Polonnaruwa - Elephants in the Rain

After a very tiring and long bus ride (we started at negative speed and stopped every 100 meters it felt like), we arrived in Polonnaruwa in the evening. There we had a very nice accommodation with terrace and garden. With very delicious rice and curry and beer, they could convince us culinarily right away.

Since Sabi was a bit under the weather, Lukas, Philipp and Nina went alone with the bikes to explore some of the ruins. Unfortunately, all the ruins were fenced and 25 dollars was too much for a few old stones, so the little trip ended pretty soon. Instead, we had a nice game afternoon on the terrace.

The next day was all about sleeping in and having a cozy breakfast (not so easy to find something open on Sunday at 11 a.m.), before we set off with the jeep for our second safari, this time to Kaudulla National Park. There we saw eagles, monkeys, a hyena, and lots of elephants. At first, we saw occasional single elephants, but towards the end, we could marvel at entire elephant families/herds with up to 20 animals and could even get as close as 15 meters with the jeep. Then it started to rain heavily, which the elephants seemed to enjoy. On the way back to the park exit, we saw some more elephants, so we ended up seeing around 60 elephants in total. Although this safari was not as diverse as Yala, it was definitely worth it :)