Day 11 – Udawalawe to Yala NP to Marissa
Katagamuwa sanctuary is part of the Yala National Park in south east Sri Lanka. Alarms were set for 3:30am and 5 of us left in the dark, whilst the rest of the group were still sleeping.
Our bus drove through the dark, I dispersed with oncoming traffic with no dipped beams, or brightly lit Hindu shrines that you could direct aircraft with the amount of light being set off by them.
Half dozing, we were abruptly awoken and told to get out of the bus and into an awaiting Jeep. It was all a bit of a blur, being bundled from one vehicle to another.
Now fully alert and feeling like I was being ‘Taken’ in a Liam Neeson film, we headed to Yala park. At the gate, there were around 20 other jeeps with both local and foreign tourists onboard. The gates opened at sunrise and the convoy entered. Some chose to race ahead to get to watering holes first thing, others diverted off down side tracks to search for wildlife. Our driver took a slow and steady route down the main track.
Within 10 minutes, the Jeep up ahead of us ground to a halt and started backing up. Our driver was gesticulating and pointing but we couldn’t figure out what was there. It was still half light and the jungle undergrowth is quite thick. Then we spotted an unmistakeable curled tail attached to a huge cat. It softly walked just 5m from the trackside, in between the trees and bushes.
Then it crossed the road, for all of us to see. Super cool moment and out of the 20+ jeeps that left in the morning, only 3 spotted a leopard.
For the next 4 hours we bounced around off road and on rutted dirt tracks, viewing peacocks, elephants (one came very close), buffalo, stalks, herons, eagles, monitor lizards, crocodiles and spotted deer. Unfortunately no sloth bears but their very shy creatures.
Heading back to the jungle camp to pick up the others who were hoping for a morning by the pool, but it’s just started raining. Warm rain though.
Jumped on the bus and whizzed down the toll highway to Matara for a kiosk lunch stop by the beach. Then on to our hotel in Mirissa, the Silan Mo Hotel. Lovely hotel set over 6 floors, with no lift and no bar.
It seems most hotels don’t have an alcohol license, there are separate bars here and there but they’re for tourists only. The wine and beer shops (off-licenses) are holes in the wall and for foreigners only. Very odd.
So walked down the street for a drink then a beach restaurant for dinner, where the service was so slow but cheerful.
Very intermittent WiFi here, so won’t be able to post this until tomorrow when we find signal.
Travel Dude 