On Safari

From Galle we deviated a little from Edward's route. At the suggestion of our host at the Galle Star Hotel we decided to visit Udawelawe National Park en route to pick up the end of the mountain railway at Ella.

Sri Lankan's are generally kind and helpful and plans they laid out for us, while sometimes seeming dubious, invariably worked out as promised. Our host suggested that he could arrange for us to catch a local long distance bus up to Udawelawe where a mate would meet us off the bus, take us to overnight accommodation, arrange for an early morning collection to go on safari through the Udawelawe National Park where we would see wild elephants and other wildlife and finally deliver us to another local bus that would take us up to Ella. So this is what we did.

If Bus Rallying ever becomes an international sport, Sri Lanka should have no problem fielding a successful team. There is no shortage of drivers skilled at hurling their machines through blind corners, squeezing smaller road users into the ditch and playing head to head chicken with other oncoming buses and trucks. Like the trains, long distance buses are cheap as chips but even more crowded (just when you think a bus is completely full, they stop and pick up five more passengers) and more frightening. The bus seats are sized for locals so two western bums find it quite squeezy on a double seat. They are very friendly places where passengers share their food around and on several occasions seat mates had no hesitation in falling asleep on our shoulders.

Our plan worked well. We were delivered to the originating bus station by tuk tuk, thus enabling us to embark on the bus at it's start and get a seat. At Udawelawe we were met off the bus (easily recognisable as the only Europeans) and delivered to our guesthouse. Then at 5.30am the next day, we were collected and taken on safari where our eagle eyed driver pointed out deer, buffalo, monitor lizards, fresh water crocodiles, jackals, peacocks and myriad other birds. The elephants while ostensibly wild, were easy to find and were clearly comfortable with the numerous visitors, walking right up to the vehicles. Edward would have undoubtedly enjoyed a safari like this but its probably fortunate that he wasn't offered one. Being a Victorian sporting gentleman, his reaction on meeting an elephant, would probably be to shoot it!

This adolescent, male elephant had no hesitation in wandering past our vehicle.

Then as promised at around mid day we were delivered to the bus stop for Ella. Our driver dropped us off, assuring us a bus would be along in the next 15 minutes which was true but this is where the one slip up occurred. When we arrived at the bus stop there was already one western couple waiting, each with a large bag. We made four and four bags. What no-one had factored in was that today was some kind of holiday so the buses were fuller and fewer and the first one to come past decided that four Europeans with big arses and big bags was too much so it rolled on past. Over the next hour three more Europeans with a bag each turned up making it increasingly unlikely that a bus was going to stop.

The safari vehicle that took us into Udawelawa National Park. An identical one later delivering us to Ella.

Eventually a driver of one of the Safari vehicles suggested that he could take all seven of us to Ella for 1000 rupees each. Bearing in mind that the bus fare would be about 200 rupees each although possibly require tickets for the bags as well we tried to negotiate him down a little but it was pretty clear we had no other option so he stayed firm and eventually we capitulated and were thus delivered safely to Ella.