Wrapping Up With A Sri Lankan Safari
To close out a crazy month where I spent just nine days at home the entire month and only six for Anna it was time for the part where we got to unwind and she could get away from work for a bit. That meant staying in a resort in Yala National Park in Sri Lanka to try and find some Leopards among other things.
This wasn’t our first trip to Sri Lanka, we last went to Colombo and Galle back at the beginning of 2019 and we’d also be revisiting those spots again, only hopefully this time I wouldn’t be doing so with a black eye and stitches.
Day 1
After landing in Colombo and getting a ride to our hotel it was after midnight and there was nothing near where we were staying except for the 24-hour pharmacy across the road so we went over to buy some toothpaste, however, when we got back and it was time to brush it turned out the toothpaste was a transparent, bright red. It was kind of weird to brush with and I hope we don’t have gingivitis, because we’d never know. Oh well, time to hit the sack.
It was almost a five-hour drive to the Yala National Park where we would be spending five nights relaxing and looking for animals:
Yala National Park is a national park in Sri Lanka, bordering the Indian Ocean and covering 979 km2 (378 sq mi). It was designated as a wildlife sanctuary in 1900. It hosts diverse ecosystems ranging from moist monsoon forests to freshwater and marine wetlands, and is important for the conservation of Sri Lankan elephants, Sri Lankan leopards and 44 mammal species. It is one of the 70 Important Bird Areas in Sri Lanka harbouring 215 bird species including six endemic species of Sri Lanka.
Add to this we were staying in an incredible beachside tent resort with amazing food, all meals provided, and free-flow drinks so we were set. I need to clarify what we mean by ‘tent’ as well; I’ve mentioned many times that Anna doesn’t go camping, only glamping so despite probably qualifying technically as a tent, it still had a four-poster bed, air conditioning, ceiling fans, and a brass bathtub. A short walk from our so-called tent was where the main actioned happens; a restaurant, fully stocked bar, and lounges by the pool, but it almost seemed that what excited Anna the most was the afternoon tea with which she was greeted.
The sun sets at around 6:30pm so about two hours after we arrived there were cliffside drinks while fire-dancers did their thing, followed by dinner and getting to know people by the bar.
A look around our resort:
Day 2
We were here for a Safari, but we were also here to relax so we opted to skip the morning drive in favour of a sleep in and a dip in the pool, basing our approach to other mornings on what we would see that afternoon.
The national park closes between 12:00pm and 3:00pm so were in our jeep at 3:00pm sharp to enter the park, giving us three hours to drive around and see what we could find, because there was a strictly enforced protocol that all vehicles must exit by 6:00pm when the park closes again for conservation reasons. However, we wouldn’t need that long, encountering our first elephant, a large male in musth, about 40 minutes in and that was just the beginning. After circling around the park for around another hour we spotted, no pun intended, what we had come here to see; a Sri Lankan leopard, something we had wanted to find, but were uncertain if we would, because there aren’t a whole lot of them around:
Since 2020, the Sri Lankan leopard has been listed as Vulnerable on the IUCN Red List, as the population is estimated at less than 800 mature individuals, and is probably declining.
Absolutely amazing that within about 90 minutes we had already found one, despite thinking there was really only a slim chance of seeing a leopard over the course of our time here! At first it was laying in the grass, but perhaps wanted to get away from us and eventually climbed a tree to lay down and take in the view of the lake. We drove around for another hour before making our way back to camp, but over that time we also managed to find a painted stork, a species of owl, a baby elephant, many deer grazing, and a wild water buffalo, another endangered species with less than 4,000 mature individuals in the wild.
Once back at the resort we were buzzing at the fact that we had already found a leopard and it was also almost time for sunset drinks on the cliff once more, followed by dinner and few more excited libations at the bar as we went through the photos Anna had taken. Should we go back out again? Of course, but maybe not tomorrow, because my back was pretty sore after the bouncy ride in the back of the jeep. Let’s do it Saturday afternoon.
Our sightings on the safari mostly taken by Anna on her camera and some other irrelevant moments during the day:
Day 3
The day was spent relaxing, Anna going for a massage while I started off the day walking fast on a treadmill in the hope of loosening up my still painful lower back. The afternoon involved just chilling in and out of the pool and also one of Anna’s Sri Lankan fellows, Yasith, and his mother traveled a fair distance to visit us so we chatted to them for several hours, Anna taking another swim later on a warm, starlit night. That doesn’t mean we put the camera down though, this is just such a strikingly beautiful place:
Day 4
My back was feeling a lot better so after some coffee, lunch, and another swim we would be back in the jeep, but we couldn’t shake a few questions; would we be as lucky as when we had gone out on Thursday afternoon? Do animals even work weekends? Time would tell.
Once again we were waiting at the gates at 3:00pm hoping to to outdo our previous trek and immediately upon entering the park we saw a female elephant and ten minutes after that we had already found something new, a whole group of tufted grey langurs, a species of monkey found only in southeast India and Sri Lanka. They were on the ground and in the trees, playing, scratching each other’s backs, and at some times even hugging. We’re off to a good start. We continued on past a furry little mongoose laying on a rock followed by a hornbill, a mugger crocodile in a lake before meeting a female elephant and her calf trudging along in front of us while more water buffalo stood in a small lake. Then it happened again, we found another leopard, this time just sitting in the grass nearby, occasionally turning to look at us before instantly disregarding our presence and turning back.
It was now approaching time to return to camp and we had been fortunate enough to encounter what we had come here for, but our drive back took an unexpected turn when one of our guides noticed something up in a tree — A Sri Lankan Sloth Bear:
The Sri Lankan sloth bear is a subspecies of the sloth bear which is found mainly in lowland dry forests in the island of Sri Lanka.
Being omnivorous, it feeds on nuts, berries, and roots, as well as carrion and meat. One of its main staples is insects, which it removes from rotting stumps and trees with its long, hairless snout. Otherwise, it rarely kills animals.
The Sri Lankan sloth bear is highly threatened, with a population less than 1000 (the wild population may be as few as 500) in many isolated populations with population decrease. Destruction of dry-zone natural forest is its main threat because unlike other large Sri Lankan animals, the Sri Lankan sloth bear is highly dependent on natural forests for its food source. An increase in sloth bear-human interaction has also caused many conflicts. These conflicts include death and injury to humans, livestock loss, damage to property, and retaliatory killing of wildlife causing humans to fear this species.
Before this moment Anna and myself weren’t even aware of the existence of sloth bears and due to how few there are throughout the country it was simply incredible to just stumble upon one! We pulled up a prime spot for photos while our guides radioed the other vehicles to give them the location of an animal that’s clearly far more difficult to find than the leopards.
After a day like this I don’t think we need to hop back in a jeep again tomorrow:
I also managed to capture a bit of the sloth bear moving around in the tree:
Day 5
Our last full day in the resort was upon us, but after what we had seen the previous day we didn’t feel a need to take another ride through the national park, however, that didn’t mean we wouldn’t see any more wildlife. I probably would’ve struggled today anyway, because my back was particularly painful once again from all of the bouncing around on dirt roads so Anna went for a massage while I went on the treadmill again (in case you’re wondering, I hate massages), and then the plan for the rest of the day was to eat, drink, and lounge around, interspersed with several paddles in the pool.
Our relaxing afternoon got off to an amusing start when we saw a guy from a new tour group rock up seemingly unironically in an actual safari suit and the day continued on as planned until a bit after 4:00pm when everyone was warned over a loud speaker to return to the main area of the resort. Why? Because an elephant had got a bit bored of the national park and had decided to check out the resort so the management went into safety mode, but in the end it opted to hang out by the pool for a feed, Anna taking advantage of the moment for a quick photo opportunity before it wandered back home:
Once again I took a short video of our pachyderm pal grazing by the pool:
Days 6 & 7
The safari leg of our journey had come to a close and it was now time to take another long drive to Galle, arriving at the Galle Fort Hotel at around 3:00pm so we checked in and spent the day wandering around the town and beach, taking in once more pretty much the entire Galle Fort area. It’s a beautiful part of town, but there isn’t a lot of shops catering to what we’re into so even if you go down all of the back alleys as well as the main streets you can see the entire area within a couple of hours, which is exactly what we did, followed by what would become a routine much like the last time we were here, bumming around in the Old Dutch Hospital for a few drinks before a massive seafood dinner at the Arch. We were pretty full afterwards so it was back to the Hospital for a few more post-dinner refreshments while patting some dogs that decided to join us.
Tuesday followed almost an identical pattern; after kicking back at the hotel for a bit we took another walk around town in the hopes of finding something we may have missed, but it wasn’t to be so back to the hotel to freshen up and get off our feet, then off to the Old Dutch Hospital again. Dinner this time was at the Padmaraga Hotel where Anna fell in love with the wallpaper consisting of illustrated versions of what we had spent the previous days finding (sans mermaids) in the wild, the food was just an afterthought for her.
Our hotel and two days of walking around Galle, eating, drinking, playing with dogs, and posing in front jungle-themed wallpaper:
Day 8
We would now be making the two-hour drive back to Colombo for our final night, but I really didn’t feel that well. I’m allergic to food that contains coconut oil and coconut milk, something that is difficult to avoid in this part of the world and it can cause my stomach contents to explosively exit from either end of my body. We had chosen our dishes carefully, however, it may have been infused into the rice the previous night. Whatever the case I just felt awful so I popped a Loperamil and hoped that everything would stay inside me and avoid some catastrophic unpleasantness for the duration of the drive, which was fortunately the case.
We arrived where we would be spending our final night of another epic safari journey, the Galle Face Hotel where I accidentally crashed a shark and ray convention while looking for the bathroom, then realising why everyone was wearing the same underwater-themed t-shirts. If you’re not feeling particularly well, this isn’t a bad place to be, laying outside at night with the sea breeze and the waves crashing on the rocks definitely helps get your mind off whatever the hell is going on inside your digestive tract. When I was starting to feel a bit better we were extremely careful with what we selected to eat and then we were both able to just enjoy relaxing on the lawn by the sea while having a chat with a German parasitologist that we randomly met about germs
We flew out from Colombo back to Singapore the following day and that was it for another safari. We went to Yala with the sole intention of hoping to find a leopard and that turned out to be relatively easy on both days, but that pales in comparison to randomly spotting a sloth bear, something we didn’t even know existed. Also, a couple of weeks after we arrived back in Singapore we received an unexpected package in the mail, thank you so much for the gift, Yasith!
Knock, knock.
Who’s there?
Safari.
Safari who?
…”Safari so good… until the jeep stopped and the guide whispered, “Don’t make eye contact with the langur. He thinks he’s the tour manager.””🙈🚙
😬