Post #11, October 10th
Today before breakfast we’ll be off on a morning safari. It’s a ready by 6:00 morning. The animals are most active in the morning so this safari is expected to have lots of activity. This safari is provided by the camp we’re staying at. We’re using an older vehicle (circa 1990?) which is kind of fun because it has a much stiffer ride than the jeep we had yesterday. They aren’t really Jeeps, but that’s what everyone calls them. Our start point is the camp so we ride in the jeep on the road to the national park. It’s a slowish vehicle; we get passed by many other faster moving vehicles. We arrive at Udawalawa National Park and sign in and pay our entrance fee.
Dawn at Mahoora camp.
There seems to be is a high concentration of wildlife at this park because there’s no shortage of of sightings. The guide books say that you’re guaranteed to see elephants at this park. The birds are a different matter picture wise, because you see them just as they are flying away. I’ve missed lots that way, including a prized hornbill picture. Today we see lots of elephants, eagles, crocodiles, water buffalo: and a large variety of birds: Sea Eagles, Storks, bee eaters, plovers, kingfishers, to name a few. Our guide is Prince J Solomons. Apparently he’s a Sri Lankan expert on birds.
Less than a minute after we enter the park, we come across a small group of elephants and watch them make their way across the road and out of sight. We came across this because there were already a bunch of Jeeps watching these elephants. The Jeeps were pretty close to each other and the elephants had to find a path through the line of Jeeps to get to the other side.
Elephants on the move.
I’m going to do my best with the names of these birds but its hard to remember names of these things… If you’re not a bird person, just scroll down… They’ll be more bird pictures taken on future dates.
Little Green Bee Eater
Chestnut Headed Bee Eaters
We see other creatures in the national park:
Monitor Lizard
It feels like our safari is over too quickly. We head back to the camp, breakfast is being served. We’re seated at our table underneath one of the trees and we are visited by a Great Squirrel who is very curious about what is happening underneath him and is there any food. We didn’t have any food on the table at that point, but he still ran right along a branch right overtop of our table and then ran over to the trunk and leaned as far as he could towards our table. Admittedly, it was a bit intimidating because he was a big squirrel - maybe about 3 times the size the grey squirrels I’ve seen in Canada. At one point I thought he was going to drop onto our table.
Great Squirrel checking out what’s going on.
After dinner we finish packing our bags as we’re off to our next destination, Galle (pronounced Gaul). Before we leave, Navidu, the young campfire singer, races back to his accommodation and brings back two peacock feathers for us. It very thoughtful.
Peacock feather. No peacocks are harmed in the gifting of peacock tail feathers. They fall out naturally.
On the way to Galle, we pass by a mango tree. To protect their crop, each mango is bagged to keep them free from blemishes, fruit fly and other insect infestation. Since they are bagged, there is less pesticide being used. The only other memorable thing on the trip was that we saw our first accident. Someone rear ended one of the private buses that operate throughout Sri Lanka. The country also has a public bus system, but there seems to be more private operators.
These mangos are wrapped in bags until harvested.
Galle is a fort city on the south west coast of Sri Lanka. It’s known for Galle Fort, a fortified old city located on a promontory founded by the Portuguese colonists in the 16th century. Inside the fort walls you can find colonial style buildings. The fortified walls rise straight up from the ocean and surround what is now the inner city. It became a UNESCO World Heritage site in 1988.
By the time we arrive, we’re in time for a late lunch. We head for Rampart Hotel (which we later discover is next to our hotel) to have lunch. We also learn later that Hotel means restaurant in Sri Lanka. Rampart is located on the 2nd floor overlooking the southwest fortifications of the fort and we have a picturesque view. On the grassy part of the rampart we watch two monitor lizards hanging around but they both eventually disappear. Despite many people walking along the rampart, no one seems to pay any attention to these creatures in the short grass.
Lunch was fine for me. Judith, who has been nursing an upset stomach for a couple of days, orders some cheesy garlic bread, something she thought her stomach could easily handle. It’s funny that when it arrives, it’s sliced sandwich bread with processed cheese slices and some garlic mixture sprinkled on top. You never know what to expect when you order western fare when you’re off the beaten track.
Cheesy garlic toast at the Rampart Hotel. Not exactly as expected but it fit the definition.
After lunch, Sura gives us a driving tour of Galle Fort. It’s not a big place and we could have walked it, but it’s over 30 degrees out so I’m OK with the driving version. Our hotel, the Merchant, is located within the Fort walls so we drive there and check in. Our room is nicely appointed, but is smaller than some of our other stays.
The room is nice, but small compared to other places we’ve stayed.
Balcony view. It’s the roof of the main section of the hotel. It’s not the best view we’ve had…
We’re tired from getting up early this morning and elect to nap. We get up in time to walk over to the fortifications about 3 blocks away and the sunset seems to be a bit anti-climatic. Maybe it’s because of the clouds. There were lots of people lined up throughout the extensive length of the ramparts waiting for the sunset, so it’s definitely a thing to do.
Sunset over the Indian Ocean.
We walk the ramparts for about half an hour. Neither one of us is hungry due to a late lunch so we found a supermarket to buy some bananas and some cookies for our upcoming train trip and then go straight to dessert. It took us a few blocks to find an ice cream shop, but we were successful. Then back to the hotel. We walked by a place that Judith insisted was our hotel, but when we got inside, (followed suspiciously by staff who didn’t believe Judith telling them we were staying at said hotel) we concluded that we were indeed in the wrong hotel. The staff who had been previously suspicious, were very amused at this point. They did give us directions to the Merchant hotel where we were staying and we climbed the stairs to the second floor (there is no elevator) and crashed for the night.
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