Friday 31st January – Wednesday 5th February 2025

So, a couple of amendments, I put the wrong dates on my last blog and also forgot to post pictures from the Whale watching. I think I was just so concerned trying to post anything at all with the dodgy wifi!

The hotel in Mirissa had organised a driver to take us to Yala at a really good price. The lovely driver was called Mahesh. 

We are staying just outside of Yala in a  place called, Tissamaharama.

The drive was around 3 hours and we were on the highway most of the way which had some very interesting “Beware of the Peococks” signs! 😁

We arrived at our hotel, “My Village” which was absolutely gorgeous, possibly the best place we have stayed in so far. Small but beautiful, the pool area was fabulous and we had a cute little patio area outside our room overlooking the pool. As we were quite far from anywhere we had opted to just chill and eat and the hotel. We had a quick jaunt into town to get cash, as everything has to be paid in £££.

Then a wonderful swim and an early dinner as we have to be up at 4.15 to leave for our Safari at 5am!! 😳😴

We managed to get up on time and we met our driver, Chumara, got given our very substantial packed breakfast, climbed in to our vehicle and off we went into the darkness.

It’s around a 30 minute drive to Yala, we had a quick wee stop then joined 100s of other jeeps waiting to enter that park at 6am. The wait was lovely, as the sun was rising and the colour changes were stunning.

Our driver was in the queue but decided to overtake Everyone to get to the front, he did this at around 25/30 mph. 

I was busy taking a picture so was oblivious to the water buffalo that ran out in front of us, until we hit it! It was an almighty crash! 💥 

It was a huge shock, especially as I hadn’t seen it coming, Tracey had spotted the buffalo running. Thank goodness everyone was OK, even the water buffalo seemed OK, it got up and ran off. I bashed my knee a bit, but nothing too bad. 

We sat in the vehicle a little bemused and entertained by every single jeep that went past, all the shocked expressions on people’s faces. When we saw the damage to the front of the vehicle it made sense! Wow! 😮 Poor Chumara had to explain what had happened to every single driver who went past, poor guy! 

The vehicle was no longer drivable, so we waited around 45 minutes for a new vehicle to arrive. 

We opted to go back for another wee, even though Tracey had been behind a bush already! Brave. 😂

So it was around 8.15 when we finally entered the park. The benefit of this was that we were alone, and not in a massive queue of jeeps! 

Our new driver, Mudrah, was great and our new vehicle had seat belts….handy! 

The park is stunning, full of beautiful wildlife. We had seen a troupe of very cute black faced langurs on the way in. So many Peacocks! 🦚 and lots of these gorgeous little green Bee Eaters, which seemed quite inquisitive and were so pretty. 

We spotted a few Mongoose, which are very cute! We also saw deer and land monitor lizards. 

Then after about 45 minutes we ended up in an area that was very busy with vehicles, but apparently there were Leopards around!! 

Mudrah managed to manoeuvre the vehicle into a spot next to the edge of the road and then magically a leopard appeared from the bushes into the open space right next to our vehicle!! 😮😍 She was literally a few feet away from us! It was truly breathtaking. 

I took a couple of pics, then put the video function and then just tried to be in the moment. Watching this magnificent creature saunter past all the vehicles with her tail in the air was amazing. We watched her until she disappeared back into the forest. As soon as she disappeared I cried! 

Due to the number of vehicles we couldn’t go backwards to follow her. Mudrah then said she was a young female and that there was another older female, possibly the mother in the area. We inched our way forwards and I just caught a glimpse of her through the trees, they are so well camouflaged, before she also disappeared into the forest. 

We hung around for ages and then as we moved forward we came to a break in the trees and you could see the older female lying on a rock! (I took a pic, but she was too far away) 

It was honestly such a beautiful experience, one I’d wished for but realistically didn’t expect to have. Magical. 

Unfortunately, what should have been a very good video, was in fact completely rubbish, several minutes of footage of my legs, Tracey’s hair, the vehicle but not a single bit of Leopard! But I’m glad I just focused on being in the moment. Luckily Tracey got some great footage. 

The safari vehicles can only access certain parts of the park, and have to leave for 2 hours in the middle of the day. I think this is a great idea, giving the animals some space and peace. 

After the Leopard excitement, we headed off in search of Elephants. Once again Mudrah came through and we found a fabulous group which had several young elephants with them. Once again we were very close. They are such magnificent creatures and It’s incredible how easily they can disappear! If they are behind a tree you simply wouldn’t see them, especially as they are very quiet even when they are moving. 

Absolutely stunning. 

We were very close to a mother and 2 young ones, when the mother started making a deep rumbling noise and all three headed towards us and then passed by and walked up the road to join the others. Wonderful. Mudrah stayed as long as he could, but still allowing others to see these amazing animals. 

We enjoyed a leisurely lunch, which is provided by the driver/safari company. Yummy rice & Dahl and a ginormous fruit platter. 

The lunch spot is down by the beach which was great, with a very welcome breeze. 

After lunch Mudrah took us to see Crocodiles. He pulled off the road down by a water spillway and pointed to our right and said ‘Crocodile’ Both Tracey and I looked and were like, nope can’t see it, so he pointed again, again we couldn’t see anything, on the third attempt we saw a huge Crocodile lying out of the water sunning himself. How we didn’t spot it is a mystery! 😁 

There was also a smaller one half in half out of the water. They were surrounded by painted storks, Herons, and Ibis. It was stunning. 

I got a little twitchy when I thought Mudrah was going to take us and the vehicle down a very steep muddy slope, right near the huge Crocodile, luckily he was just repositioning to back up! Phew!😮‍💨 

After this we drove around for a while without spotting any more of the bigger animals, sadly no more elephants or Leopards. 

I think mornings are obviously the best time to see anything. 

At around 4.30 we said we were ok to head back to the hotel.

Miraculously after we left the park we saw another very large elephant by the road! 😍

We arrived back at the hotel, hot, dusty and a little sore after being bumped around for 12 hours! But super happy and thrilled with what turned out to be a very adventurous day!! 

A nice long & refreshing swim and dinner and it was time for bed! 

We left Tissamaharama the next morning after a lovely breakfast. Our driver from Mirissa, Mahesh organised a driver for us at a really good rate.

We were headed to Ella, up in the hills. 

Our time in Tissamaharama and Yala have been exceptional.

So, so happy to have shared this wonderful experience with Tracey. 

That’s it for now guys.

I know I’m a bit behind with the blogs, but I will catch you all up very soon! 

Books read.

The Bee Sting. Paul Murray. This was recommended by Michelle from The Bookclub, I really enjoyed the book itself, just not the ending! 😟😳

That’s all I’ve read in the last week! 

Have a great weekend everyone.

💚🩷💙🩵🌟🐆🐘