Vijay's Musings: December 2012

Have just returned from a wildlife jungle trip to Sri Lanka, a trip that I had been looking forward to for quite some time. On landing at Colombo airport, we drive straight to our first destination a jungle. We had three jungles to cover in our itinerary – Udawalawe National Park, Yala National Park and Bundala National Park. The first for Elephants, the second for Leopards and the last for Birding and various reptiles. This narrative is of our trip to Yala National Park.

We made our first half day park round on the first afternoon. It was an uneventful but fruitful round with lots of birding but no Leopard. We returned to the park gates at 6.00 pm. Our safari vehicle was a tad uncomfortable for 7 people – cramped for room – photography was very difficult. Our organizer (more a friend really) Makarand complained and asked for a better vehicle for the next full day safari. Groaning I got up at 4.00 am the next day and left the hotel at 5.00 am to reach the park gates before 6.00 am. And, lo and behold, we now had 2 vehicles for the 7 of us. I boarded the vehicle with Makarand, Hanferd and Smita (a fun couple – great company) and the others (Yuvraj, Vedavati & Ruta) followed in their vehicle. Very comfortable travel – in fact luxurious is the word to describe our journey. Our driver cum guide seemed experienced too. The first few hours went by quick enough but the shy big cat did not appear. We did see an amazing array of birds some reptiles, mongoose monitor lizards, etc. We had a packed breakfast (at the beach) and our spirits had not lifted. The spot where we had breakfast had a memorial to the 2004 Tsunami victims.

We set off again on our trip and about half an hour into this leg, after driving around the park, suddenly Makrand shouted (should I say screamed) Leopard. And lo and behold right in front of us was this majestic, athletic animal walking along the road – away from us. For a moment (that bordered on eternity) I stood transfixed, gazing at this beautiful guy walking away from us – wow what a mesmerizing sight. Seeing a leopard in the wild – awesome. I forgot the camera and its settings- I was just so overawed. Suddenly, sanity hit me – I reached for my camera, with shaking hands and the driver gunned the jeep forward. I forgot to adjust the zoom – just started clicking a receding leopard, at random. In a moment, I realized that I was at the low end of my zoom. I immediately zoomed in full length – but too late. The jeeps noise, made the leopard change direction - he sauntered off royally into the bushes. What a beautiful, awesome sight. The other jeep was behind us and I felt sad that they could not glimpse the leopard.

Our driver drove like a maniac, around a bend in the road and parked the vehicle on the “other side” of the bushes. He told us to wait patiently. With a thousand thoughts flitting through my mind and after what seemed an eternity the big cat emerged to cross the road again. This time I was ready to click and he walked by us leisurely and gave us a great photo opportunities. Not once did he turn around to look at us, not once did he seem irritated. He was focussed on just one thing – crossing the road regally. Again, our companion jeep had parked a few hundred yards ahead- so sadly, they missed this opportunity as well. But all of us in our jeep were high – excitement of clicking your first leopard is an experience that cannot be described in words. Afterwards I started reviewing my pictures and in my excitement I forgot to see all of them. When Henfred showed me his pictures I reviewed mine as well and I saw I had got some pretty decent ones. We moved on and our lunch by the beach was a babble of exited voices sharing what all we had seen and felt.

After lunch we continued with our rounds and at the same place we again spotted (the same?) Leopard in the bushes. He did not come out of the bushes, but was pacing behind them and we clearly saw his body and feet. Then, late afternoon, we saw a leopard perched on a tree branch – very far away. Frankly, to me it was a small dot on the far away tree and I wouldn’t count it a sighting. Our fruitful, exciting day was coming to an end and driving towards the gates (our jeep leading) we managed to sight another leopard going away from us into the bushes. I just got one or two distant shots of his rear.

So, all in all, 5 leopard sightings in a single day, with one fantastic photo opportunity, one average opportunity and a sighting behind bushes. I count myself lucky and blessed to have witnessed this magnificent wild cat from such a close range on 4 occasions, in a single day. Wondering if I would like to go again? You bet !!!

(The photographs may not appear in sequence -but don't worry read the captions to get the sequence)