On safari in Sri Lanka

Another of the stops that we made was a short visit to Yala National Park in the Southeastern corner of Sri Lanka. One good thing about jet lag is that it sure makes it easy to wake up for a 5:00 safari - didn't even require an alarm clock. We headed to Yala because it has the world's (?) largest concentration of leopards. Not that that means that leopards are easy to find. Other animals are much more common…we saw a plethora of water buffalo, several jackals, wild boar, mongoose, spotted deer, peacocks a plenty, crocodiles, an eagle, monitor lizards, lots of colorful birds - including the national bird of Sri Lanka, and finally….as we were getting close to having to leave the park, all but hidden back in the trees a leopard. Or was it a pair? Hard to tell, but at one point I thought that maybe I saw two waving tails. My pictures - poor as they are - are still a better view of it then I had with my eye (its all about the zoom!). At least I was able to leave satisfied, knowing I had "seen" a leopard even if we didn't manage to see an elephant despite being told they sometimes roam through the hotel grounds.