Day 04 - Tuesday 22nd January

Today we would be leaving Galle and travelling to Yala National Park.

At 7am, we had breakfast in the hotel restaurant which is located at ground level next to the pool. Once again it was a buffet with plenty of choice including eggs cooked by a chef. It was another warm, sunny day and so it was an attractive setting.

The bus left at 8am and the first part of the trip took us close to the sea giving us a view of the golden sands of the beaches. Along the way, we also saw groups of school kids - presumably going to school or perhaps on some sort of school outing. They were all dressed in white uniforms.

Our first stop was at fish markets next to the road and next to the beach. There were several stalls. Some of the fish were on tables and others on tarpaulins on the ground. Behind the stalls, there were dozens of fishing boats on the beach.

Unfortunately, there was also lots of litter on the beach. There didn't seem to be any attempt to keep the beach clean. The rubbish included plastic bottles - sometimes on the surface and often half buried in the sand. It looked as though the rubbish had been there for a long time.

This was quite different from the beaches near the hotels. Clearly the hotels go to a lot of effort to keep their beaches clean and to remove any litter.

Neil was careful to guide us when crossing the road to get to and from the market on the other side from the bus. He used a whistle and hand signals to try to stop the traffic for us and then used the whistle to call us through.

When he noticed a small gap in the traffic, he would step out blowing his whistle and signalling. However, when he got to the traffic coming the other way, he simply stepped out in front of a bus. Fortunately, it stopped.

Among the sites along the way were interesting signs you would not see in Australia. One was a yellow diamond warning sign with two elephants on it - an adult and a baby. It reminded me of the signs we have with two children on the sign. Another sign warned of peacocks ahead.

Part of the journey was on a motorway with toll booths. It looked similar to motorways you see in Australia and elsewhere in the world.

The next stop was at a roadside stall selling coconuts. The woman at the table cut open several coconuts and invited us to drink the juice.

Now we were passing green rice paddies. There were also cattle beside the road and on the road. Sometimes they would just wander across the road in front of vehicles as if they owned the road. They were certainly expecting the vehicles to stop or avoid them.

From time to time, we would see small farm machinery carrying implements or cargo. Women walking along the side of the road often wore long sarees and many carried umbrellas to protect themselves from the sun.

For lunch we stopped at a roadside restaurant called Refresh Cabana Gardens. They serve buffet meals for lunch and dinner. Our group sat together at a long table. I ordered a Lion lager to go with my meal. The bottles of Lion lager are a generous size - much bigger than the stubbies we get at home.

Cinnamon Wild Yala Hotel is located within the Yala National Park. There is a central area that houses the reception, restaurant, bar and swimming pool. Within the grounds, there are a series of cabins - usually two cabins in each building.

Our cabin was one of the furthest away from reception along paths that resembled a bush track. Luckily the porter brought our bags to the cabin. There weren't many lights inside the cabin and so it was hard to see even in daylight.

We were told that after dark we were not allowed to leave the cabin without a staff member to guide us safely. They would watch out for wild animals along the way. We were familiar with this practice from our holiday in Botswana.

This afternoon's outing was a safari in the national park. There were four jeeps waiting for us in the hotel grounds. Suzy and I ended up in the jeep with Neil. The first stop was at the HQ where Neil bought entry tickets. There were about a dozen other jeeps doing the same thing.

Before we reached the entry gate, we came across an elephant eating a bush right next to the road. It was a good opportunity to get photos up close from the jeep.

Inside the park, we saw a variety of animals including buffalo, deer, lizards. There were various types of birds including peacocks, pelicans and storks. Unfortunately, we didn't see any leopards.

The highlight of the afternoon was seeing a family of elephants. First, we spotted a single elephant and then several others appeared out of the bushes. They entered a clearing near the road - initially about 10m away and at one stage they were only about 4m away. All the time they ignored us as if we weren't even there.

Some of the birds are very small and so they are nothing more than a dot in most photos. However, we came across one colourful little bird who was sitting on a branch next to the road and was happy to pose for us before eventually flying off.

Overall, we didn't see a huge number of animals. Suzy and I are probably spoilt because we'd been to southern Africa (South Africa, Botswana and Zimbabwe). In those countries we saw hundreds and hundreds of animal travelling in large heards. There was also a greater variety of animals.

The park closes at 6pm. Apparently the drivers get prosecuted if they miss the curfew and so it was a wild ride in the jeep over bumpy dirt tracks to reach the gates. In the end we got there at 6:10pm. Later when I checked my pedometer, it thought that I'd done 18,000 steps for the day. I'm sure that more than half of those "steps" would have registered when I was bouncing around in the back of the jeep.

When the jeeps returned us to the hotel, there were quite a few buffalo in the lake and one on the bank was in the process of giving birth. We watched her for a while but gave up when it seemed as though the birth was going to be slow.

Dinner was a buffet again served in the restaurant on the upper level above the reception area. Suzy and I had a South African wine from a winery call Bellingham. After dinner we went down to the bar for a cocktail and a port. Very civilised - even though we were in the middle of a national park with wild animals.