Blogs from Yala, Southern Province, Sri Lanka, Asia

Day 11: Thursday 14 September - Udawalawe National Park Today we head to the neighbouring Udawalawe National Park. With herds of elephants, wild buffalo, sambar deer and leopards, Uda Walawe National Park is the Sri Lankan national park that best rivals the savannah reserves of Africa. In fact, for elephant watching, Uda Walawe often surpasses many of the most famous East African national parks. Here we visit the Elephant Transit Home located in Udawalawe National Park, where abandoned baby elephants are cared for before they are released into the Udawalawe National Park. Udawalawe Elephant Transit Home is a refuge for baby elephants, the majority of which have been affected by the tragic elephant – human conflict (when mothers are often separated from their young or even killed). This incredible project provides food, medical care, and anyt ... read more

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 ... read more

We finally have internet again...four days without seems like forever...kind of sad! We did however enjoy our few days of being disconnected from the world. After leaving the cooler climate of the the highlands/tea growing region, we headed for the south coast to Yala National Park. Here we stayed in a small bungalow, ate outdoors under a palm leaf roof, and hung our laundry over the shrubs like the locals do. Our first safari in the park started at 530am in hopes of catching a glimpse of the animals before the heat of the day. We drove around the park for 3 hours, seeing many kinds of birds, elephant, mongoose, spotted deer, water buffalo and from a distance a brief glance at the elusive leopard. We also did an evening safari drive, seeing the same animals ... read more

3rd Mar – Breakfast was hoppers which are made of rice flour and milk. They are shaped like a bowl and are very thin. The man had given us about 17 hoppers. He we piling more onto the plate then he returned to put even more on. In the end we had about 35 and he was sad that we couldn’t manage them all! Then we crammed into a tuk tuk and travelled to an elephant orphanage. It brings injured elephants from the age of 5 down out of the wild. They may have got lost from their herd or their mother had died. The orphanage doesn’t want them to become domesticated because they send them back into the wild when they are older. They feed them by putting a tube into their mouth and then ... read more

We were sad to leave ‘The Tea Factory’ as it was so peaceful living amongst the tea plantation but it was time to move on. We headed out of the Hill Country and all along the sides of the roads were small stalls where locals sold the products from their gardens to passing traffic. There was a huge variety of fruit and vegetables but we could not see any of the Red Bananaswe had tried in Kandy; Jaywa said that they only grow in that region which was a shame as they were delicious. We continued on our journey which had looked a short distance on the map but the roads were narrow more like little tracks as we headed towards Uda Walawe National Park. In the end it took us well over six hours, with ... read more