Sri Lankan Trip

I was thinking to visit Yala National Park for a long time since it has the highest concentration of leopards in the world. In my personal opinion Leopards are the most beautiful creature in cat family as Snow leopard & Jaguar are out of scope for me as of now 🙂 and I wanted to visit Yala specifically for leopards. On 23rd Dec 2014, myself and my friend Sarath flew to Colombo from Chennai. We have completed the visa process soon as we had already taken the ETA online. There was in fact, 8 hour journey to Tissamaharama where the Yala National Park situated. I was really afraid of the weather, because in Colombo it was raining heavily. I had already checked AccuWeather and it was showing rain only for one day. so I was bit relaxed too since we had planned for three days in Yala.

Luckily we got the bus to Tissamaharama which was going through the new express highway. It took only 6 hours for us to reach there and It was already 11.00 when we reached. The hotel we booked wasn’t too far from the bus station. But since we were new to the place and the time was also late, we hired a Tuk Tuk (Auto Rickshaw) to hotel. He was overcharged; didn’t care much as we both were too tired after the long journey.

The next day morning 5’o clock we started our safari to Yala. I had already booked the safari online and the guy was waiting outside our hotel on time. it took almost 30 mins to the Park. It was drizzling slightly but otherwise the atmosphere was pleasant. The guy has speaking in English and I said him that we are here for leopards mainly. He was saying “leopards are on leave today. they don’t like rain”. I knew this but I was optimistic.

We started our safari and there wasn’t any other passengers in our jeep for our luck. The habitat was same as our Bandipur and Kabini. But I noticed that there was a great chance for birding. Within half an hour, we could trace a leopard. It was inside the bushes and I could see only the head and it wasn’t clearly visible. We have waited there for half an hour; but it didn’t come out. One problem I have notices is, there were lot of vehicles and if we spot something, soon the area will get crowded and people are making lot of noise. Actually the leopards are nocturnal; very shy and it does not like human intervention and I was sure that it is not going to come out.

We had breakfast and started roaming around the park and it started raining. The light was very poor. We spotted Golden Jackal, Water buffaloes, Monitor Lizard, Marsh crocodile and the birds – Blue tailed bee eater which was very common there, Red jungle fowl, the national bird of Sri Lanka, Barn swallows, Fish eagle owl, Storks, Peafowls and all. I came to know that the animal concentration is much better than our south Indian jungles. If the sun could have come out, it would have been a fantastic day.

The rain was coming in frequent intervals which was creating problems for us. The park was muddy because of the rain and our jeep got stucked in mud and some other jeep came and helped us. And again we spotted one jeep in mud and we tried to help them, but we both got trapped. Another jeep came and saved both of us. I felt like we were doling rescue work at a war front. It was really funny. We went to beach side for lunch and that time only I came to know that the park is on sea shore. It was a fantastic view. The rain was becoming healthier and I cam to know that this is the end of safari for the day. The lunch was really good and we enjoyed it.

We have decided to wait for sometime as the rain wasn’t stopping. We both slept for sometime. By 2.30 we started again and the actual fun started from there. The rain made the park like a river. The entire park got flooded and I felt like we are doing a boat safari rather than a jeep safari. My got it was really horrible. I am not new to Monsoon as basically I am from the southern part of India. But believe me I never seen such a horrible weather. I have anticipated rain but not a horrible weather like that. In fact it was pouring from the sky continuously for 4 to 5 hours. We couldn’t came out through the same gate we entered. We came out of the park through a different gate and it took three hours to get out of the park and it took another one our to our hotel. Really horrible…

I wanted to try the Bundala national park for the next day, because I was sure that the safari would not be possible in Yala. I called my tour operator and it was really sad to hear that both Yala and Bundala national parks got closed because of the flood. It was really disappointing; I had anticipated rain but never expected a situation like this. we decided to go to Mirissa next day where we were booked for whale watching…

So the next day, we checked out and went to Bus station to got to Mirissa. We came to know that there is no direct bus to Mirissa and we need to go to Matara first and then to Mirissa. I was pretty clear about the root as the GPS was showing the exact root. We came to Matara and has lunch from there. The food was amazing as I am a great fan of sea food. We visited Matara beach and spend there for sometime. then we went to catch the bus to Mirissa; our next destination. We checked in the hotel in Mirissa after a small confusion in hotel booking. We went to Mirissa beach on evening. It was a beautiful beach and it was filled with lot of foreigners who came there to enjoy the Christmas eve. I got some nice sunset shots from there 🙂

The next day morning we went for whale watching. The operator took us in a Tuk Tuk to the Harbor. The whale watching was very famous there and they guarantee 98% chance to see them. The area where they used to go for this was special because there was a good number of blue whales in that area and they says that they do not migrate to other region. Our vessel was comparatively big and we were siting on the front of the vessel. I sat on the basement of the vessel because I wanted the lower angle shot of the whales.

We went to the sea for almost one hour. They were searching for whales and couldn’t spot for first three hours. We sow flying fish, but as you know it was impossible to photograph. Most of the passengers were sleeping and even I thought we will not see anything. But for our luck we spotted one. From there we spotted two to tree one by one. It was very difficult to photograph – One, the vessel was shaking like hell and the other salt water was spraying on us. I was really worried about the equipment. But some how I could manage to take couple of shots. But I didn’t get eye contact and we could see a little portion of the body. It was really amazing; though I couldn’t get a good shot, we have seen the largest animal in the planet. It was really worth watching those magnificent animals and it made our day. After coming back I have noticed that my secondary camera is not working – Salt water !!!

We had a nice lunch and caught a bus to Colombo. We have checked in the hotel and the plan was to visit Talangama wetland on Sunday morning. We roam around the Colombo city that evening. I never felt like I am in a different country. It was like a mini Tamilnadu; people are friendly and they can speak Tamil, in a different tone. Enjoyed that evening and had small shopping; has nice food from floating market restaurant.

The next day again the rain cheat us after two days of pleasant weather. I was really afraid to go there because I was really worried about my camera. We skipped the plan and afternoon we went directly to Colombo Airport. Overall in photographic perspective it wasn’t a great trip for me; It happens sometime and we cannot expect everything perfect in wildlife.  But I have really enjoyed the stay in Sri Lanka, the food, whale watching; there were lot of good things to remember. In fact the over all trip was very cheap. While coming back, Sarath was asking me, will you come back here again? Of course yes, It is a fantastic destination for wildlife; no doubt about it…