ELEPHANTS EVERYWHERE
Sri Lankan visit offers plenty of pachyderms
We had to settle for paw prints in the powdery dirt of a potholed road and not the leopard itself.
Of course, it’s a bit much to expect to see one of the iconic big cats in the wild.
We were hoping for just that, though, during our jeep safari at Yala National Park on the east coast of Sri Lanka. About an hour into our three-hour ride, the driver pulled the jeep to a halt and began speaking excitedly in Sinhala and gesticulating towards a treeline about 200 metres away. Our guide translated: The driver said he’d seen a leopard jumping up into a tree, though binoculars and my long-lens camera showed nothing but a leafy wall of branches.
Whether that moment was theatre, created by the driver for the tourists’ benefit, or a real sighting, we’ll never know, but 10 minutes later we saw fresh prints at the edge of the road.
But the safari in Yala — and the variety of wildlife we did see in the reserve — was just a part of the terrific 12 days we spent in Sri Lanka, and executed by our excellent driver/guide, Viraj.
Though it is only twice the size of B.C.’s Vancouver Island, Sri Lanka has just about everything you could ask for in an exotic vacation: gorgeous beaches, spectacular mountains and tropical forests full of wildlife. And then there’s the culture, with its distinct South Asian cuisine and rich Buddhist history showcased by many of the eight UNESCO World Heritage Sites on the island.
Since the horrific 26-yearlong civil war ended in 2009, tourism has skyrocketed, so there is a growing hospitality infrastructure and an appetite to accommodate visitors in this country of 20 million.
If you are a nature lover, Sri Lanka offers an eye-popping array of flora and fauna. Banyan trees, teak and mahogany as well as bamboo all grow massively big in Sri Lanka. A visit to a spice garden is worthwhile, just to see growing what you’re used to finding on your supermarket shelf.
But it’s the omnipresence of animals — both domestic and wild — that’s likely to make you feel like you are in a National Geographic documentary. You are going to see plenty, from cows wandering down the centre line of the road to homeless — though harmless — dogs loitering about. You’re also likely to see domesticated elephants led by a mahout (handler) strolling down the street of a busy town.
But that’s just texture. On our jeep safari in Yala, we had closeenough encounters with beasts in the wild: water buffalo, crocodiles, elephants, mongooses, spotted deer, not to mention enough brilliantly-coloured birds to thrill any birder.
In Sri Lanka, though, it always seems to come back to the iconic elephant, a majestic animal that is deeply rooted in the country’s history and culture.
But there are definitely two very different sides to this: the docile, Disneyesque creatures we saw in “orphanages” and the elephants in the wild.
As we began our jeep safari, our driver/guide Viraj warned us that under no circumstances were we to get out of the jeep while in the reserve. “Leopards? Snakes?” I asked. He looked at me incredulously. “Elephants.”
The elephant in Sri Lanka is protected through stringent laws and harsh penalties. Anyone killing an elephant — even accidentally running into one at night with a car — is looking at jail time or worse. But they are very dangerous in the wild, where they are notorious for raiding farmers’ fields or even knocking over village huts if they smell something interesting inside. They especially love bananas — nicknamed “elephant ice cream.” Farmers are regularly killed trying to scare off elephants who are threatening their crops.
Then, there’s the monkeys. It’s not hard to see why their DNA is so close to humans, certainly when you encounter the most prevalent monkey species in Sri Lanka — the toque macaque. They may be the smallest of the Sri Lankan monkeys (adult males can still weigh up to nine kilos) but they make up for it with such an utter disdain for humans that it makes Canadian raccoons seem shy. Yes, their antics are fun to watch, but the toque macaque will literally eat your lunch if given the opportunity to grab it out of your hands. In fact, a couple of these little hooligans stole into our room just after we arrived at our hotel on a hill overlooking Kandy, absconded with our still unwrapped fruit basket and then proceeded to eat it in front of us on the next balcony. You’ll see these critters with the Friar Tuck hairdos pretty much everywhere there are tourists.
Perhaps due to the largely Buddhist culture, Sri Lankans seem happy to let animals roam where they please, though the results can be unsettling. The first afternoon we were at Jetwing Yala, we ven- tured down to the hotel pool to be greeted by a herd of about 20 wild pigs and piglets grazing on an adjacent patch of grass like they owned the place. No one seemed to mind.
Of course you’ll build up an appetite with all this adventure and you’ll be delighted by Sri Lankan cuisine. You’ll find similarities to Indian — particularly south Indian — fare, but differences as well. With influences from the Portuguese, Dutch, British and others who used the island as a trade route way station, the variety of flavours is amazing. The most common dish is simply “curry and rice,” but this comes with many different combinations of spices. Coconut is also a common theme, whether in a sambal (condiment) or an ingredient in a main dish or dessert. Cardamom and black pepper, ginger, vanilla and turmeric, which grow there in abundance, are other key ingredients used in the cuisine to go along with local fruits and veggies. Jackfruit was in season while we were there, and it is delicious.
The author received a reduced rate from Bernard Tours. The company did not approve or review this story.