Sri Lankan Safari (by Maggie)

One day we woke up at 4:45am to go on a safari at Yala National Park in Sri Lanka.  By the time we were up and ready to go, it was 5:00am and time to leave for the safari.  We headed into the National Park ready to see some animals.   We rode in a jeep with stadium seating so we could see the animals clearly.

The first animal that we saw was the water buffalo grazing and bathing in a lake.

Then we started going further into the park.  We began to see all different colored animals. As we drove through windy roads, I was searching for animals but the one I wanted to see most was the leopard, because it is supposed to be a really beautiful animal, and also because it is one of the hardest animals to spot.  There are only 25-30 leopards in the whole park, so finding one is exciting. As we kept going, "bing bing" went our driver's phone - one of the drivers had spotted a leopard and called all the other jeeps in the park. All the jeeps raced to go see the leopard, so we sat in a traffic jam in the middle of the park! As we moved closer and closer to the leopard, I got more and more excited. 

Aha! There the leopard was, sleeping between two branches high up in a tree. The colors on the leopard were just so beautiful - black dots on yellowish-orange fur.  As we drove back the other way, we saw it turn around and wake up, but it was too lazy, and fell right back asleep!

We drove away from the leopard, and there was a peacock opening his feathers. It was stunning! The wingspan was around 3 feet long. The feathers were full of greens, blues, and purples.  I especially loved the blue on them.  On the feathers, they have spots that look like eyes to scare away predators. 

Along the way to find elephants, we saw some crocodiles, birds and many other animals.  We kept driving and there was an elephant drinking water from a pond.  After a few minutes, the elephant ran into the bush, then a baby and mama elephant walking together popped out of the bush.  Then the first elephant came out of the bush and all three elephants looked for food together. We watched these elephants until they faded away into the bushes.

It was time to go and I counted how many animals I saw in the park.  All together, I saw 24 animals on my safari! My favorites were the leopard, elephants, parrots, the jungle fowl (the Sri Lankan national bird), peacock, mongoose, iguana, and a bearded monkey.