When the Villus of Wilpattu are full to the brim

Park Map

We, two groups on two vehicles, met at a road side night shop near Negombo at around 3.45 am. Six of us were on Prasanna’s Mitsubishi jeep, started from Nugegoda and went to Negombo while Theshantha started from Kiribathgoda, picked up 3 others and came to Negombo in his Toyota Double cab. We had a tea there and set off towards Puttalam.

This was my maiden tour to wilpattu, so as Ashan’s and many others of our crew. We checked the road conditions to Kudiramale from the park on the previous day and found out that the roads are flooded. Then Theshantha suggested we could take the Old Mannar road to reach Pomparippu and Kudiramale. He had checked the water level of the Kala Oya causeway from the Navy check point and had received the word OK.

We reached Puttalam around 6.00 am and proceeded towards Eluwankulam along the Old Mannar road.

Sun rises to the old Mannar road

The Old Mannar road is under renovation

We reached the Kala Oya cause way by 7.00 am and saw something utterly disheartening. The causeway was about 2 feet under the water. Gates at the Rajanganaya reservoir had opened during the previous night making the Kala Oya flowing furiously blocking our way. The water level and the current were too much that we didn’t want to take any risk.

Kala Oya causeway flooded blocking our way

The water flow over the causeway

Kala oya was flowing furiously

So the day had broken with a great disappointment to us making us to turn back. Theshantha then suggested going to Gange Wadiya (ගඟේ වාඩිය) to have breakfast and we returned towards Eluwankulam

A roadside scenery

We turned towards Gange Wadiya and went along the dusty gravel road. The sun was burning though still it was just passed 8 in the morning. We reached the ගඟේ වාඩිය fishing village and were stunned by the awesome view of the Puttalam lagoon. We went a little further passing the village and reached a dead end where a small jetty is constructed with large tyres. We had our breakfast there enjoying the beautiful lagoon

Gange Wadiya

The awesome view of Puttalam lagoon

Puttalam lagoon

The jetty

The jetty

It was sizzling hot when we left ගඟේ වාඩිය and reached the Old Mannar road once again. We turned off to a gravel road branching to left to reach Thabbowa, skipping Puttalam. The road went through the villages passing a couple of small lakes and plenty of paddy fields.

Splash….

Washing the vehicle on the move

Along the Thabbowa lake

Scenic Thabbowa

We had to buy some rations we had missed and had to fill the tanks, so we continued to Nochchiyagama town and then went to the park entrance. Then we went straight to the Manawila bungalow which is 37 km into the park

At the park entrance

Coppersmith Barbet

A ruined statue at the park entrance. wonder how it came here

සිවුරු හොරා

Serpent Eagle

Crested Hawk Eagle

BUterflies on the road

Butterfly infested road – there were millions of them

Roadside decoracted with Kokmota

A jumbo enjoying the aftrenoon snack

Didn’t see a lot of them

Grey Heron

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Landscape

Jungle Fowl

View from Manawila bungalow

The evening safari was started around 4 pm. All the villus were full to the brim and the roads were muddy and some parts were with extremely soft sand. It was very difficult to tackle the terrain. Theshantha’s Hilux was suffering with a malfunctioning front differential, meaning he had power going only to the rear wheels.

Changeable Hawk Eagle

Portrait

Sharp Eyes

Happily through the water

Though Theshantha’s driving skills were exceptional tackling the mud and water, the double cab found it difficult to cope up with the soft sand along some parts of the roads with its normal road tyres, so we had to abandon the double cab on a road side till we come back. We all got in to Prasanna’s jeep and continued the rest of the safari, not for so long before we spotted one of the Panikkawila Leopard cubs lying on the road side. There were 3 or 4 other vehicles observing it and we too turned off the engine and enjoyed the beautiful creature lying just about 10 meters away from us.

The first sight

I’m ignoring you people

After a couple of minutes other vehicles decided to move on as they had to reach the park entrance before the nightfall and the leopard was refusing to turn its head towards us. We waited another couple of minutes patiently hoping for it to turn the head, but had no luck. Then we too decided to leave and just as Prasanna was to start the engine a yellow head with black spots emerged out of the jungle…! It was the other Panikkawila leopard cub.

Here comes the second one

It had a careful look at us for about minute or so before deciding to continue along the road. We started the jeep and slowly went in reverse following the big lovely cat, enjoying its elegant beauty. He was checking constantly if we were getting too close and we too were careful to maintain a safe distance from him.

මගේ ගමන මම යනවා මගේ පාඩුවේ…

My favorite shot

the look

The foot prints

After he disappeared into the jungle we returned to see if the other one was still there. It was still there and for our utmost joy he had turned towards the road letting us see him fully..! He gave quite a show on the white sands. While watching it we saw 3 wounds around its neck, two of them were just scratches while one was a little deep cut, seemed like a wild boar attack.

Oh no these guys have come again…

See the wounds around teh neck

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I’m a cute kitty

Sleepy head

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The best pose

Just before he went off

After spending more than 45 minutes in the company of leopards, we turned back and came to the place where we left the double cab, picked it up and headed to the bungalow where we had a lovely time chatting under the starry skies, overlooking the villu bathing moonlight.

The sunset

Where we left the cab

A beautiful end to a wonderful day

Next day morning was a bright and beautiful one with some breathtaking views of the villu. We left for a short morning safari session after walking around the Villu in front of the bungalow.

Morning at Manawila

Manawila

No, not a crocodile

I’m the boss

Hunting

Since we were on a short session, our trekker took us towards Panikkawila once again.

Serpent Eagle

Deer

on the top

wow

While we were driving slowly along the Panikka wila admiring the beauty of the lake, one of our guys pointed at something which made us stop immediately. It was a leopard trying to hide behind a bush just a couple of feet away from us..! Both the leopard and we were excited because of this sudden and unexpected meeting and we realized we might have blocked its way to have some water. So we backed off and stop the vehicle out of its sight and waited hoping it will come out of the jungle. But the leopard was not ready to get out of the jungle and stayed inside. We noticed a monkey on the tallest tree of that jungle patch shouting non-stop alarming its mates regarding the presence of the leopard. We waited for some time and decided to return to the bungalow for the breakfast.

හොර කොටියා

Leopard warning system

Lesser Whisteling Ducks

Theshantha’s happy ride

Beautiful kokmota

A bark gekko at the bungalow

Our next plan was to visit a rarely visited ruins site called “Galge Viharaya” inside the park. But we got to know that this road was in severe condition and then we revised the plan to visit “Ochchappu Kallu” ruins. Ochchappu kallu road was in very bad condition too but the hard core off road experience was great.

On the way the Ochchappu Kallu

Yeppeeeee I’m born to do this…

Tackling the hard road

Though Theshantha drove with some exceptional off road skills and the brave Toyota fought hard having only two wheel drive, the road condition became severe that in the end the double cab got stuck in the mud. Prasanna pulled it out with his jeep a couple of times and it seemed like the last 2 km of the trail is getting even worse. So, we had to give up the visit to the ruins and then decided to go towards the Kokmote bungalow and have a dip in the river Modaragam Aru.

and then it stuck

Helping out

Pulling out once again

Modaragam Aru was not having a high water level but was flowing rapidly, where we had a nice cool dip refreshing ourselves until Prasanna’s Mitsubishi decided to fire up itself..! When we heard the sudden call of our tracker and went to see what it is about, the jeep was on fire. The hard run through mud and water had damaged some wires and caused the fire. We managed to recover the vehicle without much damage to it.

Then we had lunch and left towards the park entrance enjoying some wild life on the way back.

On the way back

Lesser Adjutent

The water level

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Painted Stork

A jumbo

A happy meal

ගොළු කිරලා

Crested Haws Eagle

සෙබඩ

Tails crossed…

We were extremely happy with the time we had when to complete everything, a bear showed up on the roadside. It was a big one and was inside the jungle, digging a termite mount searching for food (I guess). But it was almost 6 pm and very dark inside the jungle, only Ashan managed to get one clear capture of the bear.

The bear. Only Ashan had a clear capture

We came out of the park around 7pm extremely happily with sightings of the big trio – leopard-bear-elephant, some awesome off road experience and some quality time spent together.

Thank you for reading.