Are we in Africa??

In our travel plans, we have often considered flying to Africa. One of my biggest desires is to go on a real safari with wild animals and drive through the landscape in a cool jeep. However, due to our stupid flight vouchers, we were confined to the Asian region and a trip to Africa would have exceeded the remaining budget. So we decided to go to Sri Lanka instead. I had read beforehand that there were also safari tours here, but I didn't imagine it to be as amazing as it turned out to be.

This time, we took the local bus to the town of Udawalawa. Easier said than done... There are simply no direct buses here and we had to transfer three times for this short distance. If a bus is too crowded, only the locals are allowed on board and we had to wait for the next one... Great... Not only are the trains here overcrowded, but also the buses. Oh, and of course, there is no air conditioning...

But we eventually arrived and had booked a great accommodation with a very nice couple who had just opened their 'hotel'. The man even drove us to the city and to an elephant care center where baby elephants and 'disabled' elephants are raised. Some German zoos even support them.

For the next day, we had booked a safari. Our eyes lit up when the cool safari jeep arrived and we were excited for the ride. Together with another German couple, we drove through the national park for a while and admired the exotic landscape. You could really think you were in Africa. At a waterhole, we saw the first animals... Birds, crocodiles, water buffaloes, monkeys, deer, chameleons, etc. The main attraction came towards the end of the tour: the elephants!!

For the first time, we saw elephants in the wild...many elephants. Two even started a little fight right in front of us and some amazing pictures were taken. I could have stayed there forever. The highlight came on the way back when we drove through a narrow path in the thickets and suddenly a huge elephant stood in front of our car and casually strolled past Jonas' side. The moment was truly special because it was exactly how I had always imagined it =)

In the evening, our host family cooked a delicious dinner for us and we sat together with the other German couple for a long time, chatting about everything.

Since there are very few to no options for tourists to eat in the small towns of Sri Lanka, many accommodations offer dinner. It's really great because the food always tastes excellent and you get to try things that you might not order from the menu otherwise =)

As terrible as the past few days were, this experience really lifted my spirits!!