Breakfast was coffee, toast, and coconut wraps on the balcony. Then I packed, said goodbye to the room and the monkeys, and headed down to wait for the taxi.
I had booked a shared minivan to Udawalawe for 9.30. I was a few minutes early and sat down next to Lulu, traveling from the UK, who turned out to be heading the same way. She had spent considerable time in Southeast Asia and we were quickly exchanging notes. A few kilometers down the road the driver stopped to pick up two more passengers: Lara and her boyfriend, both Belgian. Within about ten minutes it became clear that all four of us had the same plan for the following morning: a safari in Udawalawe National Park.
Lara turned out to be an organizer. In the van she collected everyone’s WhatsApp numbers and we agreed to share a jeep and split the cost. The rest — confirmed booking, pickup points, departure time — she sorted out over WhatsApp during the day. By evening it was all arranged. I had exchanged a few vague emails with my hotel about arranging something; none of that was necessary now. Things have a way of working out when you talk to other travelers.
The driver dropped me at the Teshi Safari Villa, which sits some distance off the main road down a track that requires either local knowledge or a very specific set of directions. A friendly hostess and her charming daughter met me at the entrance with a glass of watermelon juice, then cooked lunch. After three days of restaurant food in Ella, a home-cooked meal at a quiet table was exactly right.
After a short rest I walked toward town and found the Elephant Transit Home, where orphaned calves are raised before being released into the national park. The afternoon feeding drew a small crowd to the viewing platform: forty or so baby elephants arriving at speed, bottles consumed with great conviction, a few optimistic second attempts. When it was done they turned and marched off toward their evening resting grounds without a backward glance. I have written about the ETH separately, because it deserves more than a paragraph.
By the time the feeding finished the light was going. I found a tuktuk outside and asked for the Teshi Safari Villa. The driver knew the general area but not the specific track, and there followed a period of slow navigation, a WhatsApp call to the villa, and a final approach in near-complete darkness along a road that I would not have wanted to walk. We got there. I was glad I had not tried to walk it.
Dinner at the villa. Early night. The safari was booked for 6 AM.
India and Sri Lanka 2026 — all posts
- Day 1 — 24 Hours to Mumbai
- Day 2 — First Morning in Mumbai
- Day 3 — Exploring Mumbai
- Dhobi Ghat: Mumbai’s Laundromat
- Day 4 — Sightseeing in Colombo: One Day is Enough
- A Short History of Ceylon
- Day 5 — Kandy: Moving into the Mountains
- Day 6 — Moving on to Ella
- Day 7 — Hike and Sunstroke
- Tea in Sri Lanka: From a Blight in 1869 to Four Million Cups a Day
- Day 8 — Nine Arches Bridge
- Day 9 — Tuktuk Tour Around Ella
- Day 10 — Time to Leave Ella
- Orphans of Udawalawe: Inside Sri Lanka’s Elephant Transit Home
- Day 11 — Safari and Galle Fort
- Day 12 — Onwards to Negombo for the last day in Sri Lanka
- Day 13 — All the problems concentrated on a single day
- Royal Enfield: Why India Rides Different
- Day 14 — The Kerala Backwaters
- Day 15 — Local bus to Munnar
- Leyland, a familiar name from the past
- Buying a beer in Kerala: Local knowledge required
- Mahindra: The Jeep That Never Left