Welcome back to the blog you travel fiends. Or maybe, you’re looking for some travel inspiration? Either way, I’ve got you! I’m sharing my safari experience in Sri Lanka. I’ve been to Sri Lanka before but this visit I went on a safari and spoiler alert, it was pretty awesome! Hope you like pictures because this post is picture heavy. If you’d like me to do a post on what to expect on a safari, leave me a comment.
My Safari Experience in Sri Lanka
Where We Went
When you land in Colombo, there’s lots of hustle and bustle and if the rain has just fallen, you might hit the wall. The wall I’m talking about is the humidity wall. Stay hydrated kids! Anyways, about a 4 hour drive from Colombo you will end up in Yala. This is where the safari excitement is. Forest that’s protected so the animals can roam and be free to their heart’s content.
Where to Stay
There are a couple of places you can stay like, Cinnamon Wild Yala or Leopard Nest if you would like to try glamping in the safari park. However, we stayed at Jetwing Yala and it was absolutely beautiful! The hotel is near the beach which has sand dunes, you could climb. There’s a large swimming pool, spacious rooms and a buffet to die for! If you enjoy seafood, you will die happy after consuming the seafood platter. Oh and of course there’s the resident cow and worthog in the back.
The Safari Park
There are 2 trips per day that you can go on; sunrise or before sunset. We did both and each experience was difference but equally magical. The sun setting and rising whilst in the park is something that will always stay with me.
I had no idea what to expect and just went with the flow. We got picked up at the hotel and you have to pay to enter the park. For tourists it was something like 3500 Sri Lankan rupees which is equivalent to less than £13. You then spend the next few hours driving around searching for a glimpse of a wild animal or 3. If you have a driver who can spot the ones who are hidden, you’ll see quite a lot.
There were a lot of birds, especially peacocks and peahens. I even managed to catch a peacock doing his mating dance for the peahen. It’s on my Instagram if you’d like to see, click here. Saw a couple of crocodiles and was grateful to be far far away because they were huge!
I have to say a highlight for me was seeing the elephants. First there was the male adolescent, who just started growing his tusks. Then there was an adult one who was absolutely enourmous and made feel so small but in awe of it. However, I have to say the best one was when I left at midnight to catch my flight and driving along the dirt road from the hotel, we saw an elephant. He or she was just walking along in the middle of the night like it was going to the corner shop for bread. Needless to say the driver and myself were in awe and a little bit scared. So we pulled to the side and slowly drove past it. I was so in the moment I didn’t capture it but, a core memory has been formed.
I hope you enjoyed the pictures of my safari experience in Sri Lanka. Have you been on safari? Or, is it something you’d like to go on? Let me know in the comments below.
As always, thank you for reading and until next time, be well! x
