Safari Time

To quote Jake, today was "more exciting than Christmas" so here he is with his report of the day...

As you can see in the picture above everyone was very exited about the experience of a life time ahead, but what I sadly didn't realise is the faces I was pulling as Mrs Clarke took all of her secret pictures to capture us, "in the moment".
Our grouP, as you can see above, was me, Becky, Flora, Natasha, Tom and Fred but he was a bit camera shy as none of us looked our best after only a short sleep before our 4am start!

This is Mr Pool's group ready for the adventure ahead! Everyone was tired and worn out at this point but the anticipation seemed to keep everyone from falling asleep, everyone but Freddy who looks like he is catching a bit of shut eye with his shades in in this picture.

This is the group Mr Barnes has to deal with, they all seem to be pretty calm here, but this is a rare occasion! However Ethan looks clueless as usual, I still don't think he knows where he is!

This is Mrs Speed's group near the watering hole full of water buffalo, they all seem to have huge smiles whilst the amazing rangers took pictures of the whole group for us. They knew so much about the wildlife: able to spot a family of chameleons in a bush that none of us could even see close up,let alone far away, on a fast travelling jeep!

This is my great group! Our team MC, the nickname we invented out of boredom in the airport, everyone seems to be really happy here towards the end of our safari trip, other than Tom who just looks confused! Here you can get a great representation of how fast the wind was as the jeep was stationary at this point, just imagine it racing down at dirt track at what felt like 50mph! Becky's whole face went numb.

Here is a picture of a normal buffalo, you can tell this as they don't have curly horns, but other than that both water buffalo and buffalo just stay very still, some even looked dead they hardly moved!

Here are some water buffalo with their really cool horns, but as usuall not really doing anything! However, I remember this picture really well as this guy was chewing away. It was hilarious the way that they are completely still other than their bottom jaw churning away!

Here is a laughing bird, no idea why they were called this other than maybe that they looked funny when they run around with their spindly legs, I don't even understand how it can support itself!

Here was the main attraction of the day, elephants. Some were huge in size and height, with ginormous ears and big, long trunks which they used to pick up the hundreds of kilograms they have to eat of grass a day! I was surprised how close we got to them and how unaffected they were by our presence, they just went about their business as we all leant as far as we could out of the jeeps trying to take the best possible pictures.

We also saw really small baby elephants which were really, really cute! According to the ranger this little guy was about one month old, he was running around but was stopped cluelessly running into us by his mother. However this pack of elephants were only about 4 metres in front of us it was amazing, when starting the safari I never knew we would be able to get that close to something that amazing!

Here is the parent hiding their little child away from all the cameras everyone pulled out, I'd say this was the best moment on the whole safari as it is something I just would expect to see so close and they acted so natural; it's the first time I have ever seen an elephant and I was definitely not disappointed!

Half way through the day we sat down to have some lunch (actually breakfast but it felt like lunch!), it was in a plastic box with one egg, two sandwiches, some biscuits and a yogurt. But we were told , "like Antarctica you have to take everything away you bring in," so yes, Mrs Willcox we are paying attention to the geography!
After lunch my group got moved into one of the great jeeps! These were the ones with a bench and an open top roof compared to the others which had reclinable seats! I think everyone preferred the open top jeeps as you could sit on the edge and experience the danger of dodging trees whilst feeling like you were going 200mph!

There is so much wildlife here it is incredible. Here is the macaw - there were so many other amazing birds and animals but, sadly, there wouldn't be enough space on this blog to write about them all!

We also saw some really cute stray dogs out in the huge safari park, however sadly most of them looked really skinny. The dogs were all bouncy and happy especially these two dogs who followed my group in and around the safari the whole day and it was sad to say goodbye to them!

This was a part of the safari park, it was huge in size and was the same view for miles and miles: one long winding river with thousands and thousands of dead trees surrounding it! In this area we didn't see many elephants but we saw lots of birds and even a crocodile!

This here is a majestic heron, I never knew they had such long necks but I learnt so much about animals from our ranger over the hours we spent with him, we even heard a peacock being eaten by a snake, sadly mum this can't happen at home!

Here is a huge elephant skull, it was sad to see but also very impressive because of its humongous scale! But I've got to say it was much more impressive to see a live one!

Here is another one of the amazing birds in the safari park, these were always really difficult to spot because of their green camouflage in the mostly green trees and bushes around! I can remember the ranger would be pointing out animals and we all would be peering into the bushes clueless as to what he was looking at!

Here are the water buffalo and buffalo again catching a cool bath in water hole, suprisingly today was probably the only day I didn't want to join them in there: one, because there was also a crocodile but the breeze outside and standing out on the jeeps actually made me feel cool and not in agonising heat like most other days.

Here are some more elephants again, these were just so awe inspiring to see and to witness them in their natural habitat! I'm surprised there aren't 100 more pictures of elephants here because every single one was amazing and I think myself I took about 200!

Here is Flora, as usual living dangerously, sat on the bars at the top of the jeep as it hurtled down the bumpy dirt tracks, but however sometimes we were all asked to hop off the bars as the track got seriously bumpy in some parts!

Here is a little chipmunk having a nibble at a ginormous jack fruit which was growing in the safari village hotel that we stayed in for our overnight accommodation before the safari, the amount of rare trees and birds in the hotel grounds was amazing. I was kept up most of the night by animal sounds but I didn't even mind!

Here is a picture of the accommodation at Safari Village Hotel, it was a bit nicer than our work accommodation but I have got so used to my rock solid bed back in the hostel that I could hardly sleep in my comfy bed in this place!! We had two amazing meals here and apart from the scrambled egg and toast in the Oasis Beach Hotel, didn't come close to yours popa. They were the best two meals we have eaten since we got here ;it was Chinese both times and all but the noodles were amazing. We all devoured our food and completely drank the hotel dry of coke and fanta as we haven't had it in a while! Sadly, we didn't get to stay in this place long so we didn't get to appreciate all of its great aspects but I was still sad to say goodbye to my double bed and sadly back to my single!

Overall the experience was amazing and something that I'll never forget as it might be my firs, and last time, seeing some of those amazing animals! It was something I was excited for before the plane even landed in Sri Lanka and I was not let down by the amount of amazing animals there but also the surroundings, a million times better then you can see in England!
Here is Me, Tom, Holis and Fred but he is again managing to avoid the camera! As you can see our eating arrangement was very fancy, it even looks like Holis is eating off the seat! Whilst I ponder into the distance!
Just a quick message home now, hope everything is going well with the family and I hope the dog walking holiday was a success and it didn't rain too much in England and grandma could come down and enjoy it with the rest of the family! Hope you aren't missing me too much Pat. Oh, and mum , dad wanted you to make sure there was lots of beer in the fridge for when he gets home and can you stock up on lots of chocolate, and I mean lots.
Dad also wishes the family the best but I think he is off painting now.
Love you all lots, Jake.

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