Leaving Negombo

Today, we drove from Negombo to Habarana, from where we would take a safari in Minneriya National Park. Very early this morning––6 a.m. before breakfast––you could go with Shyam, our tour director, to visit another fish market. Shyam said it would be very wet there, so with my foot still sore, I did not go. After breakfast, we left the beautiful beaches of Negombo to head north and inland to Habarana.

Negombo

Even though Negombo is nicknamed “Little Rome” because of both the number of Roman Catholic churches in it and its majority of Roman Catholic residents, we passed a section of the town that was Muslim and  had a number of mosques and also women in Islamic dress. Photo: one of the mosques that we passed.

Sri Lanka Towns

On our way north, we drove through a number of small towns such as this one.

Lotus Pond

We saw this lotus pond at a rest stop. There are quite a number of lotus ponds in Sri Lanka as the lotus flowers are placed by Buddhists at Buddhist sites as offerings. At some of the lotus ponds, you won’t see any blooms as the day’s blooms had already been picked to be sold.

Snake Charmer–MOVIE

A snake charmer was with his pet cobra at our rest stop. There was plenty of room to walk far enough away from them. I took this movie from a distance.

YouTube:   https://youtu.be/SysdvE3IXQc

Cobra

From a good distance and with my zoom lens, I got this photo of the back of the cobra’s head. It actually looks like a face.

Rice Fields

We passed many rice fields. In good years, Sri Lanka exports rice. In not so good years, they have to import some.

Coconut Shucking

We stopped at a coconut shucking station to watch coconuts being shucked. Sri Lanka is the world’s fifth largest producer of coconuts.

Buddhist Stupa

We passed a number of Buddhist stupas on our journey. Stupas usually contain relics (remains) of Buddhist monks or nuns. They are places for meditation.

Megalithic Cemetery

There are several megalithic cemeteries in Sri Lanka. They are burial sites dating back to the years 700–400 BC.

Megalithic Cemetery

We stopped to view this megalithic cemetery. Each burial site usually has four stone slabs with another slab on top of them. Here, the slabs have fallen off. Bodies or ashes were placed in urns and interred. Clay pots, copper and gold articles, beads, etc., have been found in these graves. From here, we made our way to Habarana where we would stay two nights.

I put my photos of our drive from Negombo to Habarana on a slide show. Go to http://www.peggysphotos.com/negombo–to–harbarana/   (Slide Shows, Asia–2, Sri Lanka, “Negombo to Harbarana”).

Minneriya National Park

We checked into our hotel and then left to take a safari at close–by Minneriya National Park. Photo: our safari trucks.

Elephants

There are many elephants at Minneriya and we saw many of them. There are also sambar deer and leopards. We didn’t see any leopards and we might have seen some deer but too far away to get good photos of them. There are differences between African elephants and Asian elephants, which we were viewing now. African elephants are bigger and heavier and have larger ears, more rounded heads, and more wrinkled skin, among other differences, one being that only male Asian elephants grow tusks and not all do, while both sexes of African elephants grow tusks.

Elephants–MOVIE

The movie has more than one elephant in it. These are probably females as there are more than one elephant together. Older male elephants tend to be solitary.

YouTube:   https://youtu.be/atX7zHC3e7I

Safari Trucks

Elephant Herd

Two of the elephants in the herd that was spotted––a mother and her baby.

I have put my photos of Minneriya National Park on a slideshow. Go to http://www.peggysphotos.com/minneriya–national–park/   (Slide Shows, Asia–2, Sri Lanka, “Minneriya National Park”).

Habarana Village

We spent two nights at the very nice Habarana Village, Cinnamon Lodge. A view of the property.

Habarana Village

A closer–up view.