01 Jan 2024
We visited Yala National Park from Gate 1 for just a little over two hours with a private tour driver and had one of the most memorable Safari experiences ever. We've been to Safaris in South Africa and Kenya but Yala made it's mark with the number of sightings and a variety of animals spotted in such a short time. Perhaps we were just plain lucky that day. Our driver's name was Ruwan and he was a bit of a rally driver too, racing past other Safari offroaders whilst he kept telling us that he knows the spot where the Leopard is at present. And guess what? He was spot on right! We not only viewed a Jackal, a wild Boar, wild Buffaloes, Stork, small Crocodiles, Deers, Mongoose, several Peacocks (in their brightest of colours), Ceylon junglefowl (the National bird) of Sri Lanka, but we also spotted a Leopord in the tree that subsequently crossed the muddy road, walked along it, and finally preyed on a Rabbit that we spotted a bit earlier. It was an incredible experience. The driver then rode us back to the Yala National Park gate, which closes at 6pm, and back to our glamours campsite.