After Arugam Bay (that's the previous post) we drove toward Yala for the last big thing we'd been looking forward to: a leopard safari. Yala has one of the highest concentrations of leopards in the world, so the hope was leopards, and maybe a bear.
A homestay by the rice paddies
On the way we stopped for a night at a homestay set among rice fields, with a view over the paddies from the veranda. Our host cooked dinner — another chicken curry, but with lots of different side dishes, and really good. We had an early night, because the safari meant a very early start.
The dawn Jeep queue
We were up at half past four, in the Jeep by five, and at the park for the six o'clock opening. That last bit is the part nobody tells you about: there were maybe 200 other Jeeps. We queued like on a motorway, four lanes of Jeeps that became six lanes, all funnelling one at a time through the gate and then waiting again for the park to open.
The Jeeps have metal roofs, so you can't stand up and look out through the top — you're sitting inside as it bounces along, which is fun for the first five minutes and then a bit much. The tracks are terribly dusty, but that's where you drive if you want leopards.
The animals
Even without a leopard it would have been a good morning. We saw a lot: water buffalo wallowing in the waterholes, elephants, peacocks displaying, storks, a spoonbill fishing right in front of a resting crocodile, sambar deer, spotted deer with big antlers, a mongoose, and more crocodiles.
One elephant came down to a waterhole near us — here it is.
The kingfishers were a highlight — we watched a white-throated kingfisher on a branch with a lizard in its beak.
There was plenty more around the waterholes — a spoonbill fishing right in front of a resting crocodile, a painted stork, and another big croc hauled out on the mud.
And the deer were everywhere — sambar and spotted deer with big antlers.
The leopard (sort of)
Then, suddenly, around 25 Jeeps stopped in a jam, cars coming from both directions. We waited maybe a quarter of an hour while everyone ahead took an age to spot the leopard — which turned out to be about 100 metres away, high in a tree, and very hard to see with the naked eye or a camera. What you can make out is a paw and a bit of spotted body draped over a branch, and a leg hanging down. So: did we see a leopard? Technically yes. It falls somewhere between the two answers.
We'd hoped to see one properly, coming down to drink at a waterhole, but we weren't that lucky — and from the other drivers it was clear plenty of Jeeps hadn't got the good shot that day either. That's wildlife: no guarantees, which is also the charm. We also spotted a grey langur high in a tree, and a mongoose down in the leaf litter.
Toward the end our driver started heading for the exit a good 45 minutes early. We'd paid for a full six-hour safari, so we said no, and spent the rest of the time checking waterholes (nothing more turned up). The packed breakfast we'd been given was fairly grim — soggy sandwiches, cold cuts, a banana — and Noah, still off his food, couldn't face it. We got back to the homestay around quarter past twelve for a good lunch before driving on.
Negombo, and the long way home
The last stop was Negombo, about three and a half hours on, since that's where we'd fly from. Our hotel there was in a lovely little green garden with a pool, which was exactly what we wanted for the last day. We got dinner that evening — a whole bucket of grilled chicken with fries, very Sri Lankan; by this point we were a bit tired of rice and curry, much as we love it, and glad of something different.
The next day we walked into town for the last of the spices to bring home. It was brutally hot — three or four kilometres in full sun — and not a pleasant walk; the town was pretty dirty and the market turned out to be quiet, maybe four or five stalls, perhaps because it wasn't the weekly market day. We bought our spices anyway; between this lot and an earlier market we ended up hauling something like five kilos of spices home, which is fine when it's that cheap. The rest of the day we spent by the pool. Vitus got to swim too, since he had to change his dressing anyway, so he gave the foot a good wash first.
Our flight out of Negombo was at half past ten at night, to Istanbul. We got there on time, and then hit every possible delay — a security-check problem, and a passenger who flatly refused to board — so we left about two hours late. Vitus managed to watch a whole film before we even took off. From Istanbul it was on to Hamburg and then the drive home to Aarhus, arriving in the evening. And that was the end of our roughly six-week trip through Indonesia and Sri Lanka.
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