One one things

I was woken from a mosquito ridden sleep by a loud thumping on the door. I don’t recall hearing an alarm and as first M and then A struggled with the door, I rubbed the sleep out of my eyes. The thumps were to furnish us with morning caffiene, and they seemed pretty adamant that we woke up. It was around 5.45 and we had aimed to get to the park by around 6.30 at least. The morning drive out of safari village is wonderfully crisp as the surrounding villagers began to wake up. The park is literally 5 mins from the hotel, and the main office is really nicely done, lots of wood, very open and poles apart from the Yala main
office. As soon as i saw it I said “oh it’s got to be a Bawa” for a joke, and K didn’t find it too far fetched but felt it might be one of his golayas. Seemed plausible enough. We got a tracker named Lional and we were off. It didn’t take too long to spot the first elephants, a smallish herd with a couple of calfs enjoying breakfast before the vehicle noise disturbed them. A bit later we saw a fabulous tusker, one of 4 in Wasgamuwa. He was drinking from a water hole shared with a dozen buffalo, silhouetted against the morning sun. Unfortunately most of the Wasgamuwa animals are less used to vehicles than those in Yala, and they get disturbed more easily. The tusker was clearly perturbed and marched off parallel to the road before scurrying behind a few trees and we took off.

The vegetation and terrain in Wasgamuwa is quite similar to that of Yala, and so is the wildlife, except in smaller numbers. I felt quietly confident that we would see leopard even though sitings in Wasgamuwa are pretty rare. As we drove along we saw more elephants including a large herd about to cross the road. This herd was in a flat open area, quite unlike usual elelphant spottings in SL, it was more like what one would expect to see in Africa. We slightly overestimated the crossing point and ended up bang in the middle of where they were trying to cross. Three of the adults had already crossed from this point and we now had stopped in between those three and the rest of the herd. Angry rumblings and trumpeting emanated from both sides of the forest and we got a bit edgy. One of the adults who hadn’t crossed looked hard at the jeep before disappearing into the woods. The tracker suggested we move up a bit and avoid agitating them as a couple of other vehicles closed in on the scene. We missed a chance to see a good crossing, our presence was clearly agitating the animals so we had to move on. Besides several nice eagle spottings, a lone Jackal drinking water and a few peacocks (one of whom in the distance had just spread his feathers), we didn’t see the other major sightings. I was surprised not to see bear given the large concentration in Wasgamuwa, but that said it was relatively late in the morning for bear to be wandering around. Just before we left we stopped by the water hole where we spotted the tusker, hoping to see him again. Only the water buffalo had stayed back. They too seemed agitated by our presence, but unlike the other animals instead of retreating, the entire herd stood up in unison and emerged out of the water like an army. Nervous energy built up as they walked towards us with a constant sound of water dripping off their backs. They stopped about 10m from the vehicle, a couple of the males edging closer and glaring at us. They were not amused. However they seemed to feel less threatened when we cut the engine and waited silently. As they relaxed we thought it best to let them be in peace and we moved on out of the park.

By this time I was not feeling very well at all. Late sunday night I felt the first sniffles and itchy upper palette of the throat, not good news as it signifies a bout of my standard flu. Half way through the round in the park I was sneezing with little control. The dust (not much of it) wouldn’t have helped, but I did manage to keep things quiet when the animals were around. We headed back to safari village after the round for breakfast and a rest. I fell asleep without the fan and wearing a t-shirt, luckily there were no mosquitoes and I could feel the mercury rising in me. It was a good feeling, just letting the fever increase and kill of the bugs making me ill. I slept a good 3 hours and didn’t even want to get out of bed for afternoon action. We didn’t have much planned, but we thought we’d make a run to the forest department and try to find a guide for a quick look at knuckles followed by a river bath and picnic. When the others were getting ready I was still on knife edge as to what I should do, the song by the Clash echoing in my head. I finally thought I’ve come all this way so i’m not going to miss any of the fun so I groaned out of bed. My head felt like lead had been stuffed in through all the pores and was now bursting to come out. I gave in and took two panadols and a clarytine from A’s supplies. I’m usually in charge of medicines but the last minute packing meant I forgot, poor form. Finally we were off, driving back towards Laggala and the knuckles range. The potholes didn’t help my throbbing head, but soon we got to the more mountainy bits and I cheered up. The forest department was empty bar a couple of watchers. No guides were around by this time, apparently they leave if there is no action by late morning. Happily enough we were told to come back the next morning, despite it being vesak, that there will be a guide who can take us for a whole day if we want. Brilliant. And there was a map which had lots of really interesting looking things to do, waterfalls to see and trails to explore.

With plans made for tomorrow, we needed to find something to fill out the rest of the afternoon. We had a packed lunch so we needed to find a place to eat it. We drove back up along the pretty Laggala road and stopped at a random open patch. Just above where we stopped is a beautifully located stone house. It can barely be seen from the road, and is perfect for a private getaway. It didn’t appear to be open to the public. Envious, we sat on the grass to eat, only to be chased away by a gang of leaches. Food was good, rice and curry with too much rice and too little mallum for my liking. It was followed by wonderful fresh mangoes carved up with my HSBC pen knife. Great way to spend the afternoon. After cleaning up we felt it would be best to have a dip in some cool water. By this time I was feeling a lot better, but I thought it best to avoid a river bath at this stage. The place we went to is usually packed bc its a pretty popular bathing spot for the locals and passing travellers. It was more so bc this was bang in the middle of vesak season. So we had to climb up a few extra rocks to reach an empty natural pool, flanked by jungle on either side, a waterfall feeding it from deep in the jungles in the west and the river dropping into it as rapids, calming down in the pool, and then dropping back down as more rapids. I gave into temptation as I am wont to do, I couldn’t resist plunging into the water and letting the mini waterfall massage my shoulders. We couldn’t even hear the voice of all the ppl way back downstream, it was just us, the sounds of the water and the forest. Time flew and it was getting dark and time to head back. The jeep was running out of petrol and being evening and almost poya, the only shed in town looked like it had closed up shop in the last century. After asking around we found shop that sold loose petrol, technically illegal, but pretty essential in these parts. We filled up 20 Litres in 4 trips of a 5L jug at Rs. 113 per Litre, bit of a rip but us beggars can’t choose can we. We almost knocked down a chap on a motorbike while reversing, he was not happy but managed a smile in the end. It’s amazing how nice the ppl are when you move further from Colombo, the courtesy on the roads, the eagerness to help with directions and just the ability to smile without effort is extremely refreshing. That buses actually pull over and let you pass would be unthinkable in Colombo, everything is so laid back. An hour and a half later we were back at the safari village, munching del chips and mixture, sipping G&Ts and watching the mountains disappear into the mist and darkness. A poker session was planned after dinner but we were too tired, probably bc of the early morning wake up and general lack of sleep over the last few days. We were all out for the count by 10 o clock, old age had crept in.