Wilpattu Safari

My heart skipped a beat. I gasped. We found one, I thought.

Three Hours Earlier:

While I peered out the window, we pulled up to our safari camp. A friendly boy checked us in, and led us to our tent. The entire tent was camo green and about 150 square feet including the bathroom. Inside were three beds, a plug-in fan, and that was it. The bathroom was a small connecting tent at the end. The only division between the main part and the bathroom was a layer of canvas. Wow this might be hot tonight, I thought while dripping sweat and looking at the measly little fan.

Settled in, we followed the path shown to us, that led to lunch. Lunch was out in a small circular grassy area. A few tables were set up in the shade. Walking over to the three person table, we realized this might be a hot day since an air conditioner was nowhere to be seen and it was nearly 90 degrees. On top of being super hot already, the first thing we were served was a bowl of hot soup. How are we supposed to eat soup in this heat? I thought while my mom was fanning herself with a plate. The soup turned out to be okay. Probably not my idea of a hot day meal, but I survived. After the soup we had some rice and a few different curries. It was a lot better than the soup, but a bit spicy. Lastly, and a much more refreshing treat than the soup, we had yogurt with honey. The honey was sweet and tasted good with the bland yogurt.

Eating Outside

Desperate to cool off, we walked back to our tent and sat in front of the fan. This seemed to help our situation a fair bit. Our scheduled safari was that afternoon, so after cooling off for half an hour we were led to the truck. Bouncing on my toes with excitement I clamored into the truck. It was a pickup truck with six seats in the truck bed. The guide was in one while my family and the other group occupied the others. The driver was in the actual cab of the truck. The other group included two lawyer friends. One was from Sri Lanka giving her friend a tour and the other was from Singapore.

Riding to the park with corn on the side of the road

At last we set off in hopes of seeing the majestic, yet elusive, leopard. Along the way to the safari park, on the road, covering up stretches of the entire lane on one side, we saw…Corn?

“Is that corn?” we asked our guide, bewildered and confused.

The guide turned around in the front passenger seat and gestured toward the corn, “Yes, that is corn, they dry it and then ship it to Colombo.”

I looked out the window at a hundred yards of corn kernels covering the left lane of the road . Do people accidentally run over it? Do they eat it after drying on the road for days? I thought as we passed yet another section of corn.

My dad asked what I was thinking, “Do people run over it or do they know not to?”

Corn drying on the road

We learned that people know that you don’t run over it. However I’m sure some unknowing tourists have run over it before.

Wind in our hair, we pulled up to the ticket counter. At last, we were in the park. Eyes squinted, I watched for any animals. I wasn’t even sure what I was looking for. I saw something scurrying along the side of the road. It wasn’t till after we passed it I realized it was a lizard.

Bumping along, my dad pointed and said “deer!” The van stopped and pulled back, to take pictures.

Oh boy, I thought. Are you telling me we stopped for deer! At home, you could see a deer at least once a week in the fall or winter without trying too hard. Deer are in such close proximity, that when biking to school I almost hit one.

Deer sighting

A few minutes later, bouncing on the red dirt road, we spotted a water buffalo standing in the road. It was black with dark purple hues like a dark night sky.

Buffalo spotting

After the buffalo sighting, we stopped. I was unsure of what we were looking at. Looking around, I saw it. An eagle. Not like a bald eagle, it’s head was a brown color and it was sitting at eye level in a tree a few yards away. It seemed not to care about us, and just sat there looking around.

Eagle in the tree

After we got our pictures we bounced down the road. Riding in silence, for what seemed like an hour. Time slinks by as you slowly make your way through the woods on a dirt road in a converted truck, hitting every possible hole, rock and root. All the while, we were hoping to find animals. We pulled to a stop. To the left, a mongoose was scampering into a bush. The fur was smooth and brown. To the right was one of the many lakes that are in the park. Driving past that I spotted a peacock, a mongoose, buffalo and deer. When you first find something, your breath draws short, your stomach drops and you feel speechless. But after you find one thing, you're just excited. It was an exciting and eventful few minutes.

Mongoose

Setting off again, it seemed like it could be another long stretch. Then in the distance, sitting on the road, Is that a dog?

“Is that something on the road?” I asked my dad, pointing ahead.

At that exact moment, the car stopped. Our driver stuck his head out the window and looked back at us, eyes wide, mouth open. The driver said something in another language to our guide.

My heart skipped a beat. I gasped. We found one, I thought. A few cars that were behind us, were stopped as well. We slowly inched forward.

Yes, we found a leopard. It was golden yellow with black spots. Once it saw our car, it gracefully lurked into the surrounding woods. The creature was really big, but the way it moved was so quiet and smooth.

Our vehicle suddenly sped up, and we got to where it had once been. To our left it was maybe a few yards away. Walking away, looking at us. It slowly walked farther into the woods.

Our truck sped up, Oh no, we’re leaving already?! I thought. Right as I got discouraged, we made a u-turn and went speeding back the way we came.

Ahhhh!!! Lurching to a stop, we spotted the praised leopard again. Way off in the distance it was strutting. The engine revved, and we were speeding after the leopard. A dirt track appeared on the left and the driver, without changing speed, made a sharp turn onto that track to catch the leopard on the other side. The road dipped into a deep puddle, lurching the truck. Slowly we rolled through the water into a big, circular clay pit. The surrounding walls were two to three yards high. Squinting we spotted it, on the far ledge of the pit, right where we expected to see it.

The guide quietly explained, ”He is trying to drink at that water there.” He said, pointing a few yards over, to a small puddle of murky water. Many other trucks began to pull up, trying to get the best view. It became clear it was a competition to get the best spot. We ultimately won, since we were there first. The leopard sat down and waited, noticing all the trucks watching him. We were all hoping that he would go down to the puddle to drink. We never saw him do it. We sat there and watched him for half an hour with new trucks and jeeps coming, but eventually leaving realizing we had already claimed the best spot. At any one time, there were at least 5 different cars there. Leopards move so gracefully, any time he moves people are clamoring to get a good picture. He only moved a few times. We were so close to him in that weird clay pit. At one time we were only separated by 10 yards--a front row seat-- a coveted spot I think we wanted. Leopards are big, powerful cats and the top predator at our location in Wilpattu National Park. At last we had to resign from our front row spot and continue on our safari.

We continued the way we had come for five minutes when we saw a sloth bear. The bear was small and a brown black color. It didn’t seem to notice us and if it did, he or she didn’t care. Just milling about, and eating. The golden light of the late afternoon was shining directly on the bear as if it was posing for us.

Sloth Bear

The rest of the safari was a failed attempt to find elephants. We drove for 10 minutes down a road before another truck came from the way we were going and the driver said (in another language) there were no elephants that way. Man what a bust, I thought, as we made a U-turn. 

The car suddenly stopped. I looked around. Was I missing something? Animals always have excellent camouflage and finding them in the wild can be difficult. At last my eyes zeroed in on where everyone else was looking, at two small green birds. I was reminded of the birds we were shown a while ago, which was the Ceylon junglefowl. To me they just looked like chickens. The green birds flew away, and we drove out of the park.

There were a few times that the three and a half hour safari seemed long. However, looking back it was such an incredible experience, and I feel so lucky to have done it. I’m still so surprised we were able to see a leopard. They are such beautiful and majestic creatures. The way they move is just so different from a dog or bear. Pictures never really capture it, but I’ll always remember, and that’s all that matters.