9th February 2012

A friend of mine once told me that she hates receiving those Christmas letters that people you haven't heard from since last year put in the cards, as they seem to her to be full of the wonderful time the family have had all year, extolling the achievements of their children grandchildren and dog and the wonderful family Xmas they will be having. Now, case some of you have got to that stage where you're plucking with annoyance at our Blog news, let me tell you that we all have mosquito bites, sore bums from bouncing along dirt tracks and sick of living out of suitcases. But those things we were prepared for. This night turned out to be a nightmare for us all. The sheets were dirty, pillowcases lumpy, and insects crawled across the canopy of cobwebs on the ceiling, only flying down to bite elbows, knees and derrières that touched the mosquito net, which was too small for the bed. Savi sprayed the room with the remaining Chanel 5 perfume that she'd been hoarding which seemed to drive the mosquitos into a frenzy, circling around the canopy. Even a full bladder doesn't get you out to brave these guys, especially as the water kept running out to flush the toilets or wash your hands!


Never have we craved our humdrum lives on the UK as much!


A very quiet, exhausted foursome mounted Uncle Raja's van, wondering what our next stop would bring. The view from our balcony in the Travellers Home In Yala went some way towards brightening our spirits, despite the water ( not hot water just water) ran out in the middle of Ashika washing her hair. Her screams to get Jason to get the suds out of her eyes and ears could be heard all over the Guest House!


We cheered ourselves up with the thought of the safari, despite the rain that started as we sat gingerly on the wet worn leather benches in the Jeep. The driver was obviously preparing us for the thrills of the jungle, because he just zipped along, bouncing and lurching us up and down, and across each other's laps. This for some reason made us laugh, and got us into the spirit of it all, as we leaned precariously over the open sides, cooling our faces from the spray of water from overhanging branches as they scratched our bodies.


It all seemed worth it all, as our experienced driver of 30 years pelted along over pot holes and cracks in the road pointing out crocodiles, elephants, elks, deer, peacocks prancing along, big Monitor lizards and wild boar.











However, we all agreed that we were so lucky to see 3 leopards: the first one was in a dark grove, asleep on a tree which was quite hard to see, but as we continued along we came around a corner and there before us just 10 metres away was a leopard that sat down and started to preen itself. Our driver had got us to this sight before any other jeep, but then over the next five minutes about 30 jeeps arrived creating a leopard jam !!


The final leopard was resting in another tree.


With reference to letters in Christmas cards at the beginning of this blog: If you're wondering whether we like receiving Christmas letters we love catching up with all the news, so keep em coming, but don't send one to that friend I mentioned! - Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

Location:Yala National Park