Colombo, Sri Lanka

March 21-22, 2024 - We have had many “firsts” on this great adventure, and Sri Lanka offered us another one - two actually. Our first night since December 20th sleeping somewhere other than stateroom 4041 on the Viking Sky and our first safari adventure.

We docked in Colombo Sri Lanka about 2 PM on Wednesday March 20th. And with our bags packed for our overnight trip we boarded a bus for a 5 hour drive to Yala for dinner and overnight at the Cinnamon Wild resort. We had a great guide named Gopan who provided commenteary on the city of Colombo on our drive out as well as about Sri Lanka during our 5 hour journey. The countryside was a mix of rice farms, orchards with varied trees (rubber, mango, coconut, etc) and other farmland - and there were peacocks everywhere (with “peacock crossing” signs on the highway similar to the “deer crossing” signs we are used to at home. Once out of the city limits, it was 4 hours on the highway — with the driver honking at every car remotely near us. So even if we wanted to sleep — that was not an option. The last hour, once we were on the southern tip of Sri Lanka, we were on smaller roads through several towns. Because we were on a “big bus”, we couldn’t take the short cut to the resort and needed to stay on the “main roads", which were interesting to say the least. Our last mile, after we passed through the gate of the resort, took over 20 minutes on a road with more ruts than flat surfaces. And for the last 100 yards the guide got out to direct the bus over a small bridge. Had we done this ride during the daylight, as was the original plan before our itinerary change, this likely would have been more fun — and a bit less scary. Still, we arrived safely just after 8 PM and enjoyed a buffet dinner at the resort before retiring to our rooms to set alarms for us to be awake and boarding our jeeps by 5:15 AM. The room was lovely, and even with a leaky air conditioner and thunder/rain, we did get some sleep - excited for our morning safari.

We woke up to light rain, but also thunder and lightening. We boarded our 6 person jeep and set off to the Yala National Park, where we waited in line with many other jeeps for the Park to open at 6 AM. We had to roll down the flaps of the jeep on one-side while we waited, as the rain was pretty heavy at that point, but luckily it cleared up after we started our safari, so we could roll the flaps back up and enjoy the ride. It was a very bumpy and muddy ride — but it was AWESOME. We saw a lot of water buffalo. wild boars and deer almost immediately, as well as many birds - some of them quite rare according to our fellow guests. And then we saw a stunning elephant, right next to the jeep, enjoying a breakfast of tree branches, followed shortly after by what appeared to be a family of monkeys, playing in the trees and jumping from one to another. It was great to see — but not easy to capture in pictures. Same was true for many of the birds, and the crocodiles we saw next - and the sloth bear who was in the bushes.. Not hiding — but right amid a group of jeeps, were two baby elephants playing together. They were adorable. And as many of the jeeps left, we then saw them (or maybe some of their friends) bathing in the lake amid the water lilies. It was such an incredible experience to see all these amazing creatures in their natural habitat.

After our 3 hour jeep safari, we returned to the hotel to clean-up, have breakfast and check-out for our return drive to the ship. Given the overnight and early morning rain, the resort was afraid our bus would get stuck in the mud - crossing that bridge right by the lobby - so we had to board a smaller resort shuttle bus to meet up with our bus a short distance away. When we saw how short the ride was, we said we could have just walked — but apparently that was not a good idea with the crocodiles and other animals in the area.

We had another noisy (honking) bus ride back to Colombo, with a stop in the town of Galle on the way for lunch. It was a wonderful overland safari trip, and the only thing that would have made it better was if we had gotten to do the evening safari the first day too — as was originally planned — when we were supposed to have 2 1/2 days in Colombo vs. 1 1/2 days.

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