Safaris and Sand

by Sarah Ann
for Tuesday, August 6th

We checked out of our hotel and left at 4:30 this morning. We drove an hour and a half in a van to Udawalawe national park. Udawalawe is known for its wildlife. It has more elephants per square meter then anywhere else in the world. We took a safari and somehow, we got lucky enough to have a volunteer guide too.

The first elephant we saw on the safari walked right down the road, past our jeep. I could have reached out and touched it if I had wanted. A bit later we saw a whole herd of maybe 15 elephants, including a baby. Male elephants hang out by themselves, while female elephants stay in their herd their whole life. We also saw lots of peacocks. It was funny to see one running after our jeep. We also saw a mongoose run across the road, a herd of golden jackals (they’re kind of like foxes) and herds of water buffalo. It was interesting to see a watering hole where there were lots of birds and a few crocodiles. We got to one section on the safari where you can get out to stretch your legs, since the only animals are monkeys. A monkey and her baby climbed in our jeep! We waited a while to get them out.

This monkey jumped into our jeep and sat in our seat!

After the safari we drove an hour and a half to get to the beach. It is amazing how we started the day in the mountains, stopped to see elephants, and now are at the beach! The beach we are staying at is called Sandy’s. They showed us to our house. It is once again open air with mosquito nets over the beds to keep the bugs out. There are also no rooms, and the toilet is just sitting in the hallway!

our beach cabana - just a few steps from the ocean

On this trip, our “hotels” have often done a lot more then just be places where you sleep—the organize transportation, feed you meals, and wash your laundry. We started by eating lunch since we were hungry. The hotel owner ecnouraged us to order this traditional Sri Lanka dish that translates to “finger millets”. It is this brown grain that you put curries on. My mom and I ordered it and we liked it.

Usually, I don’t see the point in swimming in a pool when you are right by the ocean, but the ocean here has huge waves. They make for pretty pictures, but it is too dangerous to swim in. The water for in the swimming pool is just straight from the ocean—saltwater, not chlorinated. 

the big waves of the ocean

After playing in the pool a bit, we decided to go kayaking in a lagoon that is right by us. We mostly just explored the lagoon for an hour or two. The water was very calm and easy to maneuver. It was really fun. We did get a bit too close to a few very large monitor lizards. We also saw lots of birds. There were a lot of white ones with long necks that looked kind of like cranes. We don’t have any pictures though since the phone would have gotten wet.

After eating a snack of ice cream, we took a walk along the beach. We enjoyed getting splashed by waves while standing close to the shore. The waves crashing on the water was really quite beautiful.