We decided to go on elephant safari after chatting to a Dutch couple on the whale watching trip who really recommended it. It was en route to Ella in the hill country where we were headed so suited us anyway. After a few days in Mirissa, we got up early and headed off on 3-bus journey to Uda Walawe national park. You catch the first bus on the main road in Mirissa outside the lovely Rotti shop Samagi.
This bus was headed to Matara. It’s easy to spot your bus as they all say the destination on the front so you just stick your hand out to stop it. Lots of foreigners we’ve met have a fear of the Sri Lankan buses but really there’s no need. They’re generaly great ( ;-), you’ll understand why I say generally if you read the “Sigiriya to Colombo” post). All buses have a conductor so you’re not messing with money when you get on which is great when you’ve a pile of luggage and little people. You put your big rucksacks on the large gear box/engine near the driver so you can keep an eye on them. You can see them in the bottom left of this picture.
We’ve never had an issue getting seats, if it’s full, people will squeeze the kids in beside them. Sri Lankan’s love kids. The front seats are reserved for clergy and next row for disabled people followed by a row for pregnant mothers. Nice to see pregnant mothers are recognised. And the buses are sooo cheap. They are a fraction of the cost you’d pay a driver so definitely worth it if you’re on a budget. The bus to Matara cost 60 rupee (40 cent for the five of us). Can’t argue with that!
We got off at Matara and went for breakfast in a little spot opposite the station. We thought we could have some grub and use their toilet facilities. Unfortunately they didn’t have a loo…. Ohh ohh. We had a decent enough breakfast of vegetable rotis (small pancake-like things filled with a spicey veggie curry) and cream and jam buns for the girlies. They loved them! They’re like those sweet bread buns you get at home. Not the healthiest but a God send when the kids decide to be picky eaters.
Our tummies filled, we went off to find a bathroom. I’ve mentioned this on facebook already so apologies if you’ve already heard it. I’d heard about bus station toilets so it was with a high degree of apprehension that I set off, 3 little girlies in tow. I found the toilets and saw there was an attendant outside and you had to pay 20 rupees to get in. Brilliant, mightn’t be so bad. Ohh how wrong I was….. We queued for what seemed like ages, the toilet getting hotter and smellier the longer we waited. I was starting to feel queasy. It was one of those hole in the floor squat toilets. One of the rare ones we’d come across in Sri Lanka. So all 4 of us piled in trying not to fall down the hole, Dervie having been warned not to touch anything! It wasn’t pretty. I threw a bucket of water over everything to make myself feel better, useless really….. Freya and Dervie got complete stage fright and point blank refused to go. Shuna was happy to go but completely missed the toilet and pee’d all over my foot. Not pretty when you’re in sandles! I had to use the hose pipe to clean everything down as well as my foot. At this stage I’d broken out in a major sweat and was retching. We all fell out the door traumatised, Freya in tears. So my advice would be to avoid bus station toilets at all costs and if you really really need to go, bring the kids one at a time.
We hopped on the next bus to a town called Embilipiptiya. Ro and I could never pronounce this place so would just ask was this the bus to “Embili” and mumble the rest. Seemed to work :-). This bus was fun, the driver played crazy Sri Lankan music at top volume for the whole journey. It’s very uplifting, think that’s the best word I can think of :-). That bus cost 380 rupee for the five of us (€2.50).
Last bus of the day was from Embilipiptiya to Uda Walawe. This one went off without a hitch and cost 150 rupee (€1). We got dropped off at a junction just after the town of Uda Walawe rather than at the park entrance which is what we wanted. It was the first time we felt hassled in the whole of Sri Lanka. We were badgered by tuk tuk drivers and guesthouse owners and told there was no other way to get to the park other than a tuk tuk. We don’t think this was true. It was the one and only time we thought we were getting taken for a ride. We saw a bus, tried to hail it but were told no, we had to get a tuk tuk. It seemed everybody was in Cahoots.
We got a tuk tuk and in the end he turned out to be very nice, on the way we stopped at a bridge where a large mail elephant was hanging out between the lake and electric fence. Huge excitement from the back of the tuk tuk! There were men selling fruit to feed him. We didn’t get any though, We’d heard it wasn’t a good plan to feed the wild elephants. But we were excited none the less. I didn’t get a picture of this guy but here’s one from the Sunday times website, thanks Sunday times.
Next bit of excitement was a large snake on the road. We had to stop the tuk tuk it have a look. It was alive but looked like it had been hit by a car so injured. The tuk tuk driver told us it was a really dangerous one (ouuu exciting :-)). He proceeded to grab a big branch and push it off the road. It did a dramatic head turn as it was shoved in. All very exciting for the Kelly’s who were all out of the tuk tuk having a good look from the side of the road.
The driver brought us to a guesthouse called elephant fence, it was perfect at 3000 rupees a night (€20) for a simple enough room with 2 double beds and bathroom.
It also had a veranda outside with tables. They served food so we had a delicious feed of chicken fried rice for ourselves and went to bed happy and excited for our elephant safari the next day.
