Why did the elephant cross the road?

After a relaxing evening in Bandarawela, we set off again, pausing briefly in Ella to take photos of the famous Ella Gap. For once, I manged to stay wide awake on the bus and thoroughly enjoyed taking in all the scenes from village and rural life as we wound our way south. However, one scene as we neared our destination Kataragama was rather unexpected. Our bus suddenly lurched to a sudden stop and this was quickly followed by loud exclamations from those in the front seats. It turns out that an elephant was crossing the road! Apparently, even buses don't argue with adult male elephants, so we slowly edged carefully past him, whilst everyone clambered to take photos out of the window.

We weren't to know that later that afternoon, we'd have an even closer encounter with an elephant. I was in the first of three open-sided jeeps on our way to Yala National Park when suddenly we spotted another male elephant emerging from the undergrowth alongside the dirt track we were on. Our driver came to a halt and then swung the jeep quickly into reverse in such a way that I couldn't quite tell whether I should be excited or petrified by what I was seeing! Being six foot away from a wild elephant is pretty cool though, especially given that they're quite rare at Yala, and I made the most of the opportunity to take some good snaps! Our driver later admitted that he was poised to make a quick getaway if needed as lone males can sometimes become quite aggressive.

The main purpose of this game drive, however, was to try and spot leopards. We'd been told not to get our hopes up but we were feeling lucky following our earlier encounters and kept our eyes peeled. There was plenty of other wildlife to keep us occupied whilst we searched. Wild pigs, crocodiles, deers, buffallo and many different types of birds could be seen at clearings and watering holes on either side and it was wonderful enough to just take in the scenery. Our lucky streak wasn't quite over though because our driver, having received a call on his mobile, quickly sped off down a side track where we suddenly found ourselves joined by several other jeeps, all with people hanging off the sides and climbing in the top in an effort to see something in a nearby tree. Having waited patiently for our turn, we were able to spy what everyone had been looking at - we could just make out the shape of a rather large cat on the lowest branch of the tree, it's tail hanging down in the shade. Not such a close encounter this time but thrilling nonetheless! The bumpy ride home was made even more special by a rather wonderful sunset and we arrived back at our hotel, hot, dusty and bruised but very happy!