Day 4 - Safari

It was a 4.20am pick up for today's trip. We really are getting our fair share of sunrises! We were collected in a safari jeep by Darshana, a lovely, cheerful man with an excellent knowledge of the park and its inhabitants. We collected two women from another homestay and had a 45 minute drive to Yala National Park's entrance. Then we queued with what felt like a million other jeeps for tickets. The park opened at 6 just before sunrise. The jeep by the way was the bounciest thing ever. Bouncier than a bouncy castle! And no seat belts, or side doors, so pretty scary stuff. Took some getting used to.

As soon as we got in we were on a cheetah hunt. They are only really seen at dawn, so when the call came in, everyone in the park (actually about 100 vehicles) was in the same place vying for a loom. Luckily, the cheetahs were up on top of a rock so we could see them quiteceasily. They were a mating pair and I'm surprised the racket everyone was making didn't scare them off. I guess they had been hunting all night and couldn't be bothered to move. They were beautiful and I got a couple of great photos.

Things calmed down a bit then. We drove back to the entrance and took things at a more leisurely pace. The roads are mere dirt tracks full of pot holes, so it was quite uncomfortable going around. We saw so many things! 33 different bird species in total, some too quick to photograph. There are more than 200 species of bird in the park though, so we only saw a few really. You can only drive a fraction of the park, so I guess some animals were hiding, like the 13 bears they have.  We did see some elephants, one set of 3 from a distance, with every other jeep jostling for a look, and one set of 2 females and a 2 month old baby rediculously close, about 6 feet away. The baby was gorgeous. Mum was pulling down a tree to eat and was quite happy with us being there. It was a great moment.

We saw monkies, lizards, plenty of crocodiles. In fact, here is the complete list, in no particular order.

Monkey x 2 types

Mongolin

Monitor lizard

Elephant

? deer

Samba deer

Barking deer

Little green bee eater

White billed sea eagle

Blue tail bee eater

Ceylon grey hornbill

Chestnut headed bee eater

Black faced grey langur

Spot billed pelican

Crocodile

Ceylon green pigeon

Green imperial pigeon

Black robin

Chipmonk

Parrots

Peacock

Cows

Buffalo

Wild boar

Little cormorant

Common turn

Black headed oreole

Purple rumped sunbird

Malabar hornbill

Jungle fowl

Leopard

Pond heron

Small white bird

Mongoose ruddy

Great thick knee

Small grey spotted bird

Turns

Painted stork

Black winged stilt

Woodpecker

Red wattled lapfin

Great egrit

Intermediate egrit

Little egrit

Grey heron

Kingfisher

Some of the birds were fleeting glances, others were there long enough for photos. One tree was laden with parrots, squalking away to warn of danger. The tiny bright green bee eater was my favourite bird. Its so pretty.

All the while, there was plenty of driving around not seeing anything. We got a bit sun kissed down one side each where our arms were sticking out of the jeep, and you would not believe how dirty we were. Absolutely coated from head to toe in dust.

We were fed breakfast and lunch while we were out. Breakfast was bready pitta ish things with very spicy sauce. Lunch was homemade curries from our guides aunt. Delicious. We had lunch on the beach nearby. The park closes from 12-2 everyday, so Matt snoozed and I chatted about photography with the guide and he downloaded my leopard photos to his tablet. I could've done with a snooze too, as I was falling asleep before lunch despite being thrown about in the jeep, but the food woke me up and so we managed to continue. We didn't see the leopards again despite our best efforts, but lots of the birds came after lunch. We ended up leaving at 4.45, getting back to our treehouse at 5.30. A very long, but amazing day.

We washed off all the layers of dirt and our host brought us some curd - cows milk that us a bit like creme fresh, natural yoghurt, eaten with coconut syrup. Yum! Then reading before a very early night.