We had a relaxing start to the day, apart from Mandy, who got up and did a 2 mile run. I did most of my packing before heading to breakfast.

This morning, I had a delicious Sri Lankan omlette.

And then it was time to say goodbye to our lovely room by the beach. As we were the only guests there apart from one other guy, we felt very special.

Alam came and picked us up around 10:30am and drove us to the Leopard Trails pick-up point, which was around a 2 hour drive.

Malmi, our Leopard Trails guide, met us at the pick-up point and took us to the reception area. We were provided with cold, lemony flannels, which act as a bit of insect repellent as well as cooling you down. We also had a refreshing fruit juice as Malmi went through the paperwork with us.

The accommodation is amazing, very luxurious.

Not long after our arrival, we had lunch. Lunch was traditional Sri Lankan dishes of spicy pork, loofah (which was also a little bit spicy), okra, gord (a type of superfood), beetroot, salad (leafy veg and coconut), fried coconut and pepper poppdom, all with rice. It was all really delicious and not too much heat.

Malmi told us a story about an ancient king who used to want 32 dishes served with his rice. The belief was that you had 32 taste receptors in your mouth, and the king wanted to satisfy them all.

For dessert, we had the King of Srilankan dessert. This is made from curd, which comes from buffalo milk and is like a thick yoghurt. The honey is made from fishtail palm sap, and the juggery is a more solid version of the sap.

With dessert, we got another good story. Only court jesters can make fun of the king. At one time, the king asked the jester to have dessert, but the jester was full up. The jester eventually said he could fit some dessert in to please the king. The king thought the jester was lying and accused him as such and asked how he would manage it. The jester got everyone who was in the court to stand in a small room and told them that if they touched the king, they would be killed. The king walked around the room and managed not to touch anyone. The jester said that is how he would fit in dessert

Malmi’s grandfather was a medicine man, so we talked about how all medicine should be food and how all food should be medicine.

After lunch, we headed off on safari in our jeep.

Wilpattu National Park is only a short drive from Leopard Trails accomodation, probably around 10 minutes.

The park itself is around 131,000 hectares and is the oldest and largest park in Sri Lanka.

It is a jungle safari, so the drive is through trees with not very many open areas. The first 15 ft or so by the side of the road are kept clearer of trees, so it increases the chance of spotting the animals.

The first animal we saw was a water buffalo in one of the water holes.

There was also a stork and a snake bird on the water. We saw a mini- kite flying overhead. These birds are scavengers as they snatch food from other animals.

Shortly after seeing the buffalo, we came across some spotted deer. These deer have disruptive markings (the spots) and counter shading (dark on top and light underneath) to cause confusion to predators. They are beautiful and very graceful.

The herd we saw was a bachelor herd of young males. A couple of them had antlers that were fairly new as they were still quite velvety. These deer, like elephants, live in herds of adult females and their young – as the young males grow, they form their bachelor herds.

There are a lot of peafowl walking through the park, and their call is very distinctive. A lot of the peacocks we saw had started to lose their tail feathers as mating season was over. However, new feathers grow back in around 6 months’ time.

Our next spot was a colourful kingfisher. He really stood out against the background.

We saw some more water buffalo grazing near the road.

Most of the trees in the ark are Indian ironwood or Indian boxwood. The tree saplings grow close to each other, and quite often, they merge to form one big tree.

As we drove on, we saw a Sambar deer. It was quite far away. This is the largest deer in the park, and they quite often live alone or in small groups.

Our next sighting was really lucky as we saw a sloth bear, just inside the thicket. These are the second smallest bears in the world, the smallest being the sun bear. They are also the deadliest bear as they have caused the most human casualties. The bear is named after its long sharp claws (like a sloth), which are around 4 inches long. It also has a long tail for a bear, around 15cm in length. The bears mainly eat termites, ants, grubs, and fruit. They are scavengers and will eat decaying meat. They also love honey and will climb trees to knock the beehives to the ground. They don’t have great eyesight or hearing, so rely on their sense of smell.

We drove on a bit further and saw a ruddy mongoose, which is one of the animals endemic to india and Sri Lanka. These animals are carnivores and eat birds, snakes, lizards, and rodents. They are very intelligent, and if they are bitten by a cobra, they know which plant to eat to self – medicate. They are also very loyal and have been used by the Sri Lankan army in the bomb disposal unit.

We drove past another watering hole and saw the painted stork, which have a splash of pink on their backs.

As we drove towards the exit, we saw a hornbill with its bright yellow beak. These are the only birds in which the first and second neck vertebrae are fused together, which provides a more stable platform for carrying the large bill.

And just before we left the park, we saw a barking deer or muntjac. These are the smallest deer in the park, and they have overgrown canines. They are scavengers.

We had driven about 3 hours in the park and seen quite a lot already, so we were very happy.

As we drove back to the camp,Malmi placed our drinks order so when we arrived we were greeted with a lovely cold towel and a lovely cold drink.

After a shower and freshen up, we went for dinner, which was served in a beautiful location.

I had a Srilankan whisky, old arrack, with lime and ginger beer, which was a really nice drink.

For starter, we had lentil soup with deep fried prawn and dahl badey.

For the main course, we had another lovely mixture of traditional dishes – string hoppers, parrata, coconut and turmeric and veg sauce, prawn curry with coconut and red chilli, sombal, and fried chicken.

We had some refreshing white wine to go with our meal.

And dessert was creme caramel, which was also very tasty.

We went to bed around 10pm as we have an early start in the morning.