We saw Leopards

 

Wilpattu. One of the largest and oldest National parks in Sri-Lanka famous for its villus, natural, sand-rimmed water basins that fill with rainwater. The Leopards have made Wilpattu a world renowned national park and the gorgeous sights of the jungle are one you truly need to witness.

After 3 days of intense planning. new friends and some regular safari folk we headed out early morning and had tons of fun on the way. We arrived a little before noon at Wilpattu tree house hotel and were greeted with refreshing drinks and an array of options and activities we could do while we stayed for the safari jeeps to arrive. We had an amazing lunch experience surrounded by wildlife and cycled for a while for fun. Afterwards we loaded everything onto the jeeps and headed for the entrance to Wilpattu National park.

Our plan was to stay inside the jungle for 2 nights so we had to take food and water along with us inside the forest. After what seemed like a pretty lengthy intervention about who was entering the jungle and other classified information which us kids took no part in, we were finally let inside. We drove a good length inside, very much on the lookout for any sights that might dazzle our retinas and finally arrived at the bungalow we booked. We were staying at Lunuwila bungalow which has quite a misleading name as Lunuweva is a pretty bit away from there. However the place is really nice, 2 Storey with 2 rooms downstairs and a single 5 bed room upstairs. There's a large clearing behind it where we got to see numerous animals like Elephants, small foxes and crocodiles who can't fly (inside jokes). We put all our food and water in the kitchen but stole the snacks (mischievous and childish very much yes)and hid them upstairs in our room. There was a cook in the bungalow so we didn't have that to worry about.

 You can't drive around the jungle after 6 in the evening and it was around 4 when we got to the bungalow. We unpacked and hopped back in for a quick drive around and got extremely lucky. We were faced with a huge Leopard face to face with our jeep with a beautiful complexion and a well built body. It was truly a magnificent sight. The unexpected encounter took us by surprise but we managed to get some incredible photos and videos of it. We watched him for a while and as soon as he was lost in the trees, we drove to where we thought he might appear next but sadly lost him. He didn't have a name but we got to know tales about different named Leopards that roam around. There's one eye, Cleopatra and many others with interesting backstories. It was getting late so we had to drive back. The tiny ones could not get enough of the jeep driving through water. There was an Elephant waiting for us when we got back at the bungalow. 

We stayed up playing cards and telling stories. The night was warm with almost no mosquitoes which took the purpose out of my long pyjama pants. There are nets over the beds and we had them down just in case. The place is solar powered and has no signal proving smartphones somewhat useless but it was very peaceful. You don't really need electricity because you do stay away most of the day. I don't think anyone charged their phones at all because use was at a minimum. The only power you really need is for lights and solar power takes care of that.

We set off early morning the next day to put the saying "the early bird catches the worm" to the test. We saw no birds eating worms but did catch sight of a bunny and a lot of birds but our target was the Leopard. Apparently monkeys being monkeys give what's known as an "alarm call" when the Leopard is near and we heard it and stayed for about half an hour hoping he'll show up but did not get so lucky. There was however a bear who got more frightened than intrigued by the sound of the jeeps and crawled out of sight. Some of us saw it but i was too late. We rode on for what seemed like forever but didn't get to see our Leopard again. We did however see a bunch of deer peacefully grazing on weeds, a herd of wild boar from time to time, an owl, a couple of Eagles and even a snake being carried off by an Eagle which was a rare sight. 

We headed back for lunch and took the journey further by getting in our jeeps in search of our unnamed Leopard one last time. We set off to the same place we did the day before hoping for a lucky encounter but did not see or hear from the big guy. We headed back for our final night and stayed up talking about haunted stories in the dead of night which ended in some flinching and screaming at every little sound and some not getting any sleep at all that night. Talk about a fun time.

Next morning we headed back to the hotel and was met with a terrified Leopard who ran into the trees at the sound of the jeep trying to rev out of a pool of mud. So cute. This time we all caught a good glimpse at it  (before it disappeared) and stayed for a while wondering if it'll come back out. It didn't and we headed back to the hotel and after a nice breakfast, headed back home.