No reason to look for safari organizers. They will find you – already on the bus! Touts offer three version of safari – from 4 via 7 to 12 hours. Let you know that you will spent 1+1 h to approach the park gate. So I decided that 7- hours expedition makes the sense. Bargaining is the must – otherwise you will loose. Different entry fees (almost 4000 rs) and breakfast plus water were included in the total amount of 7000 rs in my case. Now I know that paid too much…
They pick you up from the hotel at 5 am. You go in the dark to the park gate via bumpy road. There they pay the entry fees while you wait. Then you enter to enjoy the sunrise. There were 4-6 comfy, soft seats in each jeep. But that was end of the comfort. The roads in the park are badly maintained – take care of your head and backbone. Crawling the park we saw elephants, buffalos, crocs, deers, mangustas, iguanas and a lot of birds. Yala NP has the highest density of leopards (they say), but we were not lucky to see one… Our young driver spoke very poor English – no animal comments at all. So now I know and advice you: Want you see animals? If you have a choice – better go to Africa. But Sri Lanka has the other highlights and people are more friendly here… Just one more experience…
