Yala Block II

This was one of my dreams and even though I have been to Yala many more times I couldn’t achieve this until this time. This time we planned it well ahead and booked the bungalows for accommodation and got 2 jeeps arranged through our usual safari driver Ruwan Malli (one of Sugathe’s drivers).

Day 1 we left around 8AM in the morning by our personal vehicles and reached Tissa by 2PM with several stops on our way. We parked our cars at Sugathe’s home and started the journey to Warahana bungalow by our usual Safari jeep (even though it’s a Land Rover it is not suitable for Block 2). Warahana is at the border of Manik Ganga and so we decided to go to the bungalow after a round of safari. Since it was raining until the previous day, the park was very greenish and there was no dust at all. Since it was a weekday we met only 3 local parties out of 40, 50 jeeps on that evening. There were a lot of foreigners and there was no rush like during a long week end.

While we were driving on Yala main road we could see a leopard walking leisurely on the road at about 200m in the front. There were no any other jeep and we slowly followed him for some time.

Searching…

Should I cross the road or go straight?

Walking in to the jungle…

Walking in to the jungle…

Then he crossed the road and hid in the jungle. After a good safari finally we came to the bungalow by 7pm. We stayed that night in Warahana and went to sleep dreaming the next day Block II adventure.

Next day early morning we got up with enthusiasm and prepared for the great adventure. But it took some time to start the journey. Because Ruwan Mall i(Our Safari driver) had to return his jeep and bring 2 jeeps which were arranged for block II trip. Initially our plan was to drop us at Warahana bungalow on 1st day evening and return the jeep; so that he could come next day early morning with 2 jeeps. Since Warahana is far away (1 to 1.5 hours) from the entrance he didn’t have enough time to return the jeep on day 1 evening. Once 2 jeeps reached the bungalow we all got in to jeeps and started the journey.

We drove towards the ‘පරණ ගං තොටුපොල’ to cross the Manik Ganga. On our way we were lucky enough to see another leopard on the road. After experiencing that we reached to the Parana Thotupola. I have been to this place many a times but never crossed the river from here.

Ohhh…he is coming

Keeping an eye on us…. – Click Image to Enlarge

Each jeep had 2 persons including the driver who came for support in any emergency. First they walked and crossed the river to decide the depth and then decided whether to cross the river or not. (if not we had to use Warahana bridge to cross the Manik Ganga)

පරණ ගං තොටුපොල

1….2….3……………

In the middle….

Unfortunately the 2nd jeep was stuck in the middle of the river. Our journey was stuck at the very beginning. Now what to do???

First jeep had to winch the second jeep and it took about 15, 20 minutes for both the jeeps to cross the river.

Stuck in the middle…now what…?

Helping each other in need

Helping each other in need

That’s why it is mandatory to have 2 jeeps at least

Finally…

After that we offered our gratitude to God Ayyanayaka and started the journey. We were the first group after 2 week to enter to Block II according to our tracker.

For you to keep in mind…

Gratitude to God Ayyanayaka

We couldn’t go even 10 minutes, again there was a huge mud pit in front of us. We again had to winch our jeeps.

Obstacles

Struggling to get through the mud

Our next obstacle was ‘Katupila Ara’. But it was not bad as we thought

Crossing Katupila Ara

Katupila Ara

Block II is significantly different to Block I; In block II most of the areas are meadow lands with ‘මලිත්තන්’ trees. The reason is in ancient history during Magama Kingdom this areas was a huge paddy field. Because of that this area is called ‘‍යාල වෙල’ today.

Meadow Lands

‍යාල වෙල

Animal diversity also has a significant difference. We could see hundreds of wild buffaloes in each herd and 200 – 300 of dears in each herd. But not like in block I, they are not used to vehicles and they run away when they hear the noise of the vehicles.

Watching us coming… – Click Image to Enlarge

Running like mad – Click Image to Enlarge

Without any major obstacle we could come up to the ‘පොත්තන කලපුව’. Due to the heavy rain during the last couple of days and closed river mouth we could not cross the jeeps from the usual jeep track. We had to go around the lagoon to find a suitable place to cross it. After additional 20 minutes of drive we could find a place to cross the ‘පොත්තන ආර’. After that the road was terrible.

‘Poththana’ lagoon

Who are you to disturb the peaceful life here???

Scared!

Waiting for the next yummy meal…

Then we came to an area called ‘ගජබාව’. I guess it is part of ‘පිලින්නාව කලපුව’ (I’m not sure the names, pls correct me if im wrong). Drivers got down from jeeps and walked to the lagoon to test the water level and to find a suitable place to cross the lagoon.

Unfortunately the water level was more than 3 feet and it was wider about 50m to 100m. Even though it was riskier than other obstacles which we crossed, our experienced driver Rathnayake was ready to cross that. But tracker was reluctant to take that challenge due to 2 reasons. One is it was wider and if we get stuck in the middle there would be no way to winch our jeeps. Other reason is the time was around 2pm and if something happens we cannot come back by 6pm.

According to the drivers and trackers it was only 3km – 5km to Kumbukkan Oya from there. Even though it was very sad we decided to obey the rules and stop our journey from there and return.

Our Safari Machines

Our Safari Machines

Rathnayake & Tracker

Lunch

We made it…

On our way back we came to a place called ‘ගණ දේවාලය’ which is at ‘මහිරාව’. That is the place where you can find the 3 hot water wells. This is not on the main road. You have to go towards the sea side to reach this place. The significance of this sacred place is those who come in පාද යාත්‍රා make offerings to this place. (කැලේ වැටිල තියන මුව අං තට්ටු එකතු කරගෙන ඇවිත් මේ දේවාලයට පූජා කරනව) Since we could not go to Kuda Kabiliththa Dewalaya we decided to do our offerings here.

Nice and calm…

Preparing the offerings

හදුන් කූරු පත්තු කරන අලුත්ම විදිහ

Ready to pay gratitude to god

Thankful to god!

දේවාලය

Coming back; crossing Katupila Ara

Ohhhhh…..

Trying to prevent the jeep turning upside down!

Common….

.	Faces say it all

Although we were mentally prepared to end our journey there; we were able to see a very rare sighting in block I. It was as I published in the forum some time back – a leopard carrying a dead rabbit which was still bleeding on Yala main road. It was priceless and it was the fist time I saw a leopard carrying its hunt.

Priceless… – Click Image to Enlarge

With all these enthusiasm, by 7pm we came to the Ondajjee bungalow and Sunil – the bungalow keeper for the last 5, 6 years – prepared ginger tea for us. It was very refreshing. Ondajjee also is a very nice place; where you could see Katharagama mountain range with ‘වැඩහිටි කන්ද’ clearly in a distance and there was a herd of about 50 dears relaxing in front of the bungalow until the next day morning. The entire night was filled with different noises of different animals – specially the sound of crocodiles playing in the lake.

Unfortunately we could hear the sound of a gunshot by some anonymous huntsman as well

Shouting loudly… – Click Image to Enlarge

‘වැඩහිටි කන්ද’ mountain range at a distance from Ondajjee bungalow

Always Majestic – Click Image to Enlarge

Looking for a hunt

Yala is a place where you will never be fed-up. After one of my long awaiting dreams coming true we came back home. Thank you so much for reading my experience until the last word. Hope you all gather some knowledge and enjoyed a lot.