Day 8 - Udawalawe Safari

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Beautiful morning dawned, warm and sunny. Breakfast and a leisurely couple of hours in the swimming pool and reading before Safari at 1:30. We struck lucky as we were the only two on our jeep (Nikolai Safari organised by Athgira River Camp so we had the driver (who was also our guide) to ourselves.

The park is fantastic, the only 'big' game are the elephants but we saw so many other animals and loads of birds - it was a truly memorable afternoon. Lots of crocodiles, water buffalo, jackals and even a mongoose plus several herds of elephants, one group more than 20 including several babies, it was a privilege to see. The bird life was perhaps even more amazing with all kinds of water based species such as cranes, ibis and herons. Three different types of kingfishers, three different types of eagles and lots more - it was a full on four hours with one creature after another.

Dad's new camera performed very well too so we have lots of great pictures to remember a memorable first safari by. our guide and driver was brilliant - a real bird lover as well so I think he really enjoyed the trip too - esp as dads photos with zoom and then zoom to view showed so much detail of the eagles and kingfishers etc.

Off to Mirissa tomorrow.

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