Day 5 - Yala National Park

In the early morning, Ganda picked us up from the hotel again and we drove along the tea plantations to our next destination. 🏞

For me, it was a joy to watch the temperature gauge, as the 16 degrees were clearly too cold for me. 🥶 Slowly, the temperature climbed back up to 34 degrees, and when we first got out of the car, we were greeted by the wonderfully warm heat again. 😏

The next major city was Ella and we immediately noticed that tourism has already arrived here. But despite that, it is still an attractive city with small bars and tea plantations in the background. If I were to come to Sri Lanka again, I would definitely stay in Ella. 🤫

The next stop was at a waterfall, where we took a quick photo and then fled from the influx of Chinese tourists. 😉

And slowly, we were approaching our destination, and the name of this place was really difficult to remember: Tissamaharama. 🙌🏻 We were immediately impressed by this hotel as it is located right next to a rice plantation and you could see the jungle from the pool. 🌴

After freshening up briefly, Ganda picked us up from the hotel again at 2:00 PM, as we combined the arrival day immediately with a short safari tour. After 30 minutes, we reached the entrance of the national park, where our jeep was waiting for us. Ganda was only a guide on this tour, no longer a driver. More and more jeeps gathered in the place where each driver had to get a permit from a small house. These permits were limited to 200, which means that 200 can come in the morning (6-12 PM) and 200 in the afternoon (2-6 PM). Those who do not leave the park on time will be fined and banned from entering for a month. Therefore, all jeeps race a few minutes before the deadline to exit. 🏎

The safari was a very bumpy affair, and right at the beginning, the driver stepped on the gas because he saw something. We abruptly stopped at a water trench, and there we saw them. A baby elephant playing in the water with its mother, behind them was a lazy water buffalo enjoying its bath. They were not bothered by our presence. The mother got out of the water and came a few steps towards us, her offspring staggered behind her and quenched its thirst from the mother. This happened at a distance of 15 meters from us. Everyone was speechless and stared with a smile at the elephants. 🐘🐘

We continued driving and stopped at a spot where we could see the famous elephant rock (it looks like an 🐘 with some imagination). Suddenly, six elephants appeared in front of the rock and walked towards the water hole. This image was magnificent: an elephant rock with elephants. 😍 The word "elephant" was used 15,000 times 😄

In Yala National Park, we also saw wild roosters 🐔, wild boars, peacocks, parrots, unique birds (such as the bee-eater, which is only found here), many water buffaloes, crocodiles, monkeys, wild dogs, cows, deer🦌 (significantly larger than ours), and many more.

But unfortunately, no leopards, as the weather was very hot and they hide in trees. 🐆

The journey back home was also a bit difficult because herds of water buffalo kept coming towards us and reluctantly gave way on the road. 🐂😄