Palpatha and a Day in the Land of Villus

Year and Month	December, 2012
Number of Days	Three Day Trip
Crew	4 adults and 1 teenager (17-50 yrs)
Accommodation	Palpatha – an eco type accomodation
Transport	2 SUVs Safari jeep for Wilpattu was arranged by the Palpatha management
Activities	Relax, explore and visit Wilpattu, Photography
Weather	Excellent, bright and sunny
Route	Colombo –> Puttalam (A3) with two stops at Anavilundawa and Navadankulama Puttalam –> Anuradhapura (A12)-> Turn off to Plapatha is near 37th km post to the left, past Saliya Wewa town, just before the Kala oya bridge. The road is Ranavirus Mahesh Jeevantha Mawatha and can be managed in a car with good ground clearance. Return was along the same route.
Tips, Notes and Special remark	Reservations for Palpatha have to be made from Colombo. The place can accommodate around 10 There is no electricity but batteries etc can be charged from the Manager’s place Palpatha provides packed meals for a full day safari Nicely packed with each item in separate containers The owner of the Jeep is Lahiru Madusanka – 0777860784 Good chap, safe driver. Once we sorted out that we wanted the engine to be killed repeatedly, things were fine. We did this quite early in to the trip The tracker from DWC was Jagath (0713429445) and he was excellent.
Author	Chandanie
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Wilpattu has always been on our wish list, more so after reading Nihal de Silva’s The Road to Elephant Pass. Even though the park was reopened in 2009, we were not able to go that way due to many constraints. The wish finally became a reality only in December 2012.

We booked the two chalets at Palpatha, about 14 km away from the park entrance. As per our usual modus operandi, Palpatha came up when I was searching Google for accomodation around Wilpattu and I liked their web site :-) They responded promptly to emails, usually with a phone call too. Charges were Rs 5000/- per head per day full board and we had our reservations made in no time.

We left Colombo very early and our first stop was at Anawilundawa. There weren’t many birds but was a great place to break journey.

Reflections

First day to O/Ls

“Choon paan!”

Waiting

“Elephant tree!”

Our next pit stop was at Nawadankulama. The tank was quite full as the area has had some rain.

Nawadankulama tank

A lotus in full bloom

The road to Puttalam and from there to Palpatha was a dream to drive!

Palpatha is an eco type place. It has two chalets and a tent.

Our first view of Palpatha. This is the dining area

Andara chalet – where we stayed. This can accommodate 3 and has an attached toilet

The shower is separate – one can have a bath under the sky and it is heavenly to do so in the night!

The place is solar powered and the chalets have light bulbs. But as the shower doesn’t, you need to take a lamp!! I just loved that :-)

Inside the shower

The night lights

Andara chalet in the night

Our friends were in the Kumbuk chalet and that can easily take three if needed. That has an attached bathroom

Kumbuk chalet

Inside Kumbuk chalet

The dining area is separate and is easily accessible. The food is typically Sri Lankan and mouth watering. It was so good that it had the three males in our group behaving as they had been starving all this time!

The dining area

Breakfast, before the starving attacked it!

Under the tamarind tr

The perfect place to chilax – so lovely in the night with only the starry sky above you :-)

The Siymabala tent

The staff at Palpatha were courteous and attentive and went out of their way to make our stay a memorable one.

Palpatha has a nature trail, which we explored with Bandu (the general everybody at Palpatha!) the first day. Although it is supposed to have many birds we only saw a few. However the other creatures made up for that in large measures :-)

Blue glassy tigers

Balancing act – crimson dropwing

A lyme butterfly

“Aren’t you gone yet?”

The only bird I managed to snap :-(

Glorious and superb….

The Land of Villus

We were pretty excited as it was our first visit to the famed Wilpattu park and we left Palpatha at 5.30 a.m. the next day so as not to miss a single moment. Our food for the day was packed by Palpatha, each nicely in separate carriers too!

It was freeeeeeeeeezing and we were shivering by the time we reached Wilpattu just before 6 a.m. Formalities done, we set off for a day in the park having told our tracker Jagath that we wanted “to see any life form and not only the leopard. If we did not see the leopard that was fine too.”

In to the wild, through the mist…..

The “thaniya” that charged at us through the mist! And this was about 15 minutes into the park too!

“පර්සි බැඳි වැව”

Ghostly trees – effects of a slow shutter and a moving vehicle :-)

A changeable hawk eagle with its mongoose breakfast

A sambar having a slow munch

I simply loved the tree lined roads……

Through the tree lined roads……..

….. on to the villus

There are many animal moments to watch if one does a slow drive and look around.

Any thing for a photo :-)

“To go in or not, that is the question!”

A morning dip to start the day

Reed paintings at Nelum Wila

Thaniya at Panikka Wila

Best foot forwards….

Lords of the skies

“Where are these flies?”

Take off – Pacific golden plover

At this stage our driver got a call of a leopard sighting at Panikka Villa. To turn back without going to Kudiramalai??? It was a tough call but we decided to go on as planned…..

“Who goes there?”

Road to Mannar……

Impermanence :-(

A sand bathing chest nut headed bee-eater

“Come on Cus, this is good!”

A little green beeeater sun and sand bathing

The Portugal Bay from Kudiramali Point

Kudiramalai point

Camouflaged!

The beach at Thambapanni

We had lunch at one of the camping sites. After lunch we headed back towards Panikka wila, hoping that we might just be lucky!

Looking for food :-(

Recycling :-)

The pachyderm we saw in the morning had finished eating and was just coming out of the willu and we stopped to watch…..

We left him to his own devices and reversed back and went around the trees in search of the leopard….. And…. there he was – looking lovely yet sleepy.

Panthera pardus kotiya – love his scientific name!

Sleepy head!

Don’t you just feel like patting his head?

Ok, since you have been waiting…

… let me roll over!!!

“Care to tickle my tummy?”

And then he just looked right at me ……..

“Got it?”

“Ok, that is it. I need to sleep!”

My last shot of the beauty, exactly 1 hour after the first

Our gamble paid off – we saw Wilpattu in all its glory and had 1 full hour with the leopard, undisturbed! What more can one ask for?

Tree paintings with my cam :-)

Returning home next day we went to Wilandagoda, the area supposed to be where Prince Saliya hid to get away from his father’s wrath. It is a complex of cave temples and ruins, well worth a visit. The turn off is around the 27th kilometer post on the Anuradhapura – Puttalam road, towards Pahala Puliyankulama.