Wildlife Safari - Udwalawa National Park, Sri Lanka

This article is about our last trip to Udawalawa National Park Sri Lanka 17/4/2019. We had ten days a new year vacation, and We have no plan for traveling. Finally, we arranged a two day trip to Udawalwa. My home town is Ratnapura, and it's about 2hr journey from Ratnapura. My wife has a friend in Uadawalawa, and he has a guest house named Athamankada Safari Resort.

We called him and booked one room for the night.

That day morning at about 9 o'clock, we started the trip. We arrived at the hotel at 11.15 am. After check-in, we had some rest and took our dinner Walawa Edge Restaurant Near the Udawalwa Reservoir.

We came back to our hotel. Our friend has a safari jeep, and he has arranged our safari at 3.30 pm.

The jeep came at 3.30 and picked us. The wild park is about 12 km away from the hotel.

Udawalwa National Park

Udawalawa nation park is one of the famous National parks In Sri Lanka. If someone asks, "what are the Best places to see wild elephants in Sri Lanka?" definitely Udawalawa Park is the best same as, Yala, Minmeriya, Kawdulla, Wilpattu, and Galoya National Parks. Not only elephants, but you also can see tigers, bears, crocodiles, fox, monkey, peacocks, deers, wild bulls, and many kinds of birds. Udawalawa Reservoir is the part of the Udawalawa National park. It also helps to become a paradise of wild animals.

Enter the Park

After passing the Udawalwa dam, we came to the entrance of the park. Tickets for one local adult Rs. 100 and foreign for 15 USD. Because of the vacation period, there ware a lot of domestic and international visitors we met there. Our jeep driver was also our guide. We entered the park and went forward about 1 or 2 kilometers. Suddenly we 3 or 4 safari jeeps are stopped and watching something. We also followed them, and our driver said: "they are three elephants." I saw a baby elephant with his mother; they are eating some grass and another one inside the jungle. They were not afraid of people and the sound of the vehicle. Tourists took photos and videos, and we also d.id the same.

Then we start again. It was raining the last few days in Udawalwa, and some roads had a lot of mud holes. But it's not a problem; the jeep has big tires like offroad. There are different roads inside the jungle, and our guide knows them very well. He also has an excellent, sensitive eye about animals. He showed us many kinds of birds, some are in the ground, and one is in the trees.

Crocodiles and Birds

Then we came to a small lake. The lake was full of water because of the rainy season. Our guide said to us, the lake has no water in the dry season. The lake surrounding is an excellent location for photographers. Suddenly we saw the head of a crocodile. It was moving slowly to the other side of the river. We saw another crocodile in the ground near to the lake dam like asleep. I had some photos of them and some birds. I also captured an eagle on the top of the old tree branch.

We started moving again. There were a lot of peacocks walking on the Road. The male peacock is beautiful than the female one. Suddenly our driver saw us two foxes walking into the woods. They are not too big, like small dogs. Unfortunately, I couldn't capture them.

Then we came into another lake bigger than the last one. Many people stopped their vehicles and watching the scenarios of the lake. I saw one giant crocodile and two medium-size crocodiles in the lake bunt. Our guide said that some crocodiles are long than 15ft.

We started to go further and the time at about 5.30 pm. It's time the elephants come to drink water in the Udawalawa reservoir. Travel guides are targeting to show their clients to see the elephants are coming to the lake. Some parts of the Road damaged, and tires go deep in the mud holes.

Lake edge Sunset.

After about 20 mins we came near to the other side of Udawalawa lake. We saw 20-30 elephants are walking near the lake edge. It was an attractive and unique seen. Sun was going down. The water of the lake got the color of the sun. Some wild buffaloes and deers were also drinking water and eating grass in the field. Another side of the lake was full of crocodiles. I saw Grant crocodiles were laying on the ground. Some bonuses of buffaloes were scattered near to the crocodiles laying area. Our guide said that they are the ruins of buffaloes that crocodiles ate.

It's a paradise for wildlife photographers. I also felt that. I was lucky to captured some beautiful photographs. We started moving forward along to the lake, also saw some birds are waiting to catch fish.

Now I'm getting dark, and we had to go back. The Road again connect to the Road we came. We saw elephants again when we are going back. We came back to the main entrance at about 6.45 pm and arrived at the hotel at 7.15 Pm.

So This is our itinerary of amazing wild safari in Udawalwa National Park. If you are planning to come to Sri Lanka, I recommend the wild safari in Udawalawa; you can get an amazing and unique experience with it.