"Yala National Park" Yala National Park by tayloretc

Yala National Park Travel Guide: 6 reviews and 45 photos

Yala is the largest of the many national parks in Sri Lanka. You are only allowed in by jeep, have to stay on the main roads, and are required to hire an official guide/animal spotter at the main gate. The whole thing is relatively expensive (it cost me about $100 all told, but I was alone), and animal sightings are never certain. We got there at opening and drove until it got too hot and the animals were hiding in the shade.

You can read more about the park here.

We got ridiculously lucky in seeing a leopard sunning itself on a tall rock. There were about a dozen jeeps waiting for it to come down, and when there were only two jeeps left waiting it did come down to where the remains of its dinner were – between it and us. (A few more photos here.)

There were lots of other animals too.

Also in the park is a memorial of sorts to victims of the tsunami. The foundation in the photo was a two story building, where about 30 people (mostly tourists) were supposed to have died.

Back to Tissa or on to Buduruwagala.

Last visit to Yala National Park: Sep 2009
Intro Updated Jan 11, 2010
Add to Trip Planner (?)
Report Abuse

Travelogues (2)

1 - 2 of 2

Comments (1)

Reply
- Report abuse
ViajesdelMundo Sep 28, 2010 at 6:24 PM

WOW! yes, so fortunate to have seen a leopard! I never have in any of my trips to Yala, but always enjoy it......I fell in love with the country when I first went in 1970 (still Ceylon).