Kandulla NP is home to the biggest Elephant population in Sri Lanka. Besides it offers beautiful nature, different deer and bird species and much more. We paid LKR 8’000 for a private jeep with guide and LKR 2’600 pp entrance fee.
We actually hadn’t planned to go to this park, but when we heard about the large number of elephants that should be there we couldn’t resist. Even though we had just returned from climbing the lion rock and the weather forecast didn’t look too good we rushed to make it on the afternoon safari.
Shortly after arriving a serpent eagle and some monkeys greeted us and a crocodile disappeared in the green water. And a short drive later we saw our first elephants. First, we spotted two males, two females and a baby and were so amazed that we stayed with them for quite some time. And after driving over some muddy paths we reached a heard bigger than what we had ever seen. There were more than a hundred animals and all sorts of spectacle was happening.
There were bachelor groups on the search for females, teenagers playfully fighting with each other and flirting elephants. Two were even attempting to have sex but didn’t succeed. Further on there were small baby elephants receiving protection from the heard and youngsters trumpeting around. Our driver knew exactly how to read the elephants behavior, especially when the bulls considered our car to be too close to the baby elephants.
It was a wonderful experience but we almost didn’t make it back unharmed. On our way back to the hotel, we passed an old tree and in exactly the moment when we passed under it a thick branch broke down on us. As we were driving without a roof, we could see it falling down on us and it crashed on the street right behind our jeep. That gave us quite an Adrenalin rush and we celebrated euphorically into the night.
Leave a reply