After having an amazing time in the hill region of Sri Lanka, it was time for us to move on to the next part of our adventure involving a safari, the beach, and some urban areas.

Day 8 and 9: Udawalawe

We left Haputale in the late morning on Day 8 of our trip, getting a private car to drive us to the town of Udawalawe. This town has two main attractions that bring visitors: the Elephant Transit Home and the safaris in Udawalawe National Park. We were very excited to see both!

We had the loveliest driver who stopped at some nice viewpoints and a swimming hole on our way down to Udawalawe. It was great to break up the drive and see some nice spots in the region that only the locals really knew about.

Upon our arrival, the first thing we noticed was the sharp increase in temperature as soon as we left the higher elevation of the hill region. It was very hot, and George specifically has a tough time with the heat. We spent some time cooling down in our air-conditioned room before venturing out to visit the Elephant Transit Home, which was a short walk away from our accommodation.

The Elephant Transit Home is located next to the national park and is basically a halfway house for orphaned young elephants. Outside of feeding times, the elephants roam around the national park, which we didn’t realize until we arrived at the centre. You can only see elephants during each feeding time as it is when they visit from wherever they are wandering around in the park. We liked this about the centre as they did not keep any elephants chained up or in captivity; their role was to supplement feeding and ensure that all hungry baby elephants had gotten enough to eat. There was also an education centre on the site with tons of artifacts and information about elephants, which we looked at while waiting for the feeding.

We were at the centre for the 2:30 pm feeding and were excited to see all the elephants start arriving and line up at the gate. We appreciated that the viewing area was quite far from the feeding site to keep the elephants (and humans) safe. Once the feeding started, the elephants were let in as small groups, where they received a portion of milk followed by access to tree branches filled with leaves. They were so cute to watch, with many excited little elephants running in to get their milk and some sneaky ones even trying to go back for seconds. The feeding lasted about half an hour in total, and we saw about 40 elephants during this time. It was incredible.

The next morning, we woke up at sunrise to go on a safari that we organized through our homestay. We had a driver who picked us up in a safari vehicle (open-top 4-wheel drive vehicle with open-air seating) and drove us about 30 minutes to the entrance to the park. Once we paid our park fees and passed through the entry gates, our guide began driving around, looking for and pointing out different wildlife.

This was both mine and George’s first safari and it was an absolutely amazing experience. We were very lucky with our timing, the calm weather, and our driver, all of whom contributed to us seeing many animals without many other people around.

We saw about 15 elephants in total, with many of the sightings starting out with us spotting them feeding in the bushes and then happening to come out in the open so that we could see them better. Our best sighting was a group of 5 elephants that included a mom and baby, as well as a male with tusks, which is extremely rare and considered lucky to see in Sri Lanka. Besides elephants, we also saw many other interesting animals during our safari. Some highlights include many birds, water buffalo, deer, and lace monitors, to name a few.

Day 9 and 10: Tangalle

After our safari, we came back to our accommodation for a nice breakfast and then got picked up by a private car to drive us to our next accommodation near the beach town of Tangalle. Our accommodation was in the town of Rekawa, which is known for having a turtle sanctuary to protect sea turtles that come to the shore to lay eggs at night time.

We spent our first day exploring the beaches near where we were staying, walking down the beach and scoping out what was nearby. It was very hot, so we moved slowly and took some breaks in our air-conditioned room.

The next morning, we went into Tangalle and explored the beachfront areas nearby. We ended up setting up for the day at one of the beach clubs, where we were able to use their beach chairs and umbrella because we bought lunch at the restaurant.

One of the highlights of our time in Tangalle was dinner at a local diner-like restaurant that we passed earlier in the day. We were intrigued by the place as it was brimming with locals and had received amazing Google reviews. We had great meals of curry and kottu and had an interesting experience of being the only non-Sri Lankans in the restaurant. We loved eating amongst the locals and found the food to be delicious.

Day 11 and 12: Mirissa

After our days in Tangalle, we took another private car to the beach town of Mirissa. Mirissa was definitely the most touristy place that we visited, with shops, hotels, and restaurants absolutely everywhere.

The highlight of Mirissa was definitely the beach. There were so many beautiful areas with tall palm trees and light blue water. Being able to sit and relax at the many different beach cafes and restaurants on the water made for refreshing rest points during both the day and night during our visit.

We spent our days in Mirissa walking around town, exploring the various shops, restaurants, and beachfronts, and enjoying our time while trying to stay cool in the extreme humidity. We also enjoyed the cute and friendly street dogs that were everywhere. During our travels, George discovered that a friend of a friend from home was also in Sri Lanka at the same time as us, so on our second night in Mirissa we met up with him and his partner so they could catch up and we could share travel stories.

Day 13: Galle

We booked a tuk-tuk through our accommodation to get us from Mirissa to the old fort town of Galle on the second last full day of our trip. The tuk-tuk was a fun experience as it travelled a bit slower than a car on a coastal road, which made for great sightseeing. I loved passing through the different beach towns, markets, and activities going on at the shore such as surfing and stilt fishing.

The Old Town in Galle is an old fort city, with beautiful architecture and businesses set up to accommodate the many tourists who visit the area. The walls of the fort reminded me of Cartagena, Colombia, which had similar architecture.

We spent our afternoon and evening in Galle exploring the old town, walking along the wall of the fort, and having a really nice dinner at one of the Indian restaurants in town. Galle was definitely a popular visiting spot and felt extra busy because it was the eve of the Sri Lankan New Year celebrations.

Day 14 and 15: Negombo

We were up very early the next morning as we caught a train from Galle to Colombo, with the plan of making it to Negombo (the town where the airport is located) for our final stop in Sri Lanka. Our trip started off smoothly enough before we were told after about 30 minutes that we were to all get off the train and switch to a different one. After a few minutes on the second train, we ended up having to do this again, and learned that it was because a different train had come off the track at a station, blocking the route of our original train.

We were happy to finally make it to Colombo. After getting off the train, we headed to the bus station to try and figure out how to get to Negombo. Luckily, the people at the bus station were very helpful, and we were on an air-conditioned minibus before we knew it. The bus system in Sri Lanka really impressed us during this trip, with safe and reliable transport that was quite simple to access.

We were happy to arrive in Negombo, and walked down to the beachfront that afternoon to take a look at the New Year festivities that were going on. It was so nice to see so many people celebrating with their families.

We then headed into town to eat at a restaurant that we knew served Indian food and had great reviews. We had loved the Sri Lankan food that we had been eating for most of our trip, however by the end of our two weeks having similar dishes for almost every meal, we were ready for something a little different. We figured that Indian food would be a good compromise as we knew it would still be delicious and authentic with some different flavour profiles from what we had been having each day. We loved the restaurant so much that we visited the next day for dinner, too.

Our last day in Sri Lanka was spent hanging around Negombo. We walked around town again, grabbed some lunch and some sweets, and then just got organized and packed our bags for our evening flight that would bring us back to Perth.

A highlight of our homestay was that the owners supported many rescue dogs and cats, and it was fun to interact with the two dogs and many cats roving around the property as we hung around the homestay. The day flew by, and before we knew it, it was time to get to the airport for our journey back to Australia!

Sri Lanka was an amazing country, and probably one of my favourites that I have travelled to. The people were lovely, the food was incredible, and the scenery was stunning. We were very pleasantly surprised by everything that this amazing country had to offer, and I highly recommend adding Sri Lanka to your travel list if it isn’t on it already.

It’s taken me a while to finally catch up on travel posts, but we’ve made it. We have been back in Perth for 6 weeks, and in just under 2 weeks we are headed out on our next adventure before making our way back to Canada. It’s hard to believe that our year away is almost at its end, but we still have a few more adventures on the horizon before we reach the true conclusion.

Thank you for reading!