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- Mar 15, 2024, 2:00 PM
- ⛅ 32 °C
- Altitude: 50 m
Sri LankaSouthern ProvinceKurulukema Wewa6°20’28” N 81°24’40” E
Day 12 - Seriously? 04:30??
March 15, 2024 in Sri Lanka ⋅ ⛅ 32 °C
05:30
With great safari, comes great alarm clock responsibility. Believe it or not, I’m actually awake just before my 04:30 alarm clock. Whilst my sleep is massively better than it used to be, the one thing I’ve really not mastered is the art of alarm snoozing - just grabbing another 5/10/15 minutes. Vicki does it with the style and grace of a champion. I do not.
It’s pitch black. Not a scrap of natural light. Sri Lanka is only 400 miles North of the equator, so sun up is at or around 06:00 all year round, and it happens quickly. I don my leopard pants, pack my rucksack with everything I think I’ll need, and stumble a little bleary eyed down to the hotel reception area. My driver, Jagat, is already waiting for me. Bless - he’s brought his 8 year old kid along for the ride. We set off at an alarming pace for Yala National Park. There’s apparently a real race to be first into the park. I’ve seen and experienced similar in the past, and honestly - what’s the fucking point. We stop briefly to grab tickets for park entrance, and then join a 15 jeep long queue at 05:20, 40 minutes before the gates open. Does it guarantee us a majestic wildlife experience? Does it fuck. The sun’s light is beginning to lick the horizon, hues of grey and orange mingling in the distance. A lot of safaris I’ve been on suggest bringing a fleece type affair for the early morning in case it’s cold. Here - none of that. It’s beautifully warm, but 28C at 05:00 means it’s gonna be a hot one.
14:00
We’ve stopped for lunch, after a LONG morning game drive. I’ve signed up for a full day, which is collection from hotel at 04:45, and drop-off at 19:30. That might be a bit much to be honest. I’m more used to the African safari experience, which is 2 game drives per day, each around 3 hours, with a whacking great gap between them - to sleep, to gin, to lunch; whatever you fancy. 14-15 hours on the go might just be pushing it.
Lunch is rice and curry - some very tasty chicken, some red rice, the ubiquitous dhal, and some curried aubergine. I could murder a beer, but that’s apparently verboten in the park. Unbeknownst to me, we have to stay 2 hours at the lunch stop. The park is officially closed between 12:00 and 14:00. It’s incredibly unclear to me why this is, but I decide to assume it’s so the park rangers can have lunch, a crafty arrack or two, and a little doze.
The morning’s game viewing has been great, if a little unexpected. My leopard pants do no good whatsoever. There are more than 20 leopards in Yala, but the game drives haven’t spotted any for a few days, apparently suggesting there may be some birthing going on - it’s the right time of year for it. What we do see is a fuck-ton (technical term) of elephant. Several fuck-tons in fact. It’s the first time I’ve seen Asian elephant in the wild, and it’s fantastic to see so many of them, and interacting with each other in so many different ways. We see a bit of a fight, we see two elephants kissing, we see a little baby that’s maybe 5 months old, we see an old bull that’s been ostracised from his herd to die alone - basically a month of Eastenders in a morning’s safari. What we see a TON of is birds. I’ve always been a bit snooty about birders, preferring my safari game to be a bit bigger and growlier. Here, the colours are spectacular - bright greens, blues, pinks and turquoise. They’re stunning little creatures. We see a couple of mongoose (mongeese? mongooses?), some crocs, lots of buffalo, some white spotted deer, a couple of sambar. Just before we stop for lunch, we sea an eagle having a sun-bath - a first for me.Read more
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😂😂