Yaala National Park

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Going to Yala, the second largest national park in the country... and see the wild life for real has always been in my bucket list and now I could gladly cross it off from the list as I witnessed the most exotic and amazing wild life creatures as I always imagined. Since Yala is situated in the Southern Province I needed to adjust to the warm weather but it was not an issue since the heat was all part of the adventure. We stayed in a small cozy 2 room lodge which was ideal for budget travelers and it was designed in a way that the visitors could see the nature without any boundaries as there was only a small fence around the lodge which separated from the woods where elephants, wild bores, deer etc.. roam around during the day as well as the night time. And for those who are into small insects and bugs this place was the perfect place because there were so many different kinds of frogs, butterflies, grasshoppers etc around the lodge as well.

We had a typical lunch around 2pm and then headed into the woods for the evening safari with our safari jeeps. For someone like me this experience was simply amazing and magical as I have always wanted to go on a safari and that dream of mine was finally coming true. As soon as we entered the National Park there was a visitor to greet us. It was a wild bore with his pack. There were around 6 or 7 piglets in that group which were pretty cute and adorable. I've heard that they tick you off very easily but he looked a little bit innocent too. But better to be safe than sorry right? So we just kept our distance and remained in the jeep. Moving towards the woods we saw deers, different kinds of migrant birds who had beautiful colors and designs in their wings and a couple of peacocks as well. Since this is the time of the year where the birds from Europe and the North Pole migrate to the Asian borders we got lucky to see so many different kinds of migrant birds in one day for real instead of seeing them in the local zoos. The eagle was one of them. And I was lucky to capture him on my lens as I may never see this exquisite creature unless I come back to this place in another year or if I go to the country where he is originally from. According to the tour guide that we had, this particular eagle has been flying for over thousands of miles away and has come to the Sri Lankan borders so that it could escape the winter of his country. So once the winter season is over he will be flying back to his own country along with the other migrant birds.

Then we were lucky enough to lay our eyes on the "lonely" elephant. In Sri Lanka seeing elephants in the woods or near the roads (in some parts of the country) is a common thing. But every time when you see an elephant and if you are an elephant lover; like me, then your heart just skips a beat. That is exactly what happened to me after seeing this beautiful gigantic mammal and this particular elephant is known as the "lonely" elephant as it's travelling on its own breaking the normal pattern where they travel in packs/herds. It is known that these elephants who travel alone could be highly aggressive therefore we had to be very cautious and remain the distance from him.

Yala National Park is also famous for its leopards. Since these spotted leopards seems to be endangered species on earth, we should be lucky and proud of ourselves to have such creatures in our country as well. Unfortunately we didn't get to see any leopards this time as although one of the other safari groups had witnessed a leopard hunting a peacock. So I guess I have another reason to come back to this wonderful, amazing national park next year as well...to see the spotted leopards.

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Photos

Yala Front
The hotel that we stayed in

An Eagle
First time I saw an eagle :)