What madam wants

By way of an early Christmas gift, I've decided you deserve a break from my ramblings. Instead, this week, I'm very happy to introduce you to my very first guest blogger. Over to you ma...

There are many fantastic memories of my Sri Lankan holiday with Beth in September 2012. But one moment is especially precious; it was a struggle simply to get there.

Before I left England, Udawalawa National Park, with the chance to see elephants in their natural habitat, was one location I definitely hoped to visit. It was close to our planned tour route. No problem, or so I thought.

Negotiating with hotel owners, taxi and trishaw drivers required a lot of determination all of the time. My experiences led me to wonder if, like each of our drivers, Sri Lankan men always have a ‘better’ plan, a ‘superior’ route or a tourist attraction that ‘you must not miss’. The longest battle, by far, was caused by our desire to visit Udawalawa.

Our plan was to visit the park on the all day drive from the Viharagala Tea Estate bungalow to Mirissa on the south coast. But every time we brought the subject up, the price followed suit…up…and up …and up. Negotiating again with a different driver was no easier; we began to think that we really were asking the impossible. Of course there was a ‘better’ plan (Yala Safari Park), a ‘superior’ route (staying on the main road) and an attraction we ‘could not miss’( a four hour safari, with a greater variety of wild life and we really should include an overnight stay).

We nearly gave up. The night before our journey to the coast Beth was feeling fragile. Four hours in a jeep at the Yala safari Park was definitely out. We were ready to abandon our plan to see the elephants. But then one of the lovely gentlemen waiting on us at Viharagala told us that it was possible to see elephants, on the way to Udawalawa, from the road.

Next morning with renewed determination we boarded the hire car and finally wrestled an agreement that…yes, it was possible to go that way if that is what ‘madam’ really wanted. Yes… ‘madam’ and ‘miss’ definitely did.

En route, we saw elephants beside the road and, despite the impossibility, we arrived in one piece at Udawalawa National Park, a victory for all ‘madams’ everywhere.

Beth declared herself well enough to travel in a jeep so we hired one, bought our tickets and were just about to climb aboard when an angry German tourist rushed across to advise us that it was all a scam and ‘There are no elephants’ in the park. She told us that she had been driven around for two hours and had not seen a single elephant. Clearly our trip was a waste of time. Impossible!

Really?

We looked at one another, then with cheerful determination, shrugged and climbed inelegantly into the jeep. Five minutes later, having just begun to cope with the rocking and juddering of the truck, we were entranced by the sight of our first elephant family no more than three metres away. Not a ‘single’ elephant but three adults, two juveniles and most delightful of all a tiny two month old baby who after a short time came out from under his mother’s legs to find a comfortable place to suckle.

We saw many elephants that day including a herd of nineteen and two males facing off for a fight. But that moment and the time we spent so close to that tiny baby and his family is unrivalled.