We decided just for fun to drive there in the tuktuk from the South Coast, and stayed two nights with the aim of doing a safari on one of the days.
It was a long drive in a tuktuk, but there’s so much beautiful scenery to take it on the way, its truly worth the drive.
Udawalawe National Park is a national park on the boundary of Sabaragamuwa and Uva Provinces in Sri Lanka. The park was created to provide a sanctuary for wild animals displaced by the construction of the Udawalawe Reservoir on the Walawe River, as well as to protect the catchment of the reservoir.
We booked a guide from Niluka Safari’s and he was great. I fell bad as I don’t remember his name, but his English was good and he had lots of local knowledge about the animals and park. Nilskasafari.com
That afternoon we visited an elephant orphanage, where they raise babies with the goal of releasing them into the wild again. Elephant Transit Home. They are the cheekiest babies.
This is just the feeding area, they are kept most of the time in large paddocks that edge a massive lake. They only come here twice a day for milk and other foods.
While we were in Udawalawe we stayed at Athgira River Camping which was made up of glamping tents, right on the river. It was a great place to stay and the food was lovely. The chef even went out of his way to make Sean a special curry as most of the food was catering for the Westerners and didn’t have much heat. We would totally stay here again.
SandSZeAdventures 