Ok Yala

We'd intended to travel by train from Hikkaduwa to Martara and then on to Tissa, which is within spitting distance of Yala National Park. What I hadn't bargained on was the amount of people travelling on public transport over the New Year period. After standing on the train for the 10 km down to Galle I decided to abandon my plan as Faith was not looking best pleased with the travelling conditions. We took a Tuk tuk to the relative sanctuary of Unawatuna, a beach resort just south of Galle.After finding a hotel with air conditioning to compensate for the trauma of Sri Lankan public transport we booked a day trip by mini-van to Yala. We set off early the next day and although we opted to skip the stops at the turtle sanctuary and Buddha statues we did stop briefly to photograph a stilt fisherman; the others must have been on tea break or have taken the day off as most of the stilts were vacant.
Sri Lankans bathing, washing their clothes and generally enjoying a day off in the local lake just outside Tissa; there were a lot more people than this as they were spread out all along the road and we almost managed to run over a girl who ran out from behind a car.
The croc has the right idea; chilling in the shade.
We finally arrived at our destination after 4 hours in a mini-van, a short stop for lunch and a half hour jeep ride down rough country tracks.Black faced monkey gang.

Our driver was so chuffed when we saw a bear run across the track and into the bushes he insisted we stay and watch black shapes move around in the undergrowth for the next 15 minutes. There is a bear in the middle of this photo, although I managed to miss the head shot and get the rear end shot instead. "It's coming right for us!" which would have justified me shooting it right between the eyes as it could have been endangering our lives; unfortunately I'd left my elephant gun at home.