Day 161 and 162: Safari and Pushy People

Day 161

Today is the morning of the Safari and I'm so excited! We have to be up and down stairs by 5.30am and I bounce down! Luckily this truck is a little bit more sophisticated than last nights. It takes around 45 minutes to get to the park, we wait for a little to check in and then we start. 

We haven't been going for 5 minutes before we spot a huge crocodile just lounging on the side of a water hole :D Our driver is keen to move us on though as there has been a sighting of a leopard up ahead. We drive in for about another 5 minutes when we approach a crowd of trucks, we nudge our way in and then in the distance, we spot a huge leopard just lounging on a rock. He was so cool, reminding me of a huge cat just swinging his tail. The pictures aren't great as we were so far away but it was amazing.

We move on and the rest of the morning is spent whizzing around the park looking for more animals. We see several crocodile, a couple of mongoose, peacocks, loads of cool birds and water buffalo. We still haven't seen any elephants and I was beginning to think we wouldn't when suddenly we turn a corner and there's s huge one eating on the side of a lake. He's so beautiful, we watch him for ages and he wanders it no the lake and start to eat the lily pads. After this lovely chap. We spot 2 more, one just wandering through the trees and the last near a family of Gray Langur monkeys who look very cheeky..

We spot some more crocodile and water buffalo and then start to make our way out when we see some pretty Spotted Deer in the trees. We are all snapping away with our pictures when suddenly, about 50 metres in front of our truck, a leopard wanders across the road. It was just incredible but too fast to get any pictures. We search for him for a bit but he's long gone and you can hear the panic calls of the monkeys getting further away into the distance. We head back now, with me still buzzing but Ben's seem to have developed an odd headache so we don't do much this afternoon.

Day 162 

We have a breakfast of kings this morning. We have fried eggs with a mountain of toast and the biggest plate of fruit, it's delicious if you ignore the papaya which I think tastes like sick. We grab our bags after this and they lovely hotel gives us a lift to the bus stop which is really nice of them. 

The first bus drives by us but luckily the next one stops and we wedge ourselves into the back seat with our bags. It takes us about 3 hours to get to Matara and then we change and get the bus to Colombo which will stop at Ambalongoda beach which is our next stop. I love this mode of transport as you see so much and it's great for people watching. They also play the cheesiest of tunes which makes me feel like I've got a sound track. 

As we zoom around corners and stay squished in our seats, I try and keep up to date with all the towns we are going through to spot our stop but we are just moving too fast. We pass Ambalangoda Town and the conductor still hasn't waved for us to get off so Ben asks a neighbour and it turns our we pass it 7km ago! Not cool, Mr Bus Conductor. Luckily there is some Tuk-Tuks where we stop and it takes us back to our homestay for a not too extortionate amount. Once we arrive the chap who owns it Karu and his son keep telling us off for going to far and I feel like saying "Well yes, durr" but they are making our dinner tonight and I don't want dust. 

Other than that, everyone seems really nice and we get a pot of tea to welcome us and then Karu takes us to his favourite swimming spot. The sea here is incredible rough, I swear the waves are taller than Ben. We also have the company of two dogs which are quite cute as they try to eat whole coconuts. We head back after about an hour as it looks like the heavens are about to open and they do. Karl's wife makes us a delicious Sri Lankan dinner and it's so good and there's so much of it! 

Sadly after dinner Karu goes down in both of our estimations as he tries to push tours on us. I know it's part of the territory but we haven't had it in so long and it just pisses us both off. We can't even check if they are actually any good as we don't have any wifi and  can only get a super slow one when we go and sit in his neighbours living room. We manage to get him to only take us to the Turtle Sanctuary which is all we want to do anyway. Karu's still a bit pushy but we both stand first and he gives in. We got after breakfast in the morning.