Day 11 - Ella
Monday 10th August, 2026 - Ella - Yala
It was a long driving day with only a stop for lunch, Tania managed a bit more - half of her toasted sandwich. Graeme had a serve of chicken kottu a local Sri Lankan dish.
We arrived at our camp site at Yala for the night - being picked up and transferred in safari jeeps with our small backpacks to the camp site. We were assigned our tents, dropped our bags and back to the safari jeeps for our ride through the 'jungle' (what we would call scrub) looking for leopards!
Each jeep can carry up to 6 people, so we had three going out for our group.
The Big Game campsite we stayed at had other jeeps going out as well. We left about 14:30 and made our way into the national park, which controls entry by counting the number of people in and the number of people out (hand writing it in a book) - I guess to make sure the leopards don't get one or two !!
The drive was long, dusty, bumpy and we soon discovered there were about 50 other jeeps in there looking for leopards ! We did see an elephant, some water buffalo, crocodiles, many birds, a mongoose, spotted deer and snake but alas no leopard today !
The rocking and rolling of the jeeps wasn't great for Tania and as soon as we returned to camp at 18:30 she went straight to lie down and rest.
Tania slept through the dinner and in fact got 12.5 hours needed sleep.
There was another optional safari (which means we pay for) going in the morning at 5:30am. Tania was a definite non started, and I ummed and ahhed before deciding to not go. There was also the option of an informative walk around the campsite at 6:30am.
We had a barbeque dinner being served up tonight, potato and leek soup, barbeque pork (very tough) and chicken with some vegies, and a creme brulee which resembled more a stiff pudding. The atmosphere was good with a long table lined with candle lights set up under the stars and a bonfire nearby.
Good decision, Graeme.
Ah, the elusive leopard. At least the mongoose did its bit for you.
I have never seen a mongoose.
How comfy was the tent? With a tummy rumble I imagine it’s not the time for a tent. Hope you pep up soon Tania x