04.09.18 - 06.09.18 Uda Walawe National Park

Our next stop was Uda Walawe National Park in the south of the island. In this park, there are about 600 elephants, as well as monkeys, wildcats, buffaloes, crocodiles, deer, peacocks, pelicans, toucans, and many other birds. We didn't want to miss this, so we took a booked safari in a jeep and drove through the national park for a few hours. And after just half an hour, we saw a herd of grazing elephants with about 10 animals. And in the following hours, we were not disappointed. Elephants kept coming out of the bushes in front of us and were not disturbed by our presence. We could admire them in peace.

It's a good thing we didn't hear until later that safari jeeps are often attacked and that around 50 people are killed by elephants in Sri Lanka every year - most of them because they try to prevent the elephants from eating their rice fields.

The next day, we visited the elephant orphanage, which is connected to the national park. Baby elephants that are found alone in the park are nursed back to health until they are old enough to survive in the wild. Even though we didn't adopt an elephant, they still captivated us with their clumsiness.

Since there wasn't much to do in the small village, we spent a lot of time in our guest house, where we had some interesting conversations with the owner, who is the same age as us, about life in Sri Lanka. Worlds and perspectives can be so different....