Our next stop after Nuwara Eliya was Yala National Park. It was a far drive, and by the time we arrived to our accommodations, our driver, Roshan, asked us to take a really quick lunch, as we needed to be ready by 2.30pm for the Safari driver who will fetch us. We had half an hour to freshen up and to eat lunch! Result? We had sandwiches and of course, french fries.
For that day, I was wearing red. My friends were teasing me that animals can spot on people specially when they are wearing red. That was all I had for the day! I was getting really paranoid, and wanted to change my attire, but one of my friends advised me against it and said that everything was going to be fine. Oh well, bahala na!
Well, the 4×4 jeep proved to be an adventurous ride. We were gripping to the rails, and good thing we brought with us small towels, hats, and shades, as the road was very dusty. We were told that from our accommodations, it was a two hour drive towards Yala National Park. We passed thru houses, and even bodies of water upon our view. I was getting excited as I started seeing exotic creatures like these that early,
Our jeep looked like the photo below. I actually took this photo as the jeep was just in front of us. Haha!
Yala National Park houses exotic wildlife, and I was really excited. It was my first time to be in the wilderness like this!
It was actually a rough drive, with highly uneven roads, that we needed to grip the railings really tight for us not to fall from the jeep ( it was leaning to the right, and sometimes to the left. It was ala Titanic! ) The weather was pretty scorching that day, as well. It also wasn’t a place where you would instantly see an abundance of animals in one place. You would need to drive for quite a distance to see a sighting. And we were only on the roads, not allowed to go down ( but of course! ). It was a vast, vast land that there were animals so far that you can only see them from afar, like a pack of beautiful deers.
For animal sightings, let me just share what I was able to capture, thru photos :
Now, as the jeep driver drove further and further, he seemed to be shouting something at co-drivers of other visitors there. We found ourselves in sort of a “traffic jam” inside Yala National Park ( there’s traffic jams even in wilderness? noo!!! )
There must be something interesting that people have flocked there. Apparently there is. Or, I must say, ARE. There are leopards there, and not just one, but TWO! So okay, we were so game to take photos of leopards! Haha!
Our driver told us that we were really in luck as leopards haven’t been very visible as of late, moreso two leopards. They said that it’s been ten years since people have seen two leopards there.
We ended our day at a beach area inside Yala National Park. It was a refreshing change from the really hot atmosphere from our “hunting for animals to take photos of ” haha! We just goofed around, and even took jumpshot photos to end the day.
We actually passed by the queue to the leopards before we headed back, and took more photos. We even saw a Toyota Prado inside Yala National Park taking photos of the leopards. Wow. Haha!
We headed back to the resort having a really long winded drive back. The roads seemed never to end, and we were really tired, but the promise of food kept us going. It was almost the end of our trip, and I was beginning to feel sad!
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