhys’ phone right out of his hand. It was incredible as the elephant then put her trunk in the jeep to have a smell. The boys were amazed and loved touching the trunk, for quite a while the elephants played with the kids allowing them to touch and stoke its head and trunk. Direct quote from the boys was the experience was epic!!! It is probably frowned upon touching a wild elephant but it was way too hard to resist as the elephant was so curious. After probably 15minute it made a loud growling noise and started to walk away, wow what a way to finish our safari.
During the drive out of the park we saw quite a few more elephants and peacocks. Everyone was certainly on a high when we pulled back into our hotel. To top the night off we had the most delicious Sri Lankan curry and rice from a restaurant 600m down the road, our meal was by far the best we have had so far!
