Yala National Park, Sri Lanka

Yala National Park Sri Lanka

We decided to go inland for a bit. It was heartbreaking leaving the sea but sometimes there are some pretty special places that don’t involve water (I know who would’ve thought?!). We hit the road and went to Tissa (Thissamaharama, say that three times fast). The reason for going there is that it is where a lot of Safaris start from. That’s right you heard correctly we went on a safari in Sri Lanka’s largest national park, Yala.

Sri Lankan Elephant

To get to Tissa from Tangalle was very easy, we caught a direct bus (1 AUD pp) from Tangalle bus station. Beware as soon as you get off the bus (or whilst you are still on the bus, like happened to us) there will be tour guides hassling you to go with them on a safari. My advice would be to book your tour through your hotel (as we did). The town of Tissa is nothing special but if you stay out of town, just 5 minutes you will have a taste of rural life in Sri Lanka.

Water buffalo cooling off in the lake next to our accomodation

This area is where most people stay (unless they are loaded and can stay in the national park itself). We stayed at Lakeside Cabana ($30 AUD for both of us including breakfast, lunch and dinner). It had three little Cabanas on the families property and it was actually next to the lake (beware - all throughout Asia the names of the business often don’t often correlate to what/where they are situated. eg. “yoga supermarket” - is just a normal supermarket or “Beachside resort”- is a crappy room in someones house 20 minutes from the beach). It was such a beautiful location they even have bikes you can use for free so we went on an afternoon bike ride around the lake and through the back streets (streets is a generous term, more like dirt paths).

One of the rare moments of our bike ride where young kids weren't saying hello, giggling and older gentleman pulling over on their tuk-tuks or getting off their bikes to have a chat.

Little black bird, in the garden at our accomodation

You can choose out of a full day or half day safari. We chose the half day as one, it's cheaper ($30 AUD pp. for the half day -still expensive for us but definitely worth it!) and two, Sri Lanka gets hot, Luke and I didn't feel like sitting in the back of a jeep all day in the sun. If you are going on a morning tour prepare to wake up early. We left our accomodation at 4am. They packed us breakfast and some fruit to take with us. The national park is set up into sections. Yala 1 is closest to Tissa and apparently where you are most likely to see the infamous leopards. Unfortunately for us this area was closed for a few months, but fortunately for the animals it meant that they get to live in peace for a while without any cars zooming past them. Seeing as Yala 1 was closed we went to Yala 5. This is about an hour drive away from our accomodation. What wasn't so great is the park doesn't actually open until 6am so we were all lining up in our jeeps until the park opened.

It is definitely a very popular tourist attraction going on the safari. But our driver respected the animals and didn't try to get to close, and nobody hassled any of them. We saw many animals including:

Wild Boar

Eagle (don't ask me what kind, my brief google search wasn't fruitful. Turns out there are a heap of eagles in Sri Lanka)

Spotted Deer

Mongoose munching on elephant poo

Peacock

Common King Fisher

White Throated Kingfisher

Water monitor

Mumma monkey and her baby

Malabar Pied Hornbill

Gray Langur

The only reprieve the buffalos get from those pesky flies is when they are in the water

Green Bee Eater

The best part of the safari was seeing the elephants in the wild. We saw at least two in the park. These were tusked elephants which are apparently more rare than the other elephants (unfortunately due to poaching for their tusks). It was so nice seeing them in the wild instead of an elephant “sanctuary” or zoo. We couldn't believe for how big the elephants are how well they can camouflage into their natural surroundings. Unfortunately we didn't get a good photo but the memory of them will stay vivid in our memories for a long time to come. It was a very special experience, one that we won’t forget. 

After we had our fun seeing all the animals it was time to head back. On our drive home we came across another elephant. Literally on the side of the road, eating from a tree. This was a un-tusked Sri Lankan Elephant but we were so close it was magical seeing how beautiful they are! 

My new best friend, Ellie the Elephant.

We were pretty over the safari by this stage as you can tell..

We only stayed for a couple of days in Tissa for the safari. Next we are off to the most popular beach in Sri Lanka, Arugam Bay.

Lots of Love,

Claire and Luke (Luke was swimming in the pool as I wrote this so he counts as a co-author too right?)

Luke having a chat with the guy in the building next to us, so much for concentrating on being the perfect model for me.