SRI LANKA: UDAWALAWE NATIONAL PARK

There are 26 national parks in Sri Lanka, a country the size of Virginia. During our 8 days in the country, we visited 4 of the parks. We started with Minneriya National Park, and our second park was Udawalawe National Park, established in 1972 and covering 119 square miles. 

You never know what you are gong to find on the road into a national park in Sri Lanka--maybe an enormous, ponderous land monitor :

. . . or maybe a Buddhist shrine:

. . . or maybe a sign with a name you can't pronounce. (We learned that it's pronounced "Ooo-duh-vah-lah-vay"):

We climbed into a safari vehicle waiting for us in the parking lot and headed into the park, wehre we spent the next five hours rocking and bouncing along uneven dirt roads, which is really not my thing. However, we had all kinds of sightings, including 15 more elephants, which is my thing.

One of the first things we noticed once we were inside the park was not the elephants, however, but wide swaths of cleared ground. Sanjay told us that lantana, a ground cover common in California and other warm climates but not in Sri Lanka, had been introduced in the country and was invading many of the parks and other areas, choking out much of the native vegetation:

This looks just like a plant I have growing in my yard:

Our first sighting of the day was a ginormous elephant (hooray!) who was wandering around by himself looking for a girlfriend. It shouldn't be too hard to find one as there are about 250 elephants in the park:

Then we spotted this water buffalo in the spa:

. . . and a red-wattled lapwing glaring at us:

An exquisite rose parakeet was perched on a nearby branch. It looks a lot like the birds sold in pet stores, only somehow more dramatic in its natural setting:

We saw thousands of painted storks in all the national parks of Sri Lanka. They were often in a group like this:

This painted stork reminds me of the Greek god Narcissus, enamored of his own reflection:

On this day, every painted stork could have been Narcissus:

I loved their slow, rhythmic wading as they looked for food:

Their plumage is exquisite, and yet their faces are downright ugly, as if to make sure they don't get too vain staring at themselves all day:

They are ungainly as they take to flight:

. . . but once overhead, they pull in those long legs and look a little more graceful.

I'm not sure if these regal birds are herons or great white egrets--I'd guess the latter:

There is no mistaking a pelican:

As we were enjoying the birds, some elephants emerged from the trees:

Slowly, they made their way to the pond:

One seemed to be the dominant elephant; he strode with relative confidence to the water while the other two hung back:

He seems to be saying, "Come on in! The water is fine!"

Within a few minutes they were huddled together, filling their trunks and squirting the water into their mouths:

Still, they were wary and watching:

All of the sudden, something startled them, and they took off at a furious elephant-style stampede for the shore, water spraying everywhere around their heavy feet:

They continued to push forward at a panicked pace once they hit the shore:

But just as suddenly as they burst out of the water, they stopped and looked around. I wonder what spooked them? Whatever it was, it didn't phase the storks:

Further along the road we ran into (figuratively speaking) a pack of golden jackals:

The malabar pied hornbill has to be one of the more bizarre birds in the world (note the lantana in the foreground):

You know the babies born with an extra finger or toe? Well, the malabar hornbill seems to have been born with an extra, non-functional beak on top of the functional one:

There were peacocks everywhere. I think this is the first time I've seen peacocks in the wild--as in living in their actual native habitat. Peacocks, or "peafowl" to be more precise, are native to the Indian subcontinent. It's no surprise that foreign visitors and colonizers took this regal bird home with them to ornament the grounds of their castles and mansions:

Our guide Sanjay, however, was very dismissive of these strutting birds that walk slowly across the road and impede the progress of safari jeeps, fill the air with their raucous cawing, and generally seem to have very, very small brains.

Moving along, we saw more elephants--and continued to be astonished by them every time (at least I was):

We saw a few langur monkeys. In comparison to the macaque monkeys with their Donald Trump comb-overs, these monkeys look like important elder statesmen:

The Ceylon paradise flycatcher has an impossibly long tail:

. . . that looks like a ribbon, or maybe a jet stream, trailing behind it when it takes to the air:

In contrast, the female Ceylon paradise flycatcher has a beautiful rust-colored body, but sadly lacks the fine plumage of her male counterpart:

I'm not sure what this green lizard is--an anole? 

It was fun to see this mongoose, an animal I only know of because of Rikki-Tikki-Tavi in Kipling's The Jungle Book:

The mongoose in the Disney adaptation of The Jungle Book doesn't look much like the real mongoose that we saw, however:

Bob tells me it is more properly known as a "ruddy" mongoose.

This is not a great shot, but this bird that looks like a bald is actually a Brahminy kite:

I can never get enough of the kaleidoscopic bee eater, my favorite of all the Sri Lankan birds:

We saw a crested snake eagle, which gets its name from its diet of snakes. In another park we would see one eating a snake:

A solitary spotted deer (aka axis deer) watched us from the edge of the brush:

And later, we saw a whole herd of spotted deer:

Of course, there are always water buffalo, their ridiculous ears sticking straight out of their heads:

Aw, cute!

On the far side of the bank (thank goodness), a mugger crocodile was catching a few rays:

Or perhaps he was keeping an eye on this water buffalo upstream:

We enjoyed watching this crested hawk eagle for a while. It seemed to have something trapped in its right talon:

Sanjay noticed two more jackals resting in the grass. I know I wouldn't have seen them--they blend right in:

Speaking of Sanjay, there were lots of intersections like this one, and we were very glad we had him navigating:

The ubiquitous tocque macaque is part of the Udawalawe fauna:

This shot reminds me of my older brother (above) and me (being tormented):

A hawk eagle (now that's a lethal combination) surveys the territory, looking for dinner:

And as mentioned earlier, I just can't get enough of these graceful, colorful bee eaters:

From the park to our hotel was another 1.5 hours at least, and by the end of the day I had hit the same level of exhaustion I had felt on Day 2. We went to the hotel restaurant for dinner, and I. Just. Could. Not. Eat. A. Bite.

When we finally got to our room, I crawled into bed and fell asleep immediately, only to wake up at 12:30 AM freezing. The AC was set to 16° Celsius, which is 62° Fahrenheit--wonderful if you have a nice blanket, but we only had one sheet, no blankets. Once awake, I couldn't get warm. When Bob got up at 4:30 AM for the next safari adventure, I decided I did not have it in me to join him. Sanjay said they would come back to get me for the afternoon drive. Bob adjusted the thermostat and I went back to sleep for another 2 1/2 hours and then spent the morning catching up on journaling, email, etc.  It was a welcome break.