Sri Lanka - Day 7/8 Tissa & Mirissa
We woke up at 3 am and were ready by 4 to start our safari in Yala National Park. We’d never been on a safari before, so we were pretty excited. The driver seemed pretty nice, we got in the jeep, picked up 4 other people from another hotel and took off.
It took 1 hour to get to the gates of Yala, where we had to wait for around 20 more minutes till they opened. During that time, I, of course, needed to use the bathroom. The driver was getting the tickets but I could spot a sign for the bathroom somewhere behind the ticket office. I make a run for it. Thankfully the lights are on. I get into one of the stalls and as I was doing my business, I heard it. It was the loudest buzzing I’d ever heard. I’m totally freaked out and I wanted to get out as fast as I can. I’m done. I get out of the stall and look up. There against the lamp was the biggest bug I’d ever seen. It looked kinda like a beetle but it was massive. I opened the door and ran as fast I could to our jeep. A few minutes later the driver came back and off we went in to the park.
The first hour was a frenzy of the driver zipping past looking for all the big animals, elephants, leopards, and bears. We saw none. By the third hour, none of these animals had shown up, the driver slowed down a little and gave us the chance to see the less exciting animals: peacocks, crocodiles, buffaloes, and wild boars. Oh, and monkeys. We mussn’t forget the monkeys.
The driver didn’t give up hope though. He kept driving us around and around looking for that damned leopard. Exhausting doesn’t even begin to describe the ride. It’s bumpy and it’s hot. All in all, it was disappointing. Not because we didn’t see the leopard, but because we drove around so much that we didn’t get to enjoy the wildlife. Which was really a shame. The highlight of the trip was the food. Lunch consisted of rice and curries that were prepared by the driver’s wife and mother-in-law and it was by far, the best we’d had in Sri Lanka so far.
All in all, it was an alright day. We got back pretty exhausted, went to bed and headed off to Mirissa in the morning. We were going whale watching.
The bus ride to Mirissa was actually quite pleasant. One direct bus, we caught it at the first station and so got seats, which was great.
The guesthouse we stayed at in Mirissa was great. The room was perfect, the host really nice and chatty, the location amazing. We spent the first day just walking on the beach and then met up with Feli and Alex for dinner and drinks. All in all, it was a pretty good day.
