Wilpattu game drives

With my cough easing we hoped to get a better night's sleep than we'd had so far on this trip. But my stomach had other ideas and decided to demonstrate its objections to the 'spicier than I'm used to' food by sending me to the bathroom several times in the night. Thank Heavens for Imodium Instants!

To compound the sleep issue we had to be up by 5.30 for coffee at 6.00 and departure on our first safari drive of the day at 6.30. There was a short wait to get into the park, with paperwork that had to be completed. Then we were heading in on the same road as yesterday but with plans to turn off onto a less visited one in due course.

Altogether we were out for about four hours, with a break for breakfast (cheese and egg sandwiches, fruit salad and watermelon juice) at a scenic spot. My (incomplete I'm sure) list of our sightings, many but not all of which I photographed, shows some overlap with yesterday's list but also quite a few new species:

White-throated Kingfisher
Malabar Pied Hornbill
Yellow Wattled Lapwing
Crested Serpent Eagle
Spotted Deer (a large group with fawns)
Asian wild buffalo
Adjutant Stork
Grey-headed Fish Eagle
Land Monitor Lizard
Red Wattled Lapwing
White-bellied Sea Eagle
Grey heron
Pelicans
Crocodiles
Crested Hawk
Flap-shell turtle

We also glimpsed a leopard although it was up a tree and very hard to make out.

And Namal stopped so we could photograph a Green Garden Lizard on the road back to the camp.

We were welcomed back with more watermelon juice. We said goodbye to Charlotte and Ollie, who were leaving, and confirmed plans for lunch and the afternoon with Namal. We spent the intervening period in the lounge area, catching up on emails and messages and sorting the morning's photos.

Just before lunch the new guests arrived, Wendy and Mike. After the meal (various curries, which Namal said they'd toned down because of my stomach issues but which still seemed quite spicy to me, and my favourite Sri Lankan dessert of curd and treacle) we set of on another game drive, this time with Wendy and Mike.

Namal took us to a different area of the park in the hopes of finding a clearer leopard sighting, but we drew a blank again. However we did find plenty of other interesting animals:
Land Monitor Lizard
Crested Serpent Eagle
Ruddy mongoose
Sri Lankan Grey Hornbill
Star Tortoise
Spotted Deer
Sambar
Golden Jackals
Asian Wild Water Buffalo including a young one eating (about one year old)
Young crocodile of just around six months
Elephant
And a group of Malabar Pied Hornbills in some striking dead trees.

We got back around 6.30 so there was just time for a shower and change of clothes before drinks at 7.15 and then dinner. Again because of my stomach they served a more Western style meal of pumpkin soup and fried fish.

We sat chatting for a short while afterwards before walking back to the tents together, escorted by Namal. We were more than ready for an early night!