When we booked our hotels in Sri Lanka in July, they were already very full. There were two nights that we could not get a room on Mirissa beach where we wanted to be, so we took advantage of this and travelled inland to Uda Walawe National Park. It was a three hour ride on narrow, hilly, winding roads through amazing small towns. Anyone who has ever been on a road trip with me knows how my queasy stomach took that...
Luckily there were lots of distractions to take pictures of as we drove. Along the way the road was full of bicycles, motorcycles, tuk tuks, and...stray dogs, cows, water buffalo, and land monitors. It seems that every family in Sri Lanka has a cow or two, or maybe a water buffalo, and they like to tie them up right next to the road. But sometimes they walk their animals down the road, or maybe they get off their rope...
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| Water buffalo and egrets |
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| Land monitor |
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| A huge Buddha near the southernmost tip of Sri Lanka |
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| Busy street |
As we drove to the park, we followed the southern road along the coast for a while. Our driver told us that the tsunami of 2004 completely wiped out many of the towns we were driving through, and they had since been rebuilt. Some buildings had been left standing, with windows broken out and significant damage to the walls. It was heartbreaking to hear the driver tell of the tragedy and all the people who were affected, but amazing to see how much had been rebuilt.
We turned north away from the ocean and entered an area of rich soil known for its 36 varieties of bananas and plentiful rice.
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| Rice field |
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| One way to carry bananas |
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| Another banana transport method |
As we neared our destination, our driver excitedly announced that he had driven fast enough to get to the baby elephant feeding area in time for the noon feeding. This was the first we had heard of this and we were excited. In the National Park, they gather up the baby elephants three times a day to feed them milk from a bottle. The elephants know when the feeding times are and show up at the corral and wait for the gate to be opened. One at a time they drink from a huge bottle that is mounted on the fence, and then return to the wild of the park. The youngest we saw was about three months old.
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| Baby elephants ready for feeding |
Jack couldn't take his eyes off the elephants long enough to take a family picture, but who can blame him?
We then went to our hotel to get some rest before the big safari the next morning. That will be in the next post!
P.S. If you noticed I'm looking a little thick around the middle, it is not from too many pina coladas on the beach...a baby girl will join us in July!
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