Elephant Ride

We almost didn't do the elephant ride, but Aslam encouraged us to go ahead with it. We're both glad we did, as you can see from the pictures, we were really enjoying ourselves. On the way in, someone sold us a bag of small bananas for $1, that's what we were feeding the elephants.

I gave a guide my camera and he took pictures of us all along the way. I had to just trust that he wouldn't fall into the water when he was walking through the swamp taking pictures of us while we were wading through the water. He didn't and he was clearly enjoying using my camera. We tipped him and the mahout well.

Jeep Safari at Kandulla National Park

We were fortunate not to get rained on, this was the only evening we spent in Kandalama when it did not absolutely pour starting anywhere from 4PM - 7PM. Because there had been so much rain, the trail we were driving on was pretty rutted, which made for a fairly wild jeep ride. I eventually figured out how to stand at the back of the jeep and ride the bumps without banging my head against the metal crash bar.

We saw probably 150 elephants, monkeys, birds, killer bees, peafowl, little green bee-eaters, an eagle, and especially storks which were my personal favorite. There were so many of them flying in and out of formation, filling the sky in places. We had a spotter with us who had a Sri Lanka bird book, he was very helpful in pointing animals and birds out and identifying them.

By the time we were on the road out of the park, the sun had set and it was completely dark. We got there at about 4PM, and this really is the best time of day to go.