Blog Udawalawe National Park
This was the first stop on our journey through Sri Lanka! After driving through the beautiful south coast, we headed north to the park for a safari in the morning. It was a long drive from Colombo so we ended up getting to our hotel rather late. My friend had called ahead to make sure they would have something for us to eat when we got there and oh my goodness they did. After thinking we were starting our safari early by trying to find this place (it’s pretty desolate), we finally checked in and immediately went to dinner. They brought out a fiest! Curry, rice, all the mix-ins (lentils, fried mushrooms, etc), the crunchy thin bread… it was amazing. We finished and it looked like we had hardly touched it. Then, they brought us dessert consisting of assorted fresh fruits; pineapple, papaya, and watermelon. Absolutely incredible. Then we got to our room! The building is its own cottage, and the room is a good size. The bathroom however… it’s probably the size of someone’s apartment in New York. Then, as if this all wasn’t great enough, we noticed stairs leading to a small rooftop area where on a clear night I’m sure the stars are incredible. We were exhausted so while in shock we still needed to crash, especially with a 5:45am safari in the morning.
5am came so early! We woke up got ready, had a tea, and were off to Udawalawe National Park! At first I was a bit worried, seeing so many other Jeeps going out at the same time, but luckily we had a very good guide who strayed from the pack. At first he started to give us the bird tour.. not very exciting, but soon into the tour we came across some elephants!
Because of the different route we took we ended up being in front of all the other safari Jeeps. The elephants decided to cross the road in front of us! Great photo opportunity. Soon after we saw more and more elephants. On the way to the reservoir we saw some deer run across the road in front of us as well! Rather quickly. From there we saw jackals, crocodiles, monkeys, and buffalo.
Then towards the end of the tour we were lucky enough to witness a full rainbow over Udawalawe National Park, just stunning.
When we returned from our safari, the hotel had breakfast waiting for us. This time I took pictures! Some fresh fruit and papaya juice to start, followed by eggs, bacon and sausage, toast, and coffee/tea.
