05.30 wake up call! Some of the reviews we had read suggested that there was always a long queue and a long wait to enter the park in the mornings. We needn’t have worried - Lionel had everything in hand! As we approached the park, Lionel simply drove up the outside of all the queuing safari jeeps and forced his way into the entrance car park. There parked and waiting already with only about 6 vehicles in front was our driver and jeep.

We did see quite a lot of game:

Green bee eaters
Starlings!
Macaques
Water buffalo
Lizard in a tree!
Baby croc
Big old croc
Eagles
Spotted deer
Jackals
Kingfisher
Stork
Grey herons
Hornbill

As well as this we saw a number of elephants. But best of all was a mother and a 1 week old baby that she was carefully guiding through the jungle. Awww!

Probably not as much as we have seen in SA but the jungle is much denser so it is more difficult to spot the game. And they don’t have giraffes here!

Back to the hotel for a quick shower and a coffee and then we were back on the road again - this time heading for the coast. The weather turned showery in places and we took a drive through Galle fort - to be e plotted in more detail another day. Lionel suggested a beer in a hotel but it was rammed full at lunchtime with, it has to be said, mainly Chinese. There are a lot of ‘em round here! So we gave up on the beer and headed for the hotel.

This is a fantastic location, perched on top of a rocky outcrop looking straight out over the Indian Ocean. It is quite large and has a couple of large pools, access to a mainly rocky beach and a number of restaurants, all of which seem to serve the same menu! In two of the bars, however, they have been unable to serve cold beer! Aaagghhh, what’s going on! And don’t get me started on the service! Hey ho, our room is on the 4th floor so has fantastic views.

This morning (Saturday) we walked along the beach to a turtle hatchery which is doing good work by saving eggs laid on the beach at night from the locals and then releasing 8 day old turtles into the sea giving them a (slightly) better chance of survival.

Tomorrow to the Fort!

ADO/LMA. xx