Sri Lanka is one of the best places on earth for wildlife in our opinion. We managed to see Sharks, Turtles, Octopus, Sperm Whales, Blue Whales, Leopards, Monkeys, Boar, Buffalo, Alligators, Monitor Lizards and a lot of Elephants!
Little did we know, that last animal was going to give us one of our biggest scares whilst travelling.
Returning from the Dambulla Cave Temples
Our incident happened on the way back from the Dambulla Cave Temples also known as the Golden Temple of Dambulla. A series of caves turned into Buddhist temples, with five main caves to explore. The walk up is quite steep and sometimes narrow, so wear good shoes. The main entrance has a cool mouth that you walk through, so something a little quirky for kids.
After our day at the caves, it was dusk and we were returning to Habarana, our base for exploring the wider ‘cultural triangle’ area. Our tuk-tuk driver was cruising down the one main road that led us back to our current accommodation.
As he was driving he turned to me and said “this time of night you sometimes get wild elephants on the road”. I didn’t think much of it as it seemed the driver was just making conversation. But as if by magic, 30 seconds later the tuk-tuk came to an abrupt stop. As there, right in front of us in the middle of the road, was a very large, angry, elephant!
It wasn’t particularly surprising, Habarana and surrounding areas are full of elephants. In fact it’s on of the main reason people visit this area.
Minneriya and Kaudulla National Park
We had actually been on elephant safari the day before to Minneriya National Park. You can choose between Kaudulla or Minneriya.
Elephants are abundant here, but they tend to migrate between the two parks, so ensure you check where they currently are before you pick which one to go to. It was an amazing experience, with so many beautiful elephants. We even got to see a couple of baby elephants play fighting with each other, which was just magical.
But we also saw the dangerous side of elephants and what they are capable of if provoked. One of the jeeps had a HUGE dent in it’s door. The other jeep drivers seemed to be playfully laughing and taunting the driver of the jeep in Sinhala. I asked our driver what had happened “he got to close to an elephant yesterday and that was a swipe with it’s trunk!”.
An Angry Elephant is a Dangerous Elephant!
So back to where we were now… At first I wasn’t too worried, seeing elephants on the road in Habarana must be an everyday occurrence, I thought. But then I looked at the driver and could see a real worry on his face. It was a bit like if a flight has bad turbulence, you look at the flight attendant who fly every day and if they seem fine, then it’s nothing to worry about. This driver was my flight attendant, the road was the flight and the elephant the turbulence. The driver must have gone up and down this road hundreds of times. So when I saw the look on his face I wasn’t reassured! If he seemed worried it was probably for good reason.
The main concern seemed to be how agitated this elephant was. It had wondered onto the road from the surrounding wilderness and had wondered a little too far down it to a point that had resulted in it being unable to leave the road to the side due to some steep banks. So it was now stuck in the road with cars coming at it from both angles and headlights gleaming in its face. It looked like it had been there a while getting angrier and angrier!
A few cars came and went and managed to bypass it, but with some very close calls and a few times the elephant caught a couple of car with its trunk. The thought of the aftermath I had seen on the jeep the day before was now going through my head. Our tuk-tuk would have been no match for the colossal beast. One swipe of its trunk and our vehicle would have capsized like a plastic dingy on a windy day.
So what’s the plan!?
But what could we do? The only way back to our accommodation was down this road. after a while of waiting our driver decided to go for it… big mistake! The moment we got too close the elephant charged us! The driver had to quickly manoeuvre the tuk-tuk with pristine skill. How we didn’t topple over whilst turning so sharply at that speed is still a mystery to me, but we manged it and drove out of the elephants reach before it calmed down slightly again.
He then tried again when the elephant seemed calm and distracted, but again it quickly turned on us and began the chase. This time the driver stuck the tuk-tuk in reverse and went backwards wit the elephant gaining! Ever seen that scene from Jurassic Park where the T-Rex is chasing the jeep with the guy sat in the back! But we escaped again unharmed.
Deciding not to risk it again and after about five minutes of just waiting and observing the elephant, another tuk-tuk arrived. They spoke briefly and the other driver chanced his luck. Without any passengers he was a lot lighter, quicker and nimbler, so was able to drive around the elephant with a bit of breathing space.
We were running out of ideas, but our driver had one last trick. He waited for a car to come and timed his acceleration perfectly so we were along side the car on the opposite side from the elephant giving us some protection as we went past it. Made it!
We arrived back at our accommodation after a much more eventful drive home than we had anticipated. Our son, 5 at the time, had found the whole thing highly amusing and seemed to take the whole thing in his stride without a second worry. Me and Nadia on the other hand were a little shaken, but took it as another travel experience. And we all hoped the elephant made it back to the jungle safely.
The lesson for the story? There isn’t one. Just hope you don’t bump into wild angry elephants on the road! And if you do, probably best to turn around…