Safaris - Sri Lanka

Posted by Alethea May 19, 2019

Safaris - Sri Lanka

We were drawn to visit Sri Lanka for a few reasons, but one of the main ones was its reputation as a great place to see wildlife. One thing we know about our family is that we all enjoy being in nature and we all enjoy spotting wildlife in nature. The opportunity to see some exotic (to us) animals like leopards and elephants was too tempting to turn up, so embarking on a safari was at the top of our “to do” list in Sri Lanka. Sri Lanka has 22 national parks, many of which are known for different types of habitats and native animals. They are scattered across the country and are variably popular with visitors. Leo and I both poured over many blogs and written accounts about the pros and cons of different safaris and national parks and had some ideas of what we wanted to see/do, but like at other times during this journey, the amount of information was overwhelming and making a decision was daunting. To fast forward to the punch line, we landed on some wonderful safaris and are completely happy with how it all turned out.

To rewind to our arrival in Sri Lanka, I was at my peak, or perhaps nadir, of feeling like I had not planned enough and was making the “wrong” decision about our itinerary. In retrospect I think it was that we arrived in Sri Lanka after a busy 6 weeks in south east Asia and, although we had a rough idea of what we wanted to do/where we wanted to go, we arrived without any set plans starting two nights after our arrival. So, in the midst of adjusting to a new culture, new currency, ongoing heat, new foods, one kid with a GI bug and my co-adult also under the weather, I felt less than awesome about our plans, or lack of plans, and I was stressing out. Turns out, it all turned out. Since this is about the safaris I will jump to those experiences, but the real time plan making explains some of our decisions about where we went and didn’t go, however I think any safari and any park would have been great, once again reminding me that there are very few “right” or “wrong” decisions, especially in the fortunate position of travelling.

A flashback to decisions made 20+ years ago when Leo jumped in the same safari van as mine in Kenya.
Maybe there are some "right" decisions. Look at us now!

The first part of our travels through Sri Lanka took us from Colombo to Kandy, the last capital of the ancient Kings. From there we drove further north to the tiny town of Sigiriya. Sigiriya is the gateway to Minneriya park which is less than an hour away. We were picked up at our guest house mid afternoon and drove to the park in our safari jeep. There we joined dozens of other jeeps all there for the same reason: to see elephants.

Minneriya is the site of “The Gathering”. This is an astonishing event when over 400 elephants gather to the shores of an ancient reservoir to mate, feed, socialize and bathe. The remainder of the year there are not quite as many elephants, but there are always a few herds. The elephants are the main draw at this park as there are few other animals lurking about, but oh what a sight the elephants were!

When we first arrived at the entrance of the park we were astounded by the number of jeeps. We all simultaneously thought "Where the heck did all these fellow tourists come from?” and “Oh man, this is going to be a bummer” (thinking that all we would see is other jeeps). The funny thing is, as soon as we got through the gates, even though we were heading in the same direction, it didn’t seem overly crowded. Perhaps this was because it was so darn exciting to be ON SAFARI. Bumping and jostling our way across the arid landscape we made our way to the edge of the lake. We felt like we were in a 4D movie. There was one exciting water crossing that had us cheering when we got to the other side. Some jeeps weren’t so lucky.

Then we got to the edge of the reservoir and saw a few elephants. And then more. And more. They kept emerging from the brush in pairs and bunches. It was amazing. There were lots of mom and baby pairs and we learned the youngest was only 3 weeks old. We watched the elephants walk to the edge of the water, drink, spray, munch grass. It was magical.

We can see them in the distance!! And then we kept getting closer!

Now, to keep it real, I will admit that at one point, when the elephants walked so close to us that we could have reached out and touched them, two of the kids were wickedly bickering about their spot in the jeep. Up until then I felt like I was having a wonderful experience filled with joy. This moment was a different kind experience where it was "SERIOUSLY!? You are bickering RIGHT NOW!?". Luckily it was a blip and not the lasting experience nor memory. We had an amazing time seeing the wild elephants in their natural habitat and despite the large numbers of fellow jeeps we felt like this was a unique and very worthwhile experience. The five of us were on a high on our drive back out of the park, bumping and lurching across the dry earth, feeling grateful and fortunate.

Monkey in a tree as the sun sets on our way out of the park.

Our next safari experience was a few days later at Wilpattu National Park. Wilpattu is in the Northwest of Sri Lanka and a bit out of the usual tourist itinerary so it is reportedly less busy than some of the other parks. It is known as one of the spots with a high density of Leopards in Sri Lanka. We had also read that the park itself is quite beautiful with different flora, so after toying with various itineraries and travel options we decide to go for it and head to Wilpattu. We stayed at a very basic guesthouse just minutes outside of the park entrance and took advantage of our proximity and the fact that there was not much else to see or do in the area, to do an afternoon and then an all day safari.

The park is indeed very beautiful. There are many, many lakes doted around the park with all the attendant birds and animals that are drawn to fresh water. There were patches of wooded areas that provided cool respite from the heat and other areas that were brushy and dense. We spent many hours over two days bumping around the park looking for animals. Our jeep drivers were both really adept at zooming down paths that seemed to disappear behind us only to pull to a stop at an edge of a watering hole, look around for animals, then tear back out to head another direction. There is no cell coverage in the park, so unlike some parks where the guides are all in contact with each other resulting in large number of jeeps converging on the same animals, we were often alone, both in the search but also while enjoying animals we came upon.

The lovely shaded road at the beginning of the park. It gets bumpier and smaller as we get further into the park, but this spot was a welcome reprieve from the heat.

One of the hundreds of watering holes. Some are small, like this, others are large lakes.

We spent hours in the jeep. Once in the park you cannot get out of the jeep, except for one designated picnic area. Our all day safari started with a 6 am pickup and we were there until the gates closed at 5. Add that to the few hours the prior afternoon and it amounted to a lot of time driving through the park looking for animals. What I adore about my family is their enthusiasm for wildlife and their impressive patience with the process. A lot of the time was looking, not as much seeing, and yet spirits remained upbeat. The kids devised a system of sharing the lookout "you take the left, I'll take the right, and you take up high". Not only were we all dedicated to looking for wildlife, but when we saw something, even when it was not anything big and dramatic everyone was so excited. "A Deer!" (you'd think we'd never seen deer before...) "A bird!" ... "A BUNNY!" and on and on. We saw wild boars which prompted singing Pumba's song from the Lion King, EVERY TIME we saw one. We saw a couple of lone elephants. A Sloth mama and baby bear was a big deal as apparently they rare to see. We saw lots and lots of birds. We think maybe we could be a family of birdwatchers. We assigned spirit animals to each of us from the ones I saw. Mine is apparently the sloth mama bear. I'm not sure how I feel about it, but apparently it was because she seemed mostly preoccupied with making sure her baby was okay, which sounds nice, but she looked awfully frazzled to me, and don't even get me started on her "hair".

He sees something!

I think our driver might have been surprised to hear the excited squeals for the turtle we saw or the excitement when we saw a mongoose. I would like to think it made him pleased that we were as excited to see the less glamorous animals of the park as the headliners. It certainly warmed my heart. As with so many things in life, and especially on this trip, it isn't the big shiny moments that stand out, but rather the quieter ones. The laughter and silliness on hour 9 of the day, the love that welled up while quietly watching BIRDS and seeing the sense of enthusiasm and curiosity that is alive for all of us in the outdoors.

It was HOT

Lots of birds!

The "log" behind the bird is an alligator.

My Sri Lankan spirit animal (as per my family)

This might not look like much, but it is a mongoose. How cool!?

We learned that "Jungle Fowl" is the national bird of Sri Lanka. Sol quipped when he learned this that clearly Sri Lanka had to one up India on the national bird. (We had learned earlier in the week that the peacock is India's national bird)

The big question is, did we see Leopards? This is what the park is known for and what people come for. No we did not. Our driver tried very hard, zooming around the park with increasing intensity as our 12 hour day came to an end. About an hour before we had to leave the park we pulled up alongside another jeep and the two men in the back gleefully told us we had "just missed a leopard." One man proceeded to show us the pictures on his huge digital camera. I had to bite back the urge to say "I can look at pictures of leopards online thank you very much." In some ways knowing we were so close was harder than missing the leopards completely. But c'est la vie and as I reminded myself and the kids, it was the experience of the day, not just seeing one single animal, that mattered.