Yala National Park, Sri Lanka

We left our hotel at 4am to go on a Jeep safari of Yala National Park. The park is famous for its leopards and elephants. We lined up with about 80 other Jeeps waiting for the gates to open. Once it was our turn we took off at speed to be one of the first into the park and get a good look at the animals. We were lucky enough to see two leopards lounging in a tree. We were on the lookout for more animals when our guide got a phone call and started racing across the park. When we arrived we saw a family of four elephants that came right up to our Jeep. One was a tiny baby drinking milk. It was a special experience. It was however a bit shocking when 20 more Jeeps showed up to get a glimpse of the elephants. A little later we saw a different family of four elephants swimming in a pond. We had a very up-close experience when the largest elephant came up to our Jeep to investigate us. It was pushing our car and sniffing us with its nose. We told our driver to get out of there! We also saw peacocks, monkeys, wild boar, water buffalo, and a ton of interesting birds. Other than the mass of people it was a great experience.Read more