Udawalawa - Elephant Safari

From Ella, we headed towards Udawalawa National Park. I (Sascha) briefly took over the first stretch with the winding roads from the Highlands, but shortly after, Uli took the wheel again and drove the remaining 2.5 hours to our accommodation near the national park. It was the usual tour through beautiful landscapes, constantly braking and overtaking, avoiding animals, and honking at dogs on the road. The accommodations here are quite affordable, so we treated ourselves to a place with a pool and paid an incredible $40/night for it. Arriving around noon, we jumped into the pool, relaxed, had lunch, and then quickly started the afternoon safari. There’s a lot to experience here, no time to waste, everything has to be done quickly. The safari with the jeep in Udawalawa National Park was fantastic. We were lucky that there weren't many jeeps around, and the animals were also in a good mood. We had almost close encounters with wild elephants, could observe them for a long time, and we also marveled at crocodiles and many birds. We took a guide from the national park with us, who explained all sorts of things (which we liked), and we had a brief moment where a bull elephant seemed uncertain and approached the jeep somewhat aggressively. The driver was evidently so nervous that he completely messed up the reverse driving, the guide made intimidating noises towards the bull elephant, and I (Sascha) quickly switched sides in the jeep because I was within trunk range. After about 10 seconds, everything was relaxed again for both sides, but the adrenaline did spike for a moment. Phew, that went well. The safari was truly amazing and was 100% worth it. Unfortunately, I somehow lost my cap on the way back... oh well... that's how it is. Back again, a quick dip in the pool to cool down, dinner, and tomorrow morning we continue to the edge of Sinharaja National Park.