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Published: April 21st 2024
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Pleasing to report that this time the brochures did not lead us up the dusty bumpy path in search of a pipe dream, and there are, in fact, a heap of elephants in Udawalawe National Park.
First item on the agenda today was a cooking class, which actually consisted of us sitting and watching Geoff cook. They clearly read my brief! But he did a great job of curried dhal, which we then enjoyed for breakfast. The call of the airconditionined car had us almost breaking into a sprint from the tent, and we all looked as though we’d run a marathon by the time we got there!
Drove like maniacs to the Elephant Transit Home where they take abandoned young to raise before putting them back in to the park. The babies live in the park usually but come for milk and food three times a day…and don’t they love it! While their pecking order is obviously closely controlled, some were none too happy with their relegated position or milk ration and made their feelings known by leaping up on the barrier and yelling. Most just bumbled their way to the milk station in threes, enjoyed their milk
and then proceeded to throw the rest of their food around like true toddlers. It was adorable watching some of the really little ones sidle up to the bigger ones, obviously wanting protection and companionship.
Unlike African elephants, only male Asian elephants have tusks and in Sri Lanka, only about 5% of those males are “tuskers”. While this means that poaching is less of an issue here, their desire to emulate Holly and bust out of the national park and get into surrounding farms causes conflict with the local villagers.
We enjoyed the last remaining bit of aircon before we were dropped at our new safari camp. We enjoyed a delicious lunch under the trees before a rest in our tents and off in the jeep to the national park.
Elephants abounded and we came across many singles and family groups. There was one group with a couple of babies, one who was still suckling mum. There was also an obviously very old single lady who had lost contact with her herd and was likely in her last days - it was sad to see her decline. It was a great afternoon, hanging out with probably around
30 different wrinklies, watching them feed, their trunks meandering around to check what was on offer and the way they use their feet to gather together the grass before shovelling it in their mouths…much like the cutlery skills of my oldest child. They were generally not too bothered by our presence, sometimes a baby sheltering behind mum for protection from the big loud beast. One poked its trunk near our truck and was obviously very unimpressed with the olfactory offerings!
Our last stop was a large lake which was dotted with crocodiles and elephants taking their evening wash. It was becoming increasingly obvious that we needed to do the same so we headed back to camp for a shower, another lovely campfire dinner and bed.
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