Yala National Park - A game of Spot the Leopard

Like most other people, our stay in Tissa was purely for one reason - a safari at Yala National Park. When we were arranging for our accommodation in Tissa, Rohan of Shangri-Lanka Village offered to arrange a jeep for us for Rs5,500. Adding the price of the entrance fees to the jeep hire, I found that the price was cheaper than full packages quoted on tour agent's websites. So we decided to take up Rohan's offer, and save ourselves the hassle of arranging our own safari package.

You can choose either a half-day safari (morning or afternoon) of a full day one. Ours was a morning half-day safari  but that meant a very early start of 5am in the morning. It was still pitch dark and as I groggily walked towards the gate, I wondered again and again (after other early morning starts for Borobudur, Angkor Wat, Bagan and Luang Prabang) why I kept on putting ourselves in this kind of ordeal. The jeep waiting for us was a 8-seater Toyota, more than comfortable for the 3 of us. Irf continued his sleep in the jeep despite the chilly wind in the open-air jeep - it always pays to bring a jacket/blanket on early morning tours.

We reached the ticket counter for the National Park at 5.45 am. There were already 20 other jeeps parked there, with the drivers/guides queuing up to buy tickets.  There was a basic coffee shop, an information center and toilets but I read that the conditions of the toilets were terrible.

Dawn was breaking by the time we were driven for the 5-minutes journey to the entrance to the Park. Another queue - and soon at 6.am sharp the gate was open and the jeeps went their separate ways along the many dirt tracks in the vast park.

Entrance to Yala National Park

Irf in the open-air Jeep

Many of the more expensive packages offered a guide who could tell you more on what you are seeing but I don't think that it's necessary if you have a driver who knows where to look for things. In our case, Rohan has assured us that ours would be good enough without a guide. In  a way, he was. In fact, I think he has bionic eyes. Here are some of the animals that we saw:

Wild water buffaloes - an endangered species

Elephants and a water buffalo going about their morning wash

Sri Lankan elephant (Elephas maximus maximus) -
another endangered species

Spotted deer - the source of the leopards' lunch
and dinner

One of the many peacocks that we saw

Crocs were in abundance

Wild boars

Indian mongoose

As excited as we were to see the above animals in their natural habitat, the king of the park was undoubtedly the leopards. Yala National Park has one of the highest leopard concentration in the world and it is for this reason that Yala is the most visited national park in Sri Lanka. Alas, the leopards are an elusive animal and sightings of them are not guaranteed. So whenever there is a whiff of a leopard being spotted anywhere in the park, news of this would  travel around amongst the safari jeep drivers/guides through phone calls. This resulted in a mad scramble amongst the jeeps to get to where leopards could be spotted.

We found ourselves in one such situation. Our driver received a phone call on his mobile phone and instantly turned into a race-car driver. The drive became a very fast and bumpy one and soon we were joining throngs of other jeeps waiting in a queue to get to the spot where a leopard has been spotted. I would want to tell people that yes, I did see leopards on the safari in Yala National Park.  But I guess I have to be honest - for I could barely see the form of the leopard, let alone the spots. It was supposedly sleeping on a branch of a tall tree. But A's eyes were better than mine and he managed to capture this shot...

At least I could say that I was there when this shot was taken...

Peak hour at Leopard Central

We couldn't spend a long time at that spot as more jeeps came and were waiting for their turns. It was a bit chaotic and I couldn't wait to get away and to be among peaceful surroundings once again.

Later, we were also brought to a "rest area" by the beach with toilet facilities, the only place where we were allowed to leave the jeep. It was more like an abandoned place than a rest area - and I soon discovered why. During the 2004 tsunami, 47 safari visitors and guides perished on or near the very spot that we were standing on. All that is left now are ruins of a bungalow, with only the foundation and some tiled walls/floors. A steel monument was subsequently built. Amazingly, none of the animals in the park died - evidence of how strong animal instincts are.

Overall, we went on the safari for about 3 hours. By 9 am, even Irf had had enough and I was already visualising the bed in our hotel room. The driver started to head towards the exit and soon we were speeding away towards Shangri- Lanka Village for a proper breakfast and to continue our sleep.