SRI LANKA SAFARI!

 

Going on Safari! The boys had binoculars around their necks, I had on my safari hat, we were ready!

 

We drove out to the Minneriya National Park in Sri Lanka's north central province. The road was bumpy, the sun hot, the jeep lurching

but the surroundings were gorgeous.  Big palu trees, dry grass and shrubbery.

 

As we wound around we saw water buffalo here

 

 

white cranes there, snakes in the grass, monkeys in the trees

 

and "oh look! a crocodile" 

 

But the highlight was definitely as we drove around the lake and saw a gathering of a hundred elephants in the distance across the water. It was incredible. A beautiful sight. 

 

We got closer and closer and couldn't believe our eyes. 

We only saw one with long tusks. There were lots of babies. This group in the picture above crossed the path in a fast trot, adults all surrounding the babies. Then walked slowly again once they were a distance away. 

Gage kept saying, "Wow! Wow! Look! This is amazing!" And Noah filled us in on all the facts, "Not all the male elephants have tusks, Mom, only 7%" he says. "You know they eat 150kg of plants a day," he says. "Asian elephants are smaller than African elephants," he says. Giving him wikipedia pages about Sri Lanka to read at bedtime turned him in to the best guide ever.  

Sybil LOVED getting out of the jeep to see the elephants. She wanted to get closer and closer. "Hi elephant!" "Bye bye elephant!" "Look Daddy!" "Look!" 

Then at one point the elephants all started walking towards us so our guide hurried us back into the jeep and we drove farther away. 

It truly was amazing. We could have stayed out there all day long just watching them. There is something so majestic about their grand size and motions. No wonder they are such an iconic figure in all of south east Asia.

 

Our guide was wonderful. Everywhere we went the people wanted to hold Sybil. She tolerated it, mostly. Never cried but just had this look on her face.