She tranfixes her killer gaze on us as she lifts her magestic head to see who dares to interupt her morning nap on the rock. its the first time i see a leapord and i totally understand the obsession with their hide. Its stunning and shiny with health as she takes her time to meticulously lick it clean with her very pink tongue. we are so close, about 10 meters, that we can see the individual hairs on her fur when looking through the binoculars, and feeling a bit to much like bate as we are in the back of an open safari truck. Ronan reasures us that as long as we stay inside the truck they dont recongise you as a treat or dinner, hmm human for tea!. As Graham sticks his head above the canopy to get a better picture she does seem to get a whole lot more interested and i start to feel uncomfortable which proves Ronans point.
As we drive on we stumble upon a baby elephant who is drinking at the watering hole. this one is growning tusks which apparently only about 5% of the males do. It's incredible that we are about 10 meters from a wild elephant. We look to the other side just in time to spot a mother elephant approach with her calf for a bath and some drinking. About about 2 minutes later another little calf comes running up to the watering hole followed by mum. they play away in the water where the calf who we have named Dumbo and is about 3 months old is still a little insecure about basic elephant behaviour like sucking up water with his trunk and using it to hose himself, and then finish the job by a coating up sand thrown up by his trunk.he kind of gives up and has a role around in the sand instead to get a coating, and then struggles to get up falling over his own legs. Mum mean time tirelessly keeps showning him how to do it elephant style and helps him to his feet. The 20 months pregnancy does creat a very strong bond i presume.
As we move on we get to see crocodiles hunting for calf water buffalo, deer drinking at the water side and monkeys chilling out in the shade. I feel like im in the Jungle Book.
Later that day we arrive in Unawatuna, while turns out to be very nice. The people seem to have a very nice vibe here and they are very friendly. they seem to be prodominently Buddist so that might explain it.
