Day 108 Wednesday, May 1, 2024, Hambantota, Sri Lanka

Arrival: 7:00 All Aboard 16:30 Departure: 17:00

After two sea days cruising the Andaman Sea, we are in Hambantota for our first of two stops in Sri Lanka.

We have a booked a ship tour to Yala National Park with the hopes of seeing leopards. Our friends Karen and Tom were also booked on this tour.

It was an early wake up call as the tour left the ship at 07:30. Vast amounts of rice fields can be seen on either side of the bus as we make our way to the National Park. The producing of rice in these countries is very labor intensive as it is done manually.

I think there were at least two buses or maybe three buses that made the one-hour trip to the National Park. Upon arrival we climbed into jeeps to go in search of the leopards. The drive time in the park was two hours.

The chances of seeing these animals are remote if you are driving in the heat of the day as they look for shade and are resting. We drove around for the allotted time and did not see any. Our driver would stop to talk with drivers from the oncoming traffic and the results were the same - no leopards.

A glimpse of water buffaloes was noticeable on the ride. Fortunately, we saw a solitude bull elephant at a water hole prior to making our way to a lunch stop at the nearby Sheraton Hotel.

Sail away was 17:00 as we made our way towards Colombo 150 nautical miles away.