A Trip to Yala in December 2nd - 4th

We, my husband and I and four other friends of ours, left Colombo around 3.45 am. on the 2nd of December. We were on our way to Yala. However, we first thought we would go to the Bundala National Park and we reached there about 7.30 a.m. There we had breakfast of sandwiches and coffee. Nothing much to see in Bundala - the day was pretty overcast.

We left Bundala around 11.30 a.m. and proceeded toward Yala - we were staying at "Forest Lodge" - this is outside the national park. We reached there around 2.00 p.m. Asked the caretaker to prepare lunch. We had our lunch and then decided we should go on the evening round in the park. We saw only a lonely elephant that evening much to our disappointment. Came back to the bungalow and chilled out. Had dinner and retired for the night.

The next day we woke up and to our disappointment it was pelting with rain. We decided to go back to sleep. Anyway we woke up and had our late breakfast and decided we should do a mid morning round in the park. There was a constant drizzle. However, we managed to spot a leopard but he too made a hasty retreat into the jungle. We also managed to spot a bear and cub and while we were there watching the bear, a jeep driver told us that there was a tusker spotted at the other end of the park so we decided to leave the bear and pursue that. We did manage to locate him - took a few photographs of him and then since it was getting dark we decided to call it a day. We came back to the bungalow around 6.30 p.m. and we immediately asked our bungalow keeper to have dinner ready as we were now famished as we had not had had any lunch. We had dinner, lazed around a bit and then went to sleep hoping that the next day would be a brighter day.

The next day we woke up and to our surprise it was a brilliant day, the sun was shining, the birds were singing. Immediately we had our tea and left hoping that we would have better luck. As we proceeded our tracker immediately asked my husband to stop the vehicle as he thought he had spotted a leopard on a tree - sure enough there was a leopard - but he got down and walked into the jungle - not very obliging!!! He appeared to be a really large male leopard. We drove around quite a bit in the park but no luck - we decided to head back as were coming back home that day.

Headed back to the bungalow, had lunch, packed our bags and came back home. We reached home around 6.30 p.m. with my husband getting the flu.

"The bulldozer and not the atomic bomb may turn out to be the most destructive invention of the 20th century."- Philip Shabecoff

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A one night stop at Udawalawe and a three night stay at Yala

26th August - We left Colombo at around 4.30 a.m. Stopped at Ratnapura to stretch our legs and to have breakfast of sandwiches and coffee. Drove towards Udawalawe. Stopped at the Sankhapala Temple for some photography. Left there and headed towards Udawalawe. Stopped to buy fish for our lunch and proceeded towards the bungalow - The Wildlife and Nature Protection Society bungalow which is located outside the park. We reached the bungalow around 9.30 a.m. Another crowd was supposed to join us, they joined us around 11.15 a.m. We had lunch around 12.30 p.m. Retired for a small nap. Got up, had a wash, had tea and decided to go on a game round around 3.35 p.m. We reached the park entrance only to find that there were no trackers for us to go into the park.

Whilst we were waiting our turn to get a tracker (waiting for a vehicle to come out of the park with a tracker) we met a friend of ours who had been to Yala and Bundala that morning who said they saw absolutely nothing in Yala, which of course was very disheartening cos our next stop was Yala.

Finally a bus came out of the park only to be informed that we could go in but would have to go in 5 other vehicles which was a no go for us especially when you want to do photography. We therefore opted out and went back to the bungalow. We thought we would have a splendid sunset, but that too was a big disappointment as the sun went behind a big cloud. We then had our customary drink, had dinner and went to sleep.

27th August - Woke up around 6.00 a.m. The other crowd with us being disappointed the previous day being unable to go to the park decided that they were not going to miss out this morning. They had actually been quite lucky as they had seen 3 herds of elephant, each herd comprising about 20 - 30 elephants. They had been informed that elephants had not been spotted in a couple of days maybe one or two but not so many!!!! We stayed behind in order to try and photograph any birds that came our way but wasn't that lucky. We all had breakfast and left the bungalow about 9.00 a.m.

We met Peter, the former bungalow keeper of the Wildlife and Nature Protection Society of Yala, chatted with him. Then we proceeded to Tissamaharama to the shopping for our Yala stay. Once that was all completed we proceeded towards the park entrance, reached there around 12 noon. We got our tracker and proceeded towards our bungalow, this time we were staying inside the park and we stayed at a bungalow called "Warahana". We reached the bungalow around 1.00 p.m. We unpacked and went for a river bath. Had lunch and rested a while.

Got up had our tea and went on the game round starting at 4.00 p.m. We saw elephant, had two sightings of bear, one at "Modawala" this sighting was actually a very good sighting as we saw the bear drinking water at this particular waterhole. The other sighting was as Butawa, actually we did not see this bear until the last moment and he was as startled as we were. We went back to the bungalow at 6.35 p.m. Had our usual drink, had dinner and called it a day.

28th August - Woke up, had tea and left the bungalow at about 5.45 a.m. Saw a bear at "Koma wewa". Saw a female leopard cub at a water hole called the "Suduwelimulla water hole" and later saw the brother of the female leopard cub at the "Suduwelimulla boruluwala". He then walked away into the jungle. We then headed toward the bungalow, had breakfast, had a river bath. While we were having our river bath a herd of about 10 deer decided to come and drink just in front of us. We lay flat so they were unable to see us, they were very cautious though knowing that something was amiss. We almost did not breath thinking we would scare them away. One by one they drank water and left. Now that was a very nice experience!!!!! Had a small siesta just before lunch. Had lunch and went on the park round starting at 3.30 p.m. Saw the "weli katta" female leopard at the meda para water hole. Came back to the bungalow. Had a shower, had our drinks, had dinner. A while later we decided to flash the torch into the jungle to see what night animals we could see. To our surprise we saw two sets of eyes reflecting back at us. We identified them as Golden palm cat. We let them go about there business and we went to sleep.

29th August - Woke up, had our tea and left the bungalow around 5.35 a.m. We drove and drove around for a very long time but no luck, suddenly the tracker shouted "kotiya" which means leopard, and true enough a little female leopard cub was seated on the side of the road presumably waiting to cross the road. It changed direction and went into the jungle and we were not able to see it again. This little female cub is the same "Suduwelimulla" cub we had seen earlier. Went on a couple of more rounds and then we headed back to the bungalow at about 9.30 a.m. Had breakfast of roti.

The other vehicle was leaving today, so we had to go and drop them off at the park entrance. Both times that is to and from the bungalow, we did not see anything special. Decided not to have a river bath today as I had been bitten really bad by sand flies and was scratching, instead I rested. Had lunch and tried to sleep a while but that did not happen. Got out of bed around 3.15 p.m., had tea and went on the evening round. Waited at the "Suduwelimulla" water hole and our efforts were rewarded. The male and female cub came out and drank water. The female chased a mongoose but was not successful. We left them and decided to go to Koma wewa as the commotion and the behaviour of the rest of the visitors was totally rude to say the least. Went to the koma wewa bund and met a vehicle full of people. They informed us a leopard had been sighted. We therefore decided to wait a while and sure enough a huge leopard, must have been a male, as we could not see clearly, was observed drinking water. Started the vehicle and the leopard ran across the bund like a scarred cat, he sat for a while on the edge of the bund, in the meantime we decided we would try to get a glimpse of him from the other side but he had done the vanishing trick by the time we came round.

Went back to the bungalow, had our shower, our usual drink and had dinner. That night too we had quite a few pleasant surprises - the golden palm cat, a pair of Indian Palm cat and later on in the night a pair of porcupine who scampered along when they were aware that we were watching them.

30th August - Woke up at 5.00 a.m. Today was our departure day. Went on our morning round. No big animals this time. Photographed some pied kingfisher hovering trying to catch their breakfast. That was a very pleasant experience watching these guys. Came back to the bungalow around 9.00 a.m. Packed, took a short break while waiting for our brunch. Had brunch and left the bungalow around 10.45 a.m. We stopped at Silverray, Pelmadulla for a snack. We reached Colombo around 6.00 p.m and I ended up having a very bad sore throat which later turned out to be an infection and all the complications that come with it, body ache, fever etc.

All in all it was a very pleasant trip as we had quite a bit of luck especially bear as bear is considered even rarer than leopard. So I think we were rather fortunate and I am rather content.

Our next trip will be to Udawalawe on the 7th of September, where we will be staying inside the park at a bungalow called Thimbirimunkada.

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A Trip to Yala

It has been a while since we went anywhere, anyway, we went to Yala and we stayed at the Wildlife and Nature Protection Society, Palutupana. Our trip was from the 7th to the 10th of July.

7th July - Set the alarm for 4.00 a.m. but got up only at about 4.45 a.m. Packed the vehicle and left around 5.15 a.m. Stopped for breakfast just past the Udawalawe bund at 8.35 a.m. Left at 9.00 a.m. Reached the Society bungalow, Yala at 1.00 p.m. Had lunch and slept a while. Woke up at 3.00 p.m. had tea and left for the park, but unfortunately the vehicles torsion bar (wonder if I spelt that correctly) jumped out and that meant no evening round but a long and tedious wait in the garage getting it fixed. Went to Tissamaharama to get it fixed. While waiting at the garage we met our first set of friends who were joining us and a little while later our other set of friends joined us at the garage. We finally left the garage around 7.00 p.m. and headed for the bungalow. We had our usual drink and then dinner and chatted till 1.00 a.m. in the morning and finally decided to call it a day since we had to be up early the next morning.

8th July - Woke up to the alarm and got ready and went to the park to get a tracker. Got ourselves a tracker and went to the park. Non of us had any luck. Came back to the bungalow. Played a game of monopoly. Had lunch, went to sleep. Got up had tea and went to the park. We had a sighting of a young man leopard cub. It was a very brief sighting. We left it and headed back out to the bungalow. Had our usual drink and chat and had dinner and rolled into bed around 11.00 p.m.

9th july - Got up in the morning and went to the park. Did not see anything as well today. But our tracker told us a hair raising story. We asked him where he had been on the day of the tsunami and he said he had been in the park. He had been guiding a group of visitors and they were on the main road when a herd of elephant had just cut across their path and seemed to be in a big hurry to get to the other side so they let them pass and when they had passed they proceeded on their journey and lo and behold not even 5 minutes after that he said a huge wave about 20 ft just went past them. If those elephants had not interrupted them they would have probably been in the middle of that wave. We asked him "what did you think at the time" he said, "we did not know what to think". How lucky they were!!!

We then went back to the bungalow. Had lunch and decided to go to the park a little early that day owing to the shortage of trackers. So we went around 2.00 p.m. No luck again on the game round. Came back to the bungalow. Had our usual drinks and chat and had dinner and went to bed early.

10th July - Woke up in the morning. Since we were not having any luck at all we decided not to do the morning round but instead head back to Colombo early. Had breakfast at around 8.00 a.m. and left around 9.00 a.m. Stopped at Silverray at Pelmadulla and had lunch. Went home at about 2.30 p.m.

We never usually miss a morning round, the fact that we were having no luck and we were staying in a bungalow outside the bungalow helped. But had we had done the morning round we would have had to stay till evening probably cos we were later informed by friends who had stayed on that there had been a kill on the main road and the leopard had come and feasted on the kill most of the day right in the open totally oblivious to any vehicles that had come along. The kill was that of a deer. How unlucky we were!!!!!

The route to Yala will basically show you that one has basically got to travel from one coast right across to the other coast that is ofcourse if you are starting off from Colombo.

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