Most Inspirational Moment
Seeing an adult male elephant with a prostetic limb play in the watering hole at the Udawalawe Transit Home followed closely by spending a couple of hours watching a blue whale.
Thoughts on Group Leader
He was a delightful young man who was extremely enthusiastic and good fun to be around but he failed to adequately deal with concerns/ complaints raised by the group. The game drives were poorly organised. There was 16 in our group. We were put in 3 trucks which they named AB &C and we were we told we had to stay in the same groups so that we all had access to the nature guide. This didnt happen. As a member of jeep C, for all 4 game drives were we the third jeep in the line with limited sightings and always late to the wildlife party. Concerns were raised but not acted upon by the tour guide even when these become complaints. My wildlife game drive experience was eating my fellow travellers dust, hearing out what they were looking at and often seeing things behind shrubs or flying away when disturbed. I’ve never beed on a trip where the game drives were organised this way. If you were in jeeps A or B which alternated being at the front you had a much better experience than the 6 of us in jeep C
Advice for Potential Travellers
This is a bird watching trip. That was the emphasis of our naturalist guide and birds were in ambundance. Mammal sightings were limited. I didnt appreciate this and so was disappointed by the safari experience for this reason as well as how the jeeps were managed. I enjoyed staying in the rain forest and the ecolodge. The converted shipping containers were really cute and one of my hilights. They were hot during the day and cold at night but blankets are provided. We didnt walk along trails but walked up and down the tarmac road to the ecolodge. This limited the opportunity for wildlife sightings or should i more accurately say bird sightings as we were passed quite frequently by motorbikes. You need leech socks. These are provided so no need to bring your own. You need long trousers for this part of the trip.
Reply from Exodus
We would like to thank Claire for her feedback, although we were very sorry that her experience was so disappointing. We have responded to Claire directly and in response to this feedback, Exodus has reminded our local partner in Sri Lanka to try to ensure that the naturalist guide in Yala National Park rotates between the vehicles, and that the vehicle order should also be rotated where possible to ensure that everyone has a fair chance of wildlife sightings.
Jennifer Cox – Product Manager