Friday, August 31, 2007

The Next Morning.....

We decided to take the next morning easy, since, unlike in Yala where there is plenty of leopard, Udawalawe does not offer the same opportunity. We therefore decided that we would have breakfast at about 7.00 a.m. and set off on our morning round at about 7.30 a.m. This trip was more of a birding trip!!! We drove toward Timbiriyamankada where there is a waterhole. There we were audience to a great spectacle of a crested hawk eagle catching a serpent. It was an amazing battle between the two of them. The serpent had his body wrapped around the eagle's leg and the eagle kept pecking the serpent aiming at his head. At one point the serpent and the eagle were eyeballing each other. You could almost feel the anxiety of the serpent as it knew that that was the end for him. The snake attacked too and ended up with a feather in its mouth. While all this was occuring a couple of crows were mobbing the eagle so much so it took off with the serpent wrapped around its leg to probably enjoy its brunch away from the crows and our prying eyes. We proceeded further and encountered 2 adult elephant and 2 baby elephants drinking at a waterhole. They seemed rather thirsty as they drank for quite some time giving plenty of photo opportunity for whoever was interested.

Some miscalculation in the quantity of food ended up in us having to go to the park entrance and to the Udawalawe town. While the other vehicle proceeded to town we enjoyed a cup of tea at one of the shops. One hour later we started our journey back to the bungalow to enjoy yet another river bath and lunch. Since this took up a considerable amount of time we did not have time for an afternoon snooze. We had only a half an hour break before we set off on the evening round. The evening round did not produce that many great opportunities only a few elephant. We headed back home to a sumptious dinner and turned in for the night.

The next morning was our departure day. Some decided that they would stay at the bungalow - that included me - some decided to do a round to a particular place called Weheramankada to look for the Rufous woodpecker. The party of three had only left 5 minutes and the Rufous woodpecker made its appearance at our doorstep on two occasions. They came back not having had much luck. If only they had stayed behind like us they would have seen this bird. Another river bath was in order. We packed had breakfast and left our bungalow to return home.

Wednesday, August 29, 2007

A trip to Weheragolla bungalow, Udawalawe National Park

Taking Monday the 27th of August off from work would make the 25th to 28th of August a long weekend. Therefore it was decided that a couple of friends would do a trip to the Udawalawe National Park and stay inside the park at the Weheragolla bungalow.

We had a prior engagement on Saturday the 25th therefore we were unable to join the rest of the crowd that day. We were only able to go on Sunday. Having been up till late saturday evening we only got up around 5.30 a.m. on Sunday. Hurriedly packed the vehicle and we were on our way to Udawalawe leaving home at 6.30 a.m.

Since we were staying inside the park we needed a tracker to get to the bungalow. We had told our friends to therefore come to the park entrance by 11.00 a.m. anticipating that we would leave Colombo much later than 6.30 a.m. We arrived at the park entrance however by 9.45 a.m. and decided we would wait there till 11.00 a.m. till our friends came to pick us up. They came around 11.30 a.m. and we were very glad to see them as we were anxious to get to the bungalow and have a good rest.

We reached the bungalow finally after about an hours drive. Unpacked and decided to have a river bath which flows just past the bungalow. We then had a late lunch and rested awhile. We fell asleep and woke up around 5.30 p.m. only to discover that we had not been woken up in order to go on the evening round. We were a bit annoyed at that but our good friends thought that we needed to sleep since we had broken rest the previous night. The other crowd came back after their evening round. They did not have that much of luck, probably just a few elephants. My husband then decided it would be a great idea to have another river bath. We sat around and chatted about this, that and the other. We had dinner and then decided to sit out and enjoy the night sounds. We heard alarm calls of deer and sambhur which could only mean one thing and that was that leopard was around. We were hoping that it would make an appearance but we were not fortunate enought. We also heard the call of the forest eagle owl but that was quite some distance from the bungalow. Elephant too decided to trumphet. Non of these animals were unfortunately visible to us. We then decided it was time to call it a day and went to sleep.

Wednesday, August 22, 2007

Battle at Kruger



This video footage is about how a buffalo calf was caught by a pride of lion and how he escaped with the help of the rest of the buffalo herd.

The buffaloa approached the water and a pride of lion charged the buffalo and a calf eneded up getting caught by the lion.They fell to the water. A crocodile then came to the water and tried to grab the calf There was a tussle between the crocodile and lion. Lions won. Herd of buffalo came to try to rescue the young. One brave buggaloa just hurled a lion into the air. The calf is still alive and tries to get away and finally gets away from the lions clutches.

Thursday, August 16, 2007

The next and final day at Yala

The next morning, Sunday, as we entered into the park there was a snake across the road hurriedly trying to swallow it prey - a rat. When we first observed it the rat was halfway down and a little wriggle by the snake and the rat would go down a little, another little wriggle by the snake and the rat would go in a little bit more. We left it and continued in our pursuit of hopefully encountering more wild animals.

We thought we would try "roundwala" again. As we proceeded to "roundwala" we came across our previous days tusker "Thilak" who was ambling along the road towards us. He saw us and then took a right turn into the jungle. Approaching our destination there was a whole convoy of vehicles and we knew it could only mean one thing. We positioned ourselves far from the madding crowd in anticipation that it would come to water or even climb the tree which it had been on the previous day. We were informed by a jeep that passed us that the previous evening this leopard had made a kill of a spotted deer. It was now up on a tree with the kill having its breakfast. We thought we would try and approach this tree hoping for maybe just a glimpse. We could not see the leopard on the tree because of the leaf cover, but what we saw were some branches which were moving very vigorously and next moment we saw a leopard fall to the ground from the tree. It was probably trying to pull the carcass down to the ground. Suddenly the leopard decided to run pell mell into the jungle as though he had ants in his pants. Since there was no more news as to the visibility of the leopard we left.

Continuing on our rounds we came across a jeep which told us that they had come across a leopard a little way in front of us. The leopard had gone into the jungle. We had a vague idea as to where it might emerge - so - we went in pursuit of it and true enough we came across a huge specimen of a leopard too far to tell if it was male or female but it had a huge dewlap. We just saw this leopard for only a brief second before it decided to go out of our sight. We decided to call it a day as we had to leave that day. We therefore headed back to the bungalow, packed, showered, had brunch and departed for Colombo at about 11.45 a.m. We stopped at Silverray at Pelmadulla for a snack and came home around 5.45 p.m.


A country is known by the way it treats its animals - Jawaharlal Nehru

Finally after a long lapse - a trip to Yala

It has been rather hectic for both my husband and I. Housebuilding takes all of your time and energy and thus we have been unable to venture out into the wild since February of this year. But finally we managed to squeeze a trip to Yala.

We left Colombo around 2.30 p.m. on friday the 10th of August. We reached Yala - that is - the Wildlife and Nature Protection Society bungalow around 7.45 p.m. Two groups of friends had gone before us one on Thursday and one had turned up around 6.30 p.m. that same day. We were exhausted from the long drive but very certainly happy to be in one of our favourite places. We had dinner which was a very simple meal of rice and some curries and turned in for the day as we had to be up rather early to go on the game drive the next day. That night was not such a peaceful night as one of the little kids had a teething problem and kept me up most of the night with her constant crying. My husband who was beside me was completely oblivious to all these happenings slept like a log.

We woke up early on Saturday and after a cup of tea and some sandwiches we headed out into the park. Since it was a weekend we expected the park to be crowded and trackers hard to come by. Having anticipated that my friend who came the previous day thought it would be best if our vehicle followed theirs as we had only one tracker for two vehicles. Much to our disapproval we complied. It is rather difficult when you do not have a tracker for your own vehicle as the second vehicle always misses out on opportunities as often the subject goes off or as in the case of a bird flies off when the second vehicle approaches. Another factor is dust the second vehicle gets to literally eat the dust raised from the first vehicle - and when you are allergic to dust this is not necessarily an enviable position to be in.

The day turned out quite ok when in the morning my husband spotted the tusker who is known as "Thilak". He decided to come up close and personal, threw some dust into the air in front of us and then meandered off again away from us. He continued on his journey into the jungle. We thought he would come to the water hole which is known as "Diganwala". Giving it time to do so we did the full loop and came to "Diganwala" and true enough he was at the said waterhole. His legs seemed to have been wet but we were not too sure if it had drunk at this waterhole or somewhere else. He seemed rather annoyed at the whole troop of vehicles in hot pursuit of him. He just turned and walked off into the jungle.

We then continued driving endlessly in the hope of spotting something - anything! when at a place called "roundwala" at "medapara" there were about 5 vehicles stationary watching something intently. Driving up to one of the jeeps we were informed that there was a leopard. He was seated under the shade of a tree cleaning himself - he had obviously just had a meal as his stomach indicated it too!! We observed him for a while before he decided to get up and walk right past us into the jungle, pausing a while to take a look at the onlookers. He was probably disturbed by the three jeeps that came racing to the spot, probably having had prior information of the location of this magnificent beast. We then drove back to the bungalow where we had breakfast and then relaxed till lunchtime. Had a late lunch and lo and behold it was almost time for the evening round.

The evening round brought us to the same place - "medapara" where this time the same leopard had decided to climb a tree and go to sleep. But alas, there were to many vehicles for his liking, with kids screaming and so much noise that the leopard snarled and jumped off the tree and wandered off into the jungle. We headed back to the bungalow rather happy at what we had seen. Once at the bungalow we had our dinner, our showers and it was nighty night once again.
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