Day 8 - Driving

 Today we had a day off with a drive between resorts.  As you can imagine there are lots of Paddy fields in Sri Lanka. What I did not expect to see were the rural farmers drying out their rice on the roadside!

Further along the "trunk" road we were confronted by an elephant. We had to bribe the elephant with a bunch of 24 bananas. We decided to charge the elephant with extortion and indecent exposure before he would let us through.

We stopped for lunch and these were the signs on the doors for men and ladies toilets. 

Day 7 - Kumana Wildlife Park - Afternoon

 We noticed this crocodile and if you look closely at his mouth you may see it has some nylon fishing line going around the lower jaw. But no volunteers to help remove it. 

A group of baby water Buffalo taking shade. It was not far from where we saw the Leopard but when passing much later they were all there!

Hornbill

It was starting to get dark and we were starting to think that we had seen everything for the day before this Sloth Bear appeared!  A rare sighting. 

Thinking that was it for the day as it was quite dark when all of a sudden we were rewarded with this Leopard walking across the track in front of us!  Very exciting!

Day 7 - Kumana National Park - Morning

 Today we went on a safari around the Kumana Park.  A 5am start from the hotel so we could get to the park entrance gates when they opened at 6pm. In my experience sunrise and sunset are the best times in the parks. I've split today's blog in 2 as there are lots of great photos to share. 

Not a very even track around the park. 

Some courtship going on!

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Mongoose

Notice the little frogs on the Water Buffalo 

This Peacock was doing a courting dance for the female Peacocks who were watching on!

Day 6 - Galoya National park boat trip

 2 1/2 hours out on a boat this morning looking at sea birds.  And we saw plenty including quite a few Sea Eagles.

Day 5 - Galoya National Park

 After an early start and a 6 hour drove we arrived at a glorious restaurant for lunch by a lake. I particularly like a curry made of pickled aubergine. 

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Following lunch we drove around the lake looking for birds and wildlife. A bit disappointing compared to our other stops. 

A kingfisher. 

Asian Green Bee-Eater

Stuck for an hour while a new set of brake pads were fitted to our bus!  It was very dark by the time we left and they were working with the lights off their smartphones!!  But all is now well.

Day 4 - Habarna Elephant trail

 

Our driver estimated this baby to be 3 weeks old!!

Day 4 - Habarna village and lake

 A morning trip around the local lake and visiting a local village where we saw a demonstration of making coconut breads and coconut Sambal - delicious. Finished off with some herbal tea which was equally delicious. 

The above shows a nest of baby Cormorants.  Very noisy when being fed!!