Nuwara Eliya to Tissamaharama
From Nuwara Eliya we headed back down the hillside towards Tissamaharama and Yala National Park. Just a few minutes out-of-town we made our first stop of the day at Seetha Amman Temple. This temple is where Sita was held captive by King Ravana, and where she prayed daily for her husband Rama to come and rescue her in the Hindu epic poem of Ramayana. To the back of the temple, on the rock face across the stream are the footprints of Lord Hanuman.
After taking in the temple, the drive continued. Our next stop was as Rawana Falls, one of the widest falls in Sri Lanka. The falls have been named after King Ravana, of the epic poem of Ramayana. According to legend, it is said that when Ravana kidnapped Sita, he hid her in the caves behind this waterfall, now known as the Ravana Ella Cave. We didn’t see the cave, but the falls were pretty, and also quite crowded. After about 15 minutes it was time to continue our journey.
When we reached Tissamaharama, our first stop was lunch. We ate at a continental restaurant whose core market is clearly tourists. We saw people who we had seen eating breakfast at our previous hotel, also stopping to eat lunch at the same place. After lunch, we were met at the restaurant by a jeep and guide to take us to Yala National Park.
Yala
Yala is a well-known national park in Sri Lanka, famous for its leopards. I personally didn’t see a leopard on this trip, but others in my jeep saw one walking through the bush. However, I did see: elephants, mongooses, crocodiles, wart hogs, peacocks, water buffalo, deer, vultures, monkeys, and egrets.
In contrast to the first safari I went on at Minneriya National Park, this park was much more arid. There was no rain in sight on this day, and after 5 hours of driving through the park, everything was quite dusty. However, halfway through the trip, we made a pit stop at the ocean. I had no idea we were on the coast to that point, but seeing the desert landscape next to the ocean was quite striking.
It was also when we made this pit stop that I was reminded of the December 26, 2004 tsunami that struck the region. A memorial sits just off the beach, in memory of the 47 people in the park that lost their lives. However, there are no known animal casualties of the tsunami. Animals that have tracking devices installed were shown to have moved to higher ground ahead of the tsunami. This added to the belief that animals have a sixth-sense about these types of danger.
Hotel Chandrika
As the safari ended, we were driven back to the restaurant where we boarded the jeep, and then to our hotel for the evening – Hotel Chandrika. This was a lovely hotel with many amenities, however I didn’t get to take advantage of them. I did fully appreciate the warm shower I was able to take after the day of dirt and dust. After showering it was time for dinner at the hotel, and then I headed to bed.
After breakfast the next morning, it was back into the car to head to our final destination of Colombo.
I had a great time in Sri Lanka; see my favorite spots to visit in Sri Lanka here!
