I woke up with mum shouting “ten minutes till the taxi is here!”

I got straight up, got dressed and we left.

The car was a Toyota; inside was very comfy and had lots of room. I went straight to sleep as it was an early start. I woke up just in time for us all to get breakfast. We all had an omelet as they didn’t really have anything else. We payed up, got back into the car to go to the safari. Once we had driven all the 3 hours we arrived at an entrance where lots of jeeps were waiting.  They all had huge wheels and an open back with high up comfy seats.

We got all our equipment out of the car and headed for the jeeps. The driver helped us the ladder and up three rungs into the back and drove us to pick up our guide. Our guide sat next to dad while the driver drove up to the paying section. Mum and dad got out and went inside while Fin and I stayed in the jeep alone sorting out the gopro. They climbed back in and we went to see what animals we could find.

All we did was turn the corner and there was a massive, muddy and wrinkly elephant standing at the side of the road eating some grass. It decided that it was going to cross the road. It walked extremely slowly as it had a lot of weight to carry. The guy told us it was a male elephant and he knew that for two reasons:1, it was alone and 2, it had a curved back and females have a boxed shaped back. After admiring the cute elephant we drove on.

The roads were immensely muddy and bumpy although we thought it was a lot flatter than Costa Rica. A jeep drove past us and told the guy that there was a herd of elephants off to the left. So the driver went a bit faster than before so that we didn’t miss them. As soon as we had turned one of the corners I caught site of a baby elephant (calf). It was so cute trying to get mud all over itself (for them, putting mud on their skin is like us putting sun lotion on)! We watched the mother, the mothers son and the baby walk around for a bit then left.

The guy told us lots of facts; elephants have to drink 200 litres of water a day, they have to eat 150kg of food per day (which probably means they are eating and drinking the whole day), the male leaves the female group at 12 years old, the females always stay together but the males leave each other, elephants can run at 20kph and they walk at least 45km a day. Indian elephants can weigh 4 tonnes, the calf can stand up 4 hours after it’s born with the help of its mum and elephants have 4 toe nails at the front, 3 at the back but African elephants have 5 toe nails at the front and 4 at the back.

We went down to a river and on the way we stopped a couple of times to look at different birds and more elephants. We arrived at the river and our guide suddenly said “try to be quiet.  There’s a crocodile over there!”

We all stopped talking got the binoculars out and looked at the crocodile we were all hoping for it to climb out of the river but unfortunately it didn’t. The guide then spotted another crocodile sunbathing over on the other side of the bank. The crocodile that we saw was 2 meters long!  We drove a bit closer and realised that it was sleeping with an eye open! Did you know that a crocodile lays 75 eggs but only approximately 35 hatch.  The rest get eaten by fish and birds.  It takes them 3 months for them to hatch.

On the way home we stopped at a restaurant.  It was a local place that our driver showed us.  It was off the back of the road, down a drive and past houses and we would never have known it was there.  It was basically a wooden building in someone’s back garden.  It was full of Sri Lankan men having lunch, some dressed in suits.  It was a buffet with bowls of different food all the way along the back wall.  I thought it was very unusual food and I didn’t know what much of it was but it looked spicy.  I had done rice and vegetables and dhal.   Mum ate two chillies and after that her she felt her mouth getting very hot and she even said that she felt that she was going to be sick.  Luckily though she wasn’t.  We all ate with our hands.

The day was so amazing, and was such an experience and I am proud of what I learnt. Unfortunately we didn’t see any leopards but that might have been for the best!  The guide says he’s worked there for 4 years and only seen them 3 times so it’s no surprise.  think it was one of my best days ever and one I will never forget.

Summer