{"id":1167,"date":"2017-01-11T16:43:24","date_gmt":"2017-01-11T16:43:24","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.taylortrip.co.uk\/?p=1167"},"modified":"2017-01-21T02:32:29","modified_gmt":"2017-01-21T02:32:29","slug":"day-69-uda-walawe-11th-january-2017","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.taylortrip.co.uk\/?p=1167","title":{"rendered":"Day 69. A Safari at Uda Walawe National Park."},"content":{"rendered":"

January 11.<\/p>\n

We booked to go on a safari at the Uda Walawe National Park, with our hotel. (Le Green). \u00a0We waited outside at 5.30am with the Manager who was feeling the cold and telling us it was very cold in the mornings, where we were comfy in tee shirts but did add a light jumper for the safari journey.<\/p>\n

Our ‘jeep’ arrived and much to our surprise we were the only people getting on. \u00a0A Danish couple were also waiting and they had their own jeep which arrived within minutes.<\/p>\n

\"Uda
Uda Walawe National Park<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

It was only a short journey to the park and Paul and I sat up in the front seats of the ‘high up’ jeep, taking the cool morning air as it blew into us.<\/p>\n

\"Early
Early morning at Uda Walawe National Park<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

On arrival at the park we were the second jeep back to go through. \u00a0The park did not open till 6am so we had a few minutes to wait. \u00a0The jeep in front had an English\u00a0couple with their two young children that we had seen at yesterdays Elephant Rehabilitation Centre. \u00a0They all waved cheerily even though it must have felt like the middle of the night for the children.<\/p>\n

6am and the gates opened and we drove a few metres down the track and the driver pulled over. He indicated that we had to go in and pay. \u00a0I asked if I could stay in the jeep and Paul would go. He acknowledged that and quickly run in the direction of the office. Paul followed in quick pursuit.<\/p>\n

Sitting watching, this was the norm. \u00a0The jeeps pulled into a space and the drivers would jump out and start running for the office with the poor tourist wondering what was happening and following once it had all sunk in. \u00a0It seemed to be a race as to who could get into the park first.<\/p>\n

We paid 6,693 Rp which included entry for both of us and a small amount for the driver. We were the eighth jeep to enter the park this morning and every other one disappeared in all directions. \u00a0We had a six seater jeep to ourselves so both started in the front seats and just took in the scenery as daylight was breaking.<\/p>\n

\"Uda
Uda Walawe National Park<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Our driver was very observant and it wasn’t long before he pulled over to point out a White Eagle sitting in a tree. \u00a0There were so many birds around and the silence of the park was only broken by bird song. \u00a0One thing I have never witnessed before is peacocks living wild and nesting high in the trees overnight. \u00a0We saw plenty of these.<\/p>\n

\"
Uda Walawe National Park<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Next animal we saw was a heard of deer. \u00a0They didn’t stay long as we approached before scurrying into the bushes.<\/p>\n

At last an elephant. A lone male who was rhythmically pulling clumps of grass\/plants and eating them.<\/p>\n

Our journey continued over some pretty rough terrain and we certainly had a skilled driver who knew how to manoeuvre the jeep through some of the deep ruts and up and down some steep encounters.<\/p>\n

\"Elephant
Elephant at Uda Walawe National Park<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Elephant
Elephant at Uda Walawe National Park<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Uda
Uda Walawe National Park<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Uda
Uda Walawe National Park<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Uda
Uda Walawe National Park<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Uda
Uda Walawe National Park<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

We were in the park for well over three hours and certainly saw many animals ranging from deer, peacocks of all sorts of colours, elephants, crocodile sitting basking in the early morning sun, water buffaloes and so many birds and butterfly’s that sadly move too fast to be photographed by us.<\/p>\n

\"Uda
Uda Walawe National Park<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Uda
Uda Walawe National Park<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Uda
Uda Walawe National Park<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

 <\/p>\n

Perhaps the highlight was when we saw a lonely monkey scavenging for food on the floor. \u00a0As our jeep slowed down \u00a0we were able to take really close up photos of him. \u00a0Much to our delight he jumped onto the back of the jeep and proceeded to sit on a seat. \u00a0Our driver warned me to hold onto my handbag and Pauls camera case as the monkey would take it looking for food. \u00a0Sadly these animals show such behaviour because the tourists think it is fun to feed them instead of allowing them to fend for themselves in their natural habitat. Anyway this monkey enjoyed posing for Pauls photos.<\/p>\n

We drove down more lanes and saw several beards of female elephants and the occasional lone male. \u00a0The good thing about this trip is that we were often the only jeep on the road and you really felt like you were the only people in the park on this animal safari. \u00a0Some of the highlights for me were enjoying the off-road 4X4 experience that in UK you would spend a lot of money doing. \u00a0It would be quite exciting to go back in the wet season and see how the jeeps slip and slide on some of the inclines and ruts. (Sadly not something we will be doing).<\/p>\n

We returned to the hotel around 10am where we had to pay the driver 4,5 00 Rb plus a tip (as advertised in books) and were delighted to find that our breakfast was ready for us. A very healthy breakfast of fresh fruit, omelette and sausage and plenty of toast and jam washed down with a large pot of tea and coffee.<\/p>\n

Back to bed for an hour and then head for the pool for some sun bathing, blog writing and of course a swim.<\/p>\n

After a shower I went to peg the wet swim costumes out on the washing line and found the family from the hotel trying to rescue as many mangoes from their tree as possible. \u00a0They had evidence that a fruit bat had visited the night before and was eating the mangoes. \u00a0The youngest member of the family was climbing the tree and with a large Y shape stick was knocking the fruit down to the man waiting at the bottom. \u00a0He has a brilliant idea to put both his arms down a sack and then catch the falling mangoes before they hit the ground. \u00a0Not only did I photograph this happening I helped to collect the fallen mangoes and make a pile of them, separating the ones that had hit the ground too hard and had split.<\/p>\n

The Lady of the hotel offered us some mangoe. \u00a0She bought us a plate to the patio, with some sliced mangoe on it from her own garden. \u00a0She explained that there are a lot of different mangoes. \u00a0She then bought us some from the tree in the garden. \u00a0These were much lighter in complexion, pale yellow and not nearly as sweet as the orange coloured ones she first gave us. \u00a0She explained that the tree in the neighbouring garden produced even darker fruit.<\/p>\n

The hotel has two bicycles that they lend to guests. \u00a0We borrowed these and headed to the reservoir dam wall. This barely took 10 minutes so we proceeded to cycle across the wall. \u00a0We stopped several times as animals caught our eye. The iguana that strolled across the road, stopping at the central white line to let a lorry pass and then disappearing into the grass on the opposite side ot th road. \u00a0There were plenty of birds flying including an eagle soaring above us. \u00a0On the return journey we saw the lone elephant we had seen yesterday, standing patiently below the electric fence. Further along the road we saw a herd of elephants that were heading in our direction but they were too far away to wait for them.<\/p>\n

We ordered our beers and sat out on the front patio overlooking the front garden. \u00a0Several members of the family were trying to repair the central water fountain. \u00a0They had fitted a new motor pump and were reassembling the fountain. \u00a0With the water turned on it was becoming quite funny watching to see who was going to be the first to get soaking wet. Cameras poised but they decided to turn the water supply off and complete the reassemble in the dry.<\/p>\n

Although we had ordered the same meal as last night (Sri Lanka Curry) tonight we ordered fish and pork. This was served with dall and curried carrots with a fresh onion salad. I must say I preferred it to yesterdays although yesterdays chicken was delicious.<\/p>\n

After dinner we spent some time talking to the family in the reception area. They are lovely people and very friendly.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

January 11. We booked to go on a safari at the Uda Walawe National Park, with our hotel. (Le Green).[…]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[105,104],"tags":[109,59,111,108,107,110,106],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.taylortrip.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1167"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.taylortrip.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.taylortrip.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.taylortrip.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.taylortrip.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1167"}],"version-history":[{"count":12,"href":"https:\/\/www.taylortrip.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1167\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1349,"href":"https:\/\/www.taylortrip.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1167\/revisions\/1349"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.taylortrip.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1167"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.taylortrip.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1167"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.taylortrip.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1167"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}