Sri Lanka Part Two

Yala National Park Safari & Tissa Lake

Unawatuna to Tissawara

Another car and driver hired through our hotel in Unawatuna, we headed out to stay on Tissa Lake situated nearby Yala National Park. We were greatly surprised by our lovely hotel and were so happy with the view from our balcony and the fact that we had booked three nights.

First order of business was to check out the pool with its view over Tissa Lake. Finding it quite satisfactory we went about the business of booking a full day Safari in Yala Park.

Our Safari started at 5:00 am and we were up and ready when our driver & spotter showed up in their well used truck, the back of which was converted into three rows of seats stolen from old cars and welded securely onto the bed of the truck. A roof to keep out the sun and a hand picked stick to brace up the window at the front and away we went.

Yala Safaris are the most popular in Sri Lanka and produce a traffic jam of jeeps of various size and quality. If you want to go with other folks it is slightly cheaper but we were happy to pay a bit more and just be the two of us.

Peacocks by the bucketload and lots of small brilliantly coloured birds lots of them migratory and all of them difficult to photograph.

Throughout the course of the day we say both black faced and red faced Macaque monkeys and judging by the number of babies the population is quite healthy.

There are said to be sloths in the park but like the leopard they alluded us. But we did spot plenty of mongoose and a chameleon, both of which were highlights.

Hard to see and harder to identity we had snakes pointed out but didn’t really see them. Yala snakes include the cobra, rat, viper and python to name a few. Apparently cobras favor the tall reddy brown nests of the termite as a locale for home base. But even armed with that information I can’t say I actually saw one. Crocodile were present but other than a few lazing on muddy banks in the far in the distance they would appear as long dark bumpy lines in the water. Naturally there are various types of lizards skittling about, crossing roads and climbing trees.

Wild boars were fairly frequent and of course we saw and enjoyed the water buffalo especially their comical raft like behaviour in the water. We saw some babies in the herds and were told that they are accustomed to the jeeps but it would be very dangerous if we were to step down out of the jeep. (Which isn’t allowed anyway) We also saw several herds of deer of various types including spotted and barking.

Of course my favourite for last….the elephants. There are 250 elephants in Yala and only 10 have tusks, so very rare and given the slaughter in other parts of the world, very smart. We saw babies with their mothers and aunties feeding from the tree tops and the occasional solo male. Only the females herd together with the babies led by a matriarch. The males will leave the herd when they are eight years old to live alone.

We had two breaks in the day, we stopped for breakfast on a sandy beach used by local fishermen who have built huts and some were busy repairing their nets inside and out of the sun. We stuck our toes in the Indian ocean and returned to find our breakfast spread out on a blanket under the trees.

Our second break for lunch was two hours because this is when the animals quit moving about and so must we. We picnicked beside a river and before long we were joined a band of red faced macac. So entertaining to seem them scrapping and cavorting about, leaping and climbing as fast as well…monkeys. Some of them looked a little worse for wear and being the red face macaque they can be a little tricky and have been known to attach and scratch and bite people. Surprisingly some of the guides across the river were feeding the monkeys although there are signs asking you not to, but it was entertaining to watch.

We exited the park along with the sun happy with our day and our driver and guide having come to the conclusion they were the real deal on authentic local guides. As much as possible they managed to keep us away from the clusters of other jeeps although it did mean some rough rides on some tracks less frequented.

Tissamaharama

The Ulo Villa hotel was perched right on the edge of Lake Tissa and from our deck we were constantly entertained by the water buffalo and birds of all sorts.

In addition we were parked right beside a local bathing spot on the lake and as soon as school let out swarms of kids came to swim and play and jump off a railing into the lake. At least until their mothers hailed them into shallower waters and gave their heads a good lather of shampoo and plastic buckets of rinsing. Dirty laundry was pounded and rolled on flat rocks and wrung out by the mothers in their long sarongs. After safari’s were done for the day the men drove their trucks into lake to give them a much needed wash down having collected a goodly share of dirt and mud in Yala.

Our three days in Tissamaharama came to an end and we had to say goodbye bye to our talented chef and our great views.