Yala Safari

So get this: Today is 12/12/12. I am so glad I am not in England, in the cold, listening to the drivel they will almost certainly be putting on every TV channel and radio station about this being the last date of its kind for a very long time. Far better to be in forested surroundings, under a blazing sun, fantasizing about the possibility of seeing a leopard for the first time.

Our safari jeep wasn't due to show up until 2 pm, so after breakfast we strolled down to the beach to take in the view and write a birthday message to Amber's mum in the sand. The sea here is apparently pretty dangerous, shelving off deeply with strong rip tides.  One of the girls on reception told us that a young child had been swept away by the sea a few years ago.

Later we wandered over to the lake. Amber spotted movement at the water surface that turned out to be one of the mugger crocodiles trying to eat a dead stork that was floating on the surface. Wildlife in action!  We watched it struggling to tear the bird apart, clamping its jaws around part of the bird and spinning in the water to tear a piece off.  It wasn't working too well.  In the end the croc got tired of our prying eyes and swam away with the bird in its jaws.

As we were grabbing a drink in the bizarrely-named 'Pug Marks' bar, we bumped into Stanley, who stopped to talk about arranging the safari. Irritatingly, he had somehow inflated the price he quoted yesterday by 1500 Rs per person! We couldn't believe it.  It is almost as if he actively wants us to mistrust him! All the same, at 7500 Rs each, including park fees, his price was still a darn sight cheaper than the $80 a head that hotel is offering. After some deliberation we gave Stanley the green light to book the safari and he left us alone.

After lunch we went to talk to reception about getting a free upgrade to a beach chalet. According to our Kuoni brochure, we are entitled to this upgrade as one of the perks of being on a honeymoon booking. As I said yesterday, the hotel didn't recognise this fact, which I assumed was because all the beach chalets were fully booked. As it turned out, they had availability today and were happy to move us from room 154 to room 139 (much to our room boy's disgust - he didn't look happy as he watched his chances of getting a tip from us go up in smoke).   It would have been nice if they had contacted us to ask if we wanted to upgrade, rather than the other way around, but from our experience so far, it seems Sri Lankan hospitality still has a little way to go in terms of customer service, at the luxury end at least.

The beach chalet is great, higher ceiling, more space and a balcony looking out over greenery to the waves crashing on the shore. Checking availability was definitely the right move!

At 2 pm we headed over to the Safari Pick Up point to meet Stanley and our jeep driver. As we watched a steady stream of plush safari jeeps turn up to pick up other hotel guests, we half expected, given Stanley's track record, that our jeep might turn out to be an old rust bucket. Incredibly, Stanley managed to exceed our expectations, delivering not only a jeep on a par with the others (bar the smashed rear window), but also a driver who was a competent naturalist. Result.

What can I say about the Yala safari experience? It was brilliant! The park is criss-crossed with a network of dirt roads, allowing jeep access to a wide range of habitat types. For the most part the park is scrub forest, with bigger trees and boulders rising above the scrub, providing vantage points for a wide range of birds and mammals. Other areas consist of wetland, grassland or water bodies, all of which teem with life. We saw hundreds of animals, many of which are hard to see here, including wild elephants, sambhur deer, spotted deer, hanuman langurs, toque macaques, ruddy mongoose, hornbills, mugger crocodiles, two species of bee-eater, fan-tailed flycatcher, spoonbills, jacanas and enough peafowl to last you a lifetime. Our driver was excellent. Excellent at spotting hidden wildlife and with an encyclopaedic knowledge of English common names.

Yala is truly a birder's paradise, with so many species so readily seen. I'm not really into wading birds, which is why many species haven't made it onto the list (I couldn't readily identify them), but I reckon we easily saw ten different species of wading birds alone, probably more.

We were in the park for hours, only getting back to the hotel around 6:30, after the sun had set. Great value for money. Sadly the leopards, for which the park is famous, had eluded us, but we were more than content with what we did see. The highlight had to be stopping metres away from a female elephant and her calf, who were amazingly well hidden behind a row of trees, and watching her bring the calf out to cross the road. She was remarkably unphased by the three jeeps full of gawping tourists, but her baby was clearly afraid, hiding behind its mum for safety. Magical.

On the back of having such a great experience today, we tipped our driver 500 rupees and arranged with Stanley to go to Bundala National Park early tomorrow morning, with the same driver, for the same price as today. We are being picked up at 5.30 am.

We had a hilarious experience on the way to dinner. We were walking along a path with our torch when suddenly Amber froze on the spot and whispered 'There's something in the bushes! I just heard something!'. I shone the torch around the floor, but couldn't see anything. Then I heard the noise too and shone the torch in the direction the noise was coming from to reveal...a water buffalo, not three feet from where we stood! On seeing it, Amber began walking away, at a speed that would put an Olympian to shame, dragging me along with her! I explained that the buffalo was probably just resting up for the night, but she was having none of it, convinced it was going to charge us any second. So funny! Needless to say, the buffalo stayed right where it was, mildly perturbed about the strange floating light that had blinded it briefly as it enjoyed some peace and quiet in the darkness.

There was one good thing about it being 12/12/12:  The hotel took 12% off the price of all the wine.  We were given a much nicer table tonight, on the balcony, so we felt it was only right to take advantage of the wine offer.

Early night tonight as we have to be up at 5 am tomorrow.

Yala wildlife (new additions only):
- common iora
- barn swallow
- Malabar pied hornbill
- Ceylon green pigeon
- orange-breasted green-pigeon
- green imperial pigeon
- Kentish plover
- black-winged stilt
- white-bellied sea-eagle
- Eurasian spoonbill
- lesser adjutant
- Indian darter
- giant squirrel (Chaaya Wild grounds)
- sambar deer
- spotted deer