Leopard Spotting in Yala National Park

Today we moved on to the Tissa area for our day safari at Yala National Park.  The weather had been getting somewhat cooler since we left sweltering Columbo and today was overcast and rainy but still a very pleasant temperature.

Our jeep picked us up from our hotel and bumped along streets and then country paths for over half an hour before arriving at the entrance of the park.  It was further than we realised from our guest house.

 

 

Finally we were there and a elderly man wearing a Yala polo shirt leapt on the back of the jeep with us and introduced himself as our guide to the park.  The jeep was now on even bumpier territory and several times I was almost bumped out of my seat.  I wondered if my back would survive being thrown around like this for the next 4 hours.

 

We initially saw some beautiful wild birds over the lake as well as storks and many peacocks.  Our guide told us that the Peacock is the national bird of India whilst the national bird of Sri Lanka is the Forest Fowl - commonly known as a Chicken!  This made me laugh out loud although I did try to disguise my giggles somewhat.
 

We continued deeper into the park and saw many spotted deer, water buffaloes and monkeys playing in the trees.   We saw very well disguised crocodiles in the river and an even better disguised elephant in the distance. 

 

 

We saw some very cute baby wild boar who were just 2 weeks old and were being suckled by their mothers.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

However,  it is the leopard that everyone really wants to see.  There are just 15 of them apparently in the park and they are hard to spot.  Suddenly though the drivers and guides were getting animated and all jeeps turned round and sped off in one direction.  The shout had gone out that a leopard had been spotted and the race was on to find it.  We arrived at a point where 20 or so jeeps were already parked up.  I had been on safaris like this before where we had spotted nothing and assumed the drivers and guides put on these performances for the tourists.   On this occasion I was wrong as there lying peacefully in a tree was a leopard.   The driver loaned us his binoculars and through them I could clearly see the leopard lying awake on a tree branch with his feet dangling over the edge and his tail flopping around over the branch.  Cameras were clicking all around but the leopard was quite unconcerned and did not move from his spot.  We stayed for 10 minutes and then we moved first to let other jeeps get through to take a look.

 

Spot the leopard in the tree

 

 After 4 hours we were feeling tired and sore from the bumpy jeep ride. The sun was setting so it was time to make our journey out of the park.   On our way we passed a solitary jeep  whose passengers were staring at something.  We asked what they were looking at.  They said they could see a leopard on a rock.  So there it was, well camouflaged but another beautiful leopard lying on a rock.  With another loan of the driver's binoculars we had a good view but as the  sunlight faded into dusk, the leopard blended totally into the rock and we couldn't see him at all.

We were so lucky to have seen 2 leopards at fairly close range today as well as all the other animals.  A few days later I was talking to some other travellers who had been to Yala and had not seen any leopards that day so clearly our luck had been in.

As we neared the exit, our guide leapt from the jeep but not before demanded a tip for his services.  The weird thing was that I had noticed  that only some of the jeeps had guides whilst others didn't,  so it was never clear how we ended up with one or whether he was indeed an official guide or not.  It didn't matter though as today had been a fantastic experience and the highlight of our trip so far.