Birthday Elephnts

By pure chance our itinerary had us in Udawalawe on my birthday.  Udawalawe is home to the Udawalawe National Park and one of the largest wild elephant herds in Sri Lanka.  

We organised a half-day elephant safari through our guesthouse - up in the dark for a 6am (still dark) departure for the 20min drive (at about 25kph) to the National Park.  Safari's are done in specially kitted out 4WD Mahindra trucks.  Six bucket seats from sedan cars are mounted on  custom frame in the back - each a little higher than the one in front so everyone gets a good view. Each guesthouse appears to have their own jeep and there are dozens more that look like they are freelancers.  

The cool morning mist hung over the forest adjacent to the Udawalawe reservoir wall (which you drive across into and out of town) and soon we were in a line of jeeps waiting to get into the park.  

They let in about 20 at a time to keep things moving inside, both at the ticket office and once the jeeps get on the roads in the park.

All the jeeps head of in the same direction for about the first km, and then they peep off on different tracks.  It seems each driver/guide/tracker has their favourite routes and once you're past the first stop its surprisingly uncrowded even with 100+ jeeps in the park.

First stop was a big lagoon with a herd of water buffalo, a stack of native birds and for those with sharp eyes - a croc lazing on the bank

The Udawalawe National Park is 33,000 acres in size and home to 530 elephants (at last count).  We wondered aloud what our chances of seeing any were.  Lots of birds including peacocks, cranes, storks, cormorants, kingfishers and plenty of water buffalos but I kept secretly wishing just for elephants.

Then it happened - a lone male, probably about 6 or 7 was munching just off the side of the road.  He really didn't seem to care much about our presence.

We stayed and watched him for a few minutes and headed off again along some serious 4WD tracks, coming across this fellow near a waterhole.

There are hundreds of little tracks heading in every direction, some looking very much the worse for wear of the hundreds of vehicles that go through the park each day.  We'd head along one track and see nothing despite all 3 sets of eyes on our jeep keeping a really sharp look out.  Then we'd try another and come round a corner to something like this: …. literally 20m from our jeep.

Having sat and marvelled at this little family group for ages, we headed off for breakfast.  There are, apparently only 3 places in the national park where visitors are allowed out of their jeeps.  Our spot today was on the shores of the reservoir - our little camp chairs were set up next to a rock table and we scoffed the cooler of goodies sent out with us from our guesthouse.

Breakfast done and we were off again.  Track after track tried with little luck.  We spotted an eagle perched in a tree (he looked like he was trying to figure out how to get down - maybe there was a lizard on a lower branch that he wanted for morning tea) and a couple of water buffalos lazing in some shallow water - oblivious to the croc lurking nearby (can you spot it among some sticks?)

I have to admit I was getting a bit disappointed when we came round past a clump of trees to these two, playing on the sandy bank af a small waterhole.

And just a little further on - this: And my heart melted..... TWO sets of mum and baby … one munching on the thicket and another family group (which our driver said was probably mum, elder daughter/auntie and baby) not far away.

We watched them for a while then mum #2 headed off .. so we followed at a respectable distance.  Several other jeeps arrived but once again the elephants seemed either not to notice or not to care.

Once safely across the road, baby was allowed to run ahead

The were heading for a small waterhole - elephants use mud as sunscreen and insect repellent.  We watched awestruck as the two adults sucked trunk-fulls of muddy water (and sometimes mud) and splashed it all over themselves and the baby.

Then the darndest thing happened - they started to rub the mud into places it had not reached - first using one back foot to do the other foot, then the front feet then finally their trunk to rub the mud around their neck and face before rubbing against each other to make sure they were all covered.  I was so fascinated by these antics I forgot to take pictures

After carefully applying their bug spray and sunscreen, this trio wandered off into the bush so we returned to the little thicket where we'd seen the other family earlier.  They were still there.  Mum and aunties started to move and soon baby came barrelling out of the trees to catch up.

By now it was getting on towards 12.30pm and our half-day trip was almost up.  Our driver tried a few more tracks.  We didn't get to see a 'tusker' - there are only 12 mature adult males with tusks in the entire park - and with 33,000acres to share it wasn't surprising there wasn't one around.  Never mind - what we saw was magic - and another birthday I wont forget in a long time.  So it was back to our guesthouse for a nap - it had been a very early start and damned hot.

Next stop on our trip is Galle (where I'm actually writing this from)  our apartment is fantastic (it's inside the historical Galle Fort) but you will have to wait till tomorrow to see more of it.