Friday, November 24, 2017

Elephants of Udawalawe

The winding road continued as we travelled towards Udawalawe National Park. Our first stop was Niewar Eliya but we had lots of interesting stops.


                                                                    The Rawana Falls

We reached Udawalawe National Park in the late morning, a period when elephants are resting. We were told that we had a 10% chance of seeing elephants. We saw lots even if they were less active than our previous elephant safari.
We also saw lots of birds and other animals.


                                             We have seen lots of peacocks during the trip.


                                                         Various species of eagles.


                                                     The beautiful green bee eater.


                              The largest crocodile that we have seen on the trip.

We saw lots of elephants both in large groups and lone males.

                      

                                        A large group resting under the shade of a huge tree.


                                      They were sound asleep! All adults sleep standing.


                                    There were three baby elephants with this group.


                                  This large male woke up and had a stretch.


                                                                  Trunk up.

By the last hour of the trip we no longer stopped for the odd elephant sighting. We saw buffalo a few times.


                                                  Water buffalo and elephant.


                                                                 Cooling off.


 Monkeys are everywhere. They are often at our hotels and sometimes steal your food. These were where they should be ..in the National Park.


We left the elephants behind and drove past rice paddy and headed for the south coast with its famous beaches.

2 comments:

Amanda said...

Great animal and bird shots. Harrison asked me to tell you not to carry any bananas with you. That way the monkeys won't come to steal your bananas, and won't be able to poo on your floor.

Unknown said...

I love these pics
Elephants are the most fascinating creatures