Negombo to Willpatu national park.

An alarm call at 6pm to give us time for a coffee before breakfast in the beachside restaurant. We needed to be ready for 8am when our bus was leaving for Willpatu national park.

The roads in Sri Lanka are well made but the driving was slow going because of the other road users....tuktuks, people, cyclists, mopeds and stray dogs all jockeying for position.

We stopped a few times enroute for a coffee, cash and then eventually, after over 4 hours for lunch. Lunch was arranged at a family run place where a buffet had been put on for us. The food was delicious with rice, curry and various salads finished with fresh fruit for dessert.

After lunch we drove on for another 20 or so minutes to meet the safari drivers. We transferred in to two jeeps and then went in to the national park. The roads became far less smooth and we drove slowly through the park spotting various animals including plenty of deer, jungle fowl, lizards, birds and an elusive sloth bear.

The roads were very bumpy and it was a bit of a relief that we arrived back at the main entrance after 4 hours! Sadly we hadn't seen any elephants or leopards.

We then had a short drive to our accommodation, a tented camp. The tents are pretty well equipped with ensuite facilities. But, by now it was dark and so after a quick visit in our room/tent we congregated in the main eating area where we had a delicious meal consisting of a type of deep fried spring roll covered in breadcrumbs, pumpkin soup and BBQ chicken and pork with rice and veg. Pudding was a sweet orange chocolate cake.

With an early start in the morning everyone headed for bed after food and we found ourselves back in the tent just after 9.Read more