Yalu Safari

The view of the Bundala marshes from our terrace, which almost literally hung over the wetlands.  We saw crocodile swimming below us before we had even stowed our bags in the room.

Since our transit day had turned into a mere transit morning, we were at our new guesthouse before lunch time.  We spoke to our host about visiting Bundala National Park, whose marshes we overlooked from our upper floor terrace.  A banquest lunch of roti and fruit and tea was served and we met our fellow guests, P & J, a widely traveled English couple.  As we munched on roti and lovely papaya, they told us of their plan to go to Yalu, the larger nearby park, for an afternoon safari.  We soon hatched a plan to share the jeep costs and join them on the Yalu run.

Bundala is a smaller park of marshes and beachs which is famous for bird-watching.  Yalu is a bigger park of wetlands, scrub forest and rocky escarpments along the ocean.  Both are popular, but Yalu is the big draw as it has many more types of larger mammals, including leopards and elephants.  We had talked about doing both parks, even with the expense of the jeep fees and stiffer entrance fees.  My Sri Lankan brothers are proud of their parks.  

We set out in our six seat safari jeep, perched fairly high above the roadway.  This height accentuated every turn, twist and lurch as we wove our way through the rural traffic on the forty minute ride past Tissa and its lovely lake and then hence to the park entrance.  

The lake at Tissa with the hills of Yalu in the background.  

Once at Yalu, we forked over the approxiamtely $85 for the entrance fees for the four foreigners, the jeep, the driver, and the VAT tax.  The safari thing definately falls into the "luxury" catagory.   And yet this is the only way to see the parks.  Camping in the parks is crazy expensive, on the order of $200-$300 a night for two people.  Solo hiking is absolutely forbidden.  The only option is the jeep tour.  So, relieved of a pile of rupees, we jounced into the park over the muddy roads.  Still the rainy season here,  yes, but most of the rain has been at night leaving us with lovely warm sunny days.  I had my doubts about the whole safari thing after the "No-critter" safari in southern India, but this was a different kettle of mullet.  We were amazed and delighted with the number and variety of critters on the hoof, in the air, or afloat.

Wild Boar, which have a very piggy aroma, and are not the least bit shy.  They were looking for a snack.

Bee Eaters, a big sight for any bird watchers.  We saw scores by the end of the day.  Amazing plumage, especially in flight.  Just after I took this photo a Hawk Eagle (real name) swooped between the jeep and the water hole in the background.  

Lots of water buffalo grazing about the meadows and wetlands.  Huge critters.

Elephant rock in the distance.  There were lots of crocs in this shallow lake, but they just look like logs in the photos.  You will have to take my word that this is NOT a swimming area.  Some of the crocs were very large.  

Wetlands, marshes, rock escarpments and the sea behind the hills.

Yalu also contains some ancient Buddhist sites that date back thousands of years.  This area was the end of a pilgramage that began in the northern portion of the island and continued to this southern end.  In one of the rock domes there are stair steps carved into the rock.

We continued through the park, seeing spotted deer, huge red deer, and many crocodiles.  There was a leopard false alarm, which caused a jeep traffic jam, but no leopard.  The birds were amazing:  spoonbills, ibis with their crazy down-curved black bills, Brahmin Eagles and Hawk Eagles, two kinds of storks, bee eaters, and all sorts of other song birds.  We also saw two mongoose, which were beautiful and one of the highlights of the day for me.  There were peacocks everywhere, includinig a male in full mating dance giving a new meaning to "let me see you shake your tail feathers!"  There were also several jungle fowl which look like crazxy roosters painted by Peter Max.

Still, the stars of Yalu, the leopards, elephants and sloth bears eluded us.  But the afternoon was not done.