Safari in Yala National Park

So a return to Yala a year after my previous visit. Sri Lanka is not what people think of as a safari destination, but it really isn't a bad one and far cheaper than Africa with better service. Of course no lions, cheetah, giraffes, antelope, zebra, but there is enough to make it a good trip.

Painted stork

Pair of red-wattled lapwing

No antelope out here, but the equivalent is the deer. This is a spotted deer.

The rather menacing looking monitor lizard

Luka eying up the buffalo walking alongside us in the jeep.

Spotted dove

Orange breasted Green Pigeons

Hoopoe

A lot of crocodiles out here

Elephant rock to the left, which to be fair does have more than a passing resemblance to an elephant

Mud bathing buffalo

Now this might not excite the average person but it excited us. A black necked stork at the top of this tree. This is a very rare bird. We were told about 20-30 in Sri Lanka, apparently only about 1000 population across all Asia

Elephant skull

So Yala is largely a low forest environment, but there is one part which mimics African savannah a bit, and its here. No antelope or zebra, but buffalo, deer, wild boar and the odd elephant over a wide vista.

I think, a white bellied fish eagle

The almost ubiquitous Green Bee-eater. You see them everywhere, but truly beautiful bird 

Wild boar on the dusty road as heading out of the park

But what turned a good expedition into a truly memorable one was spotting a leopard. Now it is much trumpeted that Yala has the highest density of leopards in the world. This is widely stated, until you reach the park and the guides tell you that they will try and find a leopard but they are hard to spot. Basically they raise your expectations until you buy the excursion and then feel the need to manage your expectations down when you actually get there.

So we were on our way out of the park as the sun was going down, but our guide told the driver to follow a different route to the long line of jeeps filing out ahead of us. And as we went along this track with no other jeeps on it, there in front of us was a leopard using the road to travel across the park. I couldn't photograph the beast as it was walking into the dusty setting sun, but it then turned into the forest.

And what was particularly nice compared to the normal sighting of a big cat, we were the only ones there. Normally word gets out between the guides and you find yourself in a traffic jam of jeeps all trying to get a direct view of an animal in the far distance. But here we were alone, it disappeared int the forest and there was no chance of another vehicle turning up.

Not quite the last animal we saw. A wild jungle fowl

And to finish a Gray Langur (although to be honest we saw a lot more around the hotel!)