This was one of the most epic and memorable adventures I have done in a long long time.With the new facility of booking bungalows online my friend Raveendra managed to reserve two nights at the Warahana bungalow located deep within Yala National Park.Despite being to Yala over 50 times I have never booked a bungalow inside the park. I have ...
A long weekend was approaching and I was yearning to visit my favorite place on earth- Wilpattu National Park. Making plans with my friends Riaz and Hafiz, we decided to do a two day safari from Saturday to Sunday and to come back home on the same day.We left Colombo on Friday night, hoping to have a few hours sleep ...
Few weekends ago I organized a trip to the wilds of Sri Lanka, in lieu of one of my best friends and brothers Gihan Beneragama who came down from Australia. Gihan and I go way back almost 12 years, where were were in the Wildlife Society in school together. I remember him joining us in his first trip during April ...
I was on a quick weekend jungle fix with my friends Riaz, Vimukthi and Hafiz and it was the last park round on Sunday before we head back to Colombo. My friend Hafiz had never seen a leopard before, and was always complaining that he has bad luck etc.We were driving down the Spill road towards Akasha Chaitya on the ...
One of the perks of having a one week long holiday for Avurudu is that I can travel during weekdays to the wilds whilst the rest of Colombo are busy at work. My friend Ali from office has never been to the jungles and I wanted to organize a trip especially for him to get a true jungle experience. Unfortunately ...
The good old land monitor or “thalagoya” is an animal treated with much indifference. Most suburban households in Sri Lanka have these critters walking about their garden or sunbathing on their roofs. I find these resilient lizards very interesting as not only do they do us a service by earing the rats and snakes in our area, but are also ...
One of my most memorable encounters with a leopard was during September 2009 when I was on a 5 day long road trip with my father and his friend Uncle Stefan.We went to Galle for one night and thereafter spent two nights in Yala. During the 2nd morning we came across a leopard in Welmalkema. In a few minutes it ...
The long weekend of January 2014 was significant in the fact that we got 5 days of holidays with the weekend included. I had made arrangements in advance for a bungalow booking in Talawila in Wilpattu National Park from the 12th-14th. In addition myself and my friend Riaz decided to do a visit to Galgamuwa on the 11th Saturday to ...
I have been travelling to the wilds of my country since I was a little boy. The wilds always held a special place in my heart, where I felt completely at ease amidst the wild animals. Tuskers have a special place in my heart. For many years I travelled around the country looking for these rare giants. Searching for tuskers ...
It was that time again, when my brother from another mother Gihan was back in Sri Lanka. Our friendship goes back to our school days, and our adventures in the College Wildlife Society. Even though we live miles apart, everytime he comes down to Sri Lanka, we end up doing a crazy adventure filled trip. Full of laughs, and great ...
I have been dreaming of sighting the big tusker who visits the park every year for a very long time. The first time I heard of this legendary animal was when I was in school. A gentleman came to school in 2004 to show us few of his wildlife photographs and we were shown pictures of this giant tusker. I ...
Hello everyone. Its been a long time since I wrote my last blogpost. The reason being that I haven't been travelling a lot lately. Mainly due to weather and also commitments at home at office. But there is an encounter recently which was unbelievably fantastic and amazing that I had to share it with you all.I was on a day ...
http://www.ft.lk/2013/10/12/rajiv-welikalas-wildlife-diaries/If you’re a wildlife enthusiast, there’s an exhibition in two weeks’ time at the Lionel Wendt Art Centre that you simply mustn’t miss: ‘Wildlife Diaries – Memoirs from the Sri Lankan Wilderness’ by Rajiv Welikala. A man whose love for wildlife runs deep, his wide portfolio of stunning images stands out sharply from the rest and will linger in the ...
Yala National Park is the most famous safari destination in Sri Lanka. During my early childhood, the park was out of bounds due to a terrorist attack, therefore despite the fact that the park re opened again in 1998, the school did not want to take any risks. I had heard so many stories about Yala, and had seen many ...
The long weekend was approaching and I was very keen to cover some rare endemics of our country. Endemics are animals which are seen only in Sri Lanka. The country is home to 26 Endemic species of birds.Most of them are found in the wet zone, and Sinharaja world heritage site is one of the best places to find them. ...
Minneriya National Park is the home of the world famous “gathering” of elephants. Every year hundreds of elephants from around the region congregate on the receding banks of this massive man made tank to feed on the sweet grasses. Nowhere on earth will you see so many elephants in one place at the same time. Even though I had heard ...
Wilpattu in a place which I fell in love with more recently. At present it is my favorite national park. The primary reason for not visiting the wonderful place earlier is because park was closed during most of my childhood, and was opened up to the public only in 2002 during the ceasefire agreement between the government and the LTTE. ...
One of my most memorable encounters was with Eye One of Wilpattu. It was April 2012 and I was getting a leopard bug once again and was desperate to photograph one in Wilpattu. It was early morning, and we were driving along the dark road leading to Iriyakkulam Villu. Upon entering the open area Villu Senevi hit the brakes. A ...
The Sinhala and Tamil New Year Holidays are here, and as usual practice the organization I work for gives us one full week off as our factories shut down. This year I didn't make any firm plans until the last moment.Firstly I was to head for three days to my estate in Rozella with the family and dogs. Leaving early ...
After a tiring month in October, I was pining for a getaway into the wilds once again. The exhibition work as well as my MBA had taken its toll, and I was very tired.Hearing about some good bird sightings in Kitulgala, I got together with my friend Riaz and headed to Sisira's River Lounge which is a hotspot for the ...
