Yala Safari Village: Hunkering down with an elephant
Oct 19th, 2011 by wwftravel
At Yala Safari Village you can spot wildlife right from your cabana. ©Yala Safari Village.
Standing on the verandah of your chalet at the Yala Safari Village, the sun rising over the cool blue of the Indian Ocean a short walk away, something rustling in the dry evergreen forest below catches your eye. It’s too big to be a bird, which number in the thousands at this national park in the southeast corner of Sri Lanka. It’s too much noise to be a stealthy leopard.
The buffer zone of Sri Lanka’s most popular wildlife reserve is also home to one of the most impressive lodging options in the Asian island nation. And, as you quickly find out, humans aren’t it’s only inhabitants.
Asian elephants wander freely through the Yala Safari Village, where we’ll spend two nights on our Journey to Sri Lanka tour in March. Instead of an alarm clock, trumpeting elephants and the songs of hundreds of birds commonly wake guests at dawn.
Situated less than two miles from the entrance of Yala National Park, the 10-acre safari village lives in perfect harmony with its surroundings. The rustic yet well-appointed “jungle cabanas” – with their animal-themed décor and locally made furniture – are set away from the ocean and tucked into tree groves, where wildlife sightings are frequent from the chalets and from the observation deck and public spaces.
Gray langurs frolic in the canopy and on the ground below. Spotted deer are seen throughout the village. Wild buffalo and wild boar could give you a good surprise and a great picture. Among the birds spotted on site at the resort: grebes, cormorants, herons, storks, raptors, parrots, kingfishers and hornbills.
But one of the most sought-after sightings from the lodge is the majestic and illusive leopard. One is frequently spotted resting on a rocky outcrop on the edge of the resort in the early morning and evening.
Visit Sri Lanka with WWF, March 10 – 24, 2012.
