The safari jeeps arrived in the late afternoon. We had travelled from Colombo that morning to the Udawalawe Safari Village Hotel, visiting the Elephant Transit Home en route and were looking forward to the game drive.

Udawalawe National Park was established as the fifth national park of Sri Lanka in 1972. The total area of the Park is almost 31,000 hectares and this makes the park one of the most expansive in the island. The most common type of environment here is dry grass and scrubland and the park is home to one of the highest densities of elephants anywhere in Asia. They are smaller in stature but more aggressive than the forest elephants of Sri Lanka.

The jeep took us past endless safari hotels and waiting jeeps to the Udawalawe Reservoir and then on to the park entrance. You are supposed to get a tracker at the new visitor centre with…