Yala National Park
From Galle, I headed to Tissamaharama (Tissa) to access the Yala National Park. The journey follows the coastal road interconnecting a series of towns. It took about five hours on an old and cramped bus; the likes of which I hadn’t seen or travelled on in many years. The alternative would have been a taxi.
The Tuk Tuk driver hurtled from the bus station to my accommodation out in the countryside on the edge of Tissa. I had already organised to go on a half-day safari of Yala National Park with the guesthouse.
Yala National Park is a popular destination for safaris in the south of Sri Lanka. It has the highest population density of leopards in the world. You can visit at any time of the year, but the dry season from February/March to June/July is when it is easiest to spot wildlife.
I joined a friendly French family staying at the guesthouse on the safari. We had a 04:30 start! The gates open at about 06:00 and a great number of tour jeeps pile into the park. Eventually, our jeep managed to shake off the convoy and give us a more personalised visit.
Half a day was sufficient to see much of what Yala National Park has to offer. I was trying to get over a bout of man flu at the time and probably wouldn’t have appreciated a longer day.
The photos below show much of what we saw including buffaloes, deer, jackals, a monitor lizard, crocs, mongooses, many birds, and a leopard tucked away only two-hundred metres from the entrance!
