We’ve had a great time enjoying the variety of things to see and do in Sri Lanka, but have been looking forward to our visit to Yala National Park and Nature Reserve – a lot! It’s 1200 square kilometres in the south of the island, and mainly dry woodland, scattered with brackish lagoons. The big drawcard here is the leopards. There are thought to about 40 of these beautiful, elusive cats in the area of the park that we will visit and it’s considered one of the best places in the world to see a leopard in the wild. As well as about 300 elephants, they have 200 species of birds, water buffalo, spotted deer, wild boars (not a big attraction for us), crocodiles, mongoose, monkey and the very rare shaggy coated sloth bear.
We stayed at the gorgeous Cinnamon Wild Resort which has a long driveway at the entry skirting a lake with painted stork, water buffalo, pelicans and crocodiles. As we slowly passed the lake we were greeted by two crocs mating. As you do when the tourists go by. The pool (not the lake) was a great place to be in the 38 degree heat after the 6 hour drive from Arugam Bay.
Our hopes were high as we headed off at 5.30am for our safari. There are dozens of companies using hundreds of converted jeeps to trawl the dirt road in the park looking for wildlife. At least we are not here in the peak of the season. Praki says it gets a little bit crazy then.

Our first encounter was with this lovely creature…….

There were many groups of spotted deer. We saw one pair having an antler fight, making a racket with the click clacking.

Unfortunately, if you see deer, there are probably no leopards around. Not a good sign for us.
We came across some amazing birds. Our guide, Praki, knows all about the wild life here. He’s like a walking encyclopaedia.

There were plenty of peacocks wandering about, but none that showed off their tail.
We saw this wood pecker (below) tapping his head off on this tree to make a nest.

Next up – the Hornbill. Such a weird looking bird!

There were crocs in most of the water holes, hanging out harmoniously with water buffalo and birds. Clearly not hungry while we were watching.

Still no leopard.
The kingfishers were easy to spot with their stunning blue colour. When they fly you can see they are red breasted (left) and the one on the right is white breasted.

And some other birdlife…

I’ve read that sometimes the elephants are hard to find here in Yala. Luckily this wasn’t the case for us. We saw this huge male, about 30 years old, pop out of the bush, no indicator, and lob in front of us. So we followed him down a track…..

…..all the way to the lake where he cooled himself off with a few sprays of water.

We loved watching him.
And still no leopard.
But……we came across another couple of vehicles stopped ahead of us with cameras pointed to the scrubby bush on the left. As we reached them, we saw a mother Shaggy Coated Sloth Bear and two cubs – one riding on her back and one following behind. Here’s the best photo we got below. It all happened so fast.

The safari jeep driver was excited, Praki was excited, and we were really, very lucky to see these bears. Smiles all over the Landrover!
On the way out of the Reserve, we found a group of elephants sheltering in the shade in the heat of the afternoon.

It’s a female with three young ones. She must be babysitting for other mums. The smallest baby is only a couple of months old, and the other two less than a year old.
As we rolled back into the resort we could watch the evening antics of the residents in the lake while rehydrating…with a gin and tonic of course.

We had a great day, and even though we never saw a leopard I think we scored one better with the Sloth Bear family…….you see: glass half full. I think Praki felt sorry for us! He has been to this wildlife reserve over 70 times and seen the leopards about 36 times (I think he keeps count). He kindly shared the photos below with us. Our leopard day will have to wait.