Safari in Wilpattu National Park

Five a.m., time to wake up. We are going on our first safari in Sri Lanka! We picked Wilpattu National Park to make a full day safari. They say you get the best chance of seeing a Leopard in Wilpattu. Let’s find out if that’s true.

A jeep came to pick us up at our guesthouse. Still a bit sleepy and packed with breakfast and luch package we climbed in the back of the jeep. Full of expectations of our first safari.

Can you see the wild water buffalo enjoying the first sunlight of the day? Wilpattu national park Sri Lanka.
Can you see the wild water buffalo enjoying the first sunlight of the day?
Painted storks.
It seems I wasn’t very awake yet. I could only catch the back of this leopard. A rare find in wilpattu national park but we can confirm Leopards can still be found.
Golden Eagle in Wilpattu national park in Sri Lanka.
Golden Eagle.

Wilpattu national park. Elephant in lake in Wilpattu in Sri Lanka.
Our first view of a wild elephant! I know kind of far away… However, our driver said it’s the only elephant in the park. For elephants you don’t need to come to Wilpattu.

One last photo before the rain would come. Luckily, we had seen what we came for and we had to close the cover of our jeep only at the very end of our safari.

Our driver was the unlucky man who still had to drive for two hours in heavy monsoon rain towards Anuradhapura. Another ancient city part of the cultural triangle of Sri Lanka. We’ll visit it tomorrow morning. In the afternoon we have planned another safari in Mminneriya to see some more elephants!