In search of elephants

Trip Start Nov 01, 2006

179

Trip End Oct 31, 2007

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Flag of Sri Lanka Uda Walawe, Sri Lanka
Tuesday, January 9, 2007

Again, our journey to Uda Walawe was quite different from what we had been expecting when we got up yesterday morning (with very stiff, aching legs and moaning every time we had to go up or down stairs!). We had planned to take a bus to Wellawaya (east from Haputale) then another to Tanamalwilla (south of there), then another to Timbolketiya (westwards again) to get a safari in the National Park. But other people had other ideas, and we're glad they did because again, it all worked better than we could have hoped. First of all, Raja at our guesthouse told us that their driver was going to Wellawaya anyway that morning to pick up the boss (who lives there) so could do us a very good price to take us there. The price was good enough, and we bargained him a bit lower even than that (to 4 pounds) that we decided it was too good to turn down. Then when we got to Wellawaya we had a brief pit-stop for us each to visit the loo, whilst the other watched the bags, and whilst it was Tim's turn and I was standing guard, a lady called out hello to me, and it was a family we had met in the Yellow Guesthouse at Adam's Peak who had just happened to spot me standing there

01 Flying peacock

. They were on a car and driver deal and were on their way to a place just south of where we wanted to go. Tim and I were both thinking that maybe they would offer us a lift, because they had enough room in the car and were going right past Tanamalvilla, and sure enough there was a bit of whispering between them and their driver and then the lift was offered. Of course we jumped at the chance, and had a lovely hour in the car with them chatting about their life and previous travels. Then from Tanamalvilla we only had to wait about 20 minutes for a bus to Embilipitya (yes, we've had trouble with the tongue-twister place names as well), the nearest town to Uda Walawe national park. The bus was really interesting and not at all busy, so we could just enjoy watching rural life, and seeing things like a lady on the bus asking the driver to stop at a random place so that she could drop a package off at a house along the way and then get back on. The driver even tooted his horn to alert the man in the house to his package arriving! Can you imagine seeing that in London? To be fair, I'm sure you wouldn't see it in Colombo either, but you know what I mean. The most difficult part of the journey was finding a hotel which involved visiting 3 different places and eventually having to delve into 'luxury' money to stay at the 50 dollar a night Centaurion, because everywhere else was awful. I think we've found the finding of hotel rooms the hardest thing about Sri Lanka, because it's really not set up for backpackers, so it's one of the few things about here that's harder than in India, where there are backpacker lodges everywhere, and of reasonable price and quality

02 Elephants

. But it wasn't all bad because 50 dollars really isn't that much, and it was a nice hotel, although, like everywhere in Sri Lanka, very quiet, and it was right on the edge of a lovely lake, and had a pool. And in the evening we had cocktails and wine, so we had a good time.
This morning we did the thing we had come here for, which was a 3-hour jeep safari into Uda Walawe National Park, where there are hundreds of elephants, lots of bird-life, 15 leopards and some other less famous, but still lovely, animals like deer and monkeys. It was another early start, up at 5.30 to leave at 6 - honestly, sometimes it's harder than work this travelling lark ;-), but at least all we had to do this time was sit in a jeep and be driven. (R)
Well, I've got a jolly easy job here, which is to list all the animals we saw this morning. I do like lists. We saw lots of elephants (at least twenty, some alone and some in small herds and even some tiny ickle baby ewlefants - aaaaahhh); a crocodile, some sambar, some spotted dear, a few mongoose (or mongeese? mongeeses?); and lots of birds such as blue bee-eaters, many peacock (peacocks?), malabar hornbills, painted stork, egrets and so on. It really was amazing and well worth the relatively high park entrance fees (2200R per person plus the hotel jeep tour fee of another 3000R). The overnight rain had left the ground damp and the sky full of layered clouds which kept things cool for us and gave us a beautiful atmospheric vista. We stood up in the back as the jeep bounced along and scanned the undergrowth for movement. All this to the haunting meow-like cries of the peacocks perched all around us on the top branches of dead trees. Amazing.
Back at the hotel, we packed up our stuff once again and set off, finally, for the coast. (T)