TOUR REVIEW - "SAMAGI VILLA SAFARI"
Kaudulla National Park | Afternoon Safari
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WEBSITE: www.samagivillasafari.com WHERE: Samagi Villa is a guesthouse in the district of Polonnaruwa however they are happy to operate safaris into any of the surrounding National Parks such as Kaudulla (where we did our safari), Minneriya or Flood Plains National Parks. PRICE PER PERSON: $45 USD for 3-4 hour safari * Entrance Fees for the National Parks are payable separately ROOM PRICE: Samagi Villa offers beautiful cottages from $32 USD Per Night |
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ABOUT:
Samagi Villa Safaris have been operating in Polonnaruwa and the North Central region of Sri Lanka for over 20 years. The owner, Mr Manjula is professional, friendly and proud of the business he has created over the years. The staff employed at Samagi Villa Safaris are all properly trained and speak English at a basic conversational level.
We found Samagi Villa Safari online prior to arriving in Sri Lanka and felt that their professionalism, fair prices and excellent attention to our many emails and requests made them a perfect choice for our safari. Mr Manjula and his wife Nami always replied promptly to our emails and answered any questions we had about the safari and the villa.
Samagi Villa Safaris have been operating in Polonnaruwa and the North Central region of Sri Lanka for over 20 years. The owner, Mr Manjula is professional, friendly and proud of the business he has created over the years. The staff employed at Samagi Villa Safaris are all properly trained and speak English at a basic conversational level.
We found Samagi Villa Safari online prior to arriving in Sri Lanka and felt that their professionalism, fair prices and excellent attention to our many emails and requests made them a perfect choice for our safari. Mr Manjula and his wife Nami always replied promptly to our emails and answered any questions we had about the safari and the villa.
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LOCATION: Samagi Villa is located in the small town of Polonnaruwa, some 230km from Colombo. Polonnaruwa is surrounded by many National Parks and Conservation Areas, where a wide variety of bird and animal life can be witnessed in their natural habitat. Modern day Polonnaruwa is also home to the UNESCO World Heritage Listed royal ancient city of The Kingdom of Polonnaruwa. These ruins can be visited on foot, by tuk tuk or by bicycle and the main complexes are within a 1km of the town centre. Samagi Villa is a 5 minute drive or twenty minute walk from the town centre of Polonnaruwa. Kaudulla and Minneriya National Parks are both around 40km from Polonnaruwa. |
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SAFARI OPTIONS:
Depending on the season and guests requests, Samagi Villa Safaris offer tours into four different National Parks in the surrounding region. Kaudulla National Park, Minneriya National Park, Hurulu Eco Park and Watsugamuwa National Park are all within one hours drive of Samagi Villas and all provide various bird and wildlife viewing opportunities.
Samagi Villa Safaris offer either morning or afternoon safaris, each with duration between 3-4 hours. During the middle of the day, most animals in this region are hidden amongst the bushes as they enjoy their midday siesta, which means that safaris either side of this time will provide the best chances of seeing wildlife.
The added bonus of these safari times is that if you’re lucky enough you can catch a stunning sunrise or sunset over the plains during your tour.
While the weather didn't prevail during our safari, we've been told that on a clear day the sun setting or rising over the grasslands of these National Parks is quite a sight for sore eyes! Just one more reason to go!
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WHAT IS INCLUDED:
WHAT'S NOT INCLUDED:
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SAMAGI VILLA GUESTHOUSE:
From the first time we emailed Samagi Villa and heard back from the lovely Nami and her husband Manjula, we immediately felt a sense of reassurance that our visit to Polonnaruwa would be worth the effort. The sole purpose of our visit to Polonnaruwa was to visit one of the surrounding National Parks in the hope of seeing wild Elephants. The fact that Samagi Villa offers excellent accommodation as well as private safari tours made them a perfect choice for our visit.
From the first time we emailed Samagi Villa and heard back from the lovely Nami and her husband Manjula, we immediately felt a sense of reassurance that our visit to Polonnaruwa would be worth the effort. The sole purpose of our visit to Polonnaruwa was to visit one of the surrounding National Parks in the hope of seeing wild Elephants. The fact that Samagi Villa offers excellent accommodation as well as private safari tours made them a perfect choice for our visit.
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Our Deluxe Cottage had a lovely balcony where we enjoyed our breakfast, a large living room with huge TV and computer with Wi-Fi, a dining room, a modern bathroom and in the near future it will also have a self contained kitchen! The cottage is air-conditioned, impeccably clean and has incredibly comfortable beds. We enjoyed our delicious breakfast on our private balcony where we had fresh fruit, yoghurt, eggs, bread, sausages, potato and delicious hot tea. It was the perfect fuel to start our day sightseeing in Polonnaruwa and when we were ready, we took off on the complimentary bicycles provided by Samagi Villa. You can read our full review of Samagi Villa here. |
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OUR EXPERIENCE:
Our main motivation for doing a safari in this region of Sri Lanka, was the hope of seeing “The Gathering” which occurs once a year between July – early November. The Gathering is an annual event where hundreds of elephants converge on the shores of the ancient reservoirs in North-Central Sri Lanka in search of young, lush grasses that sprout up after the rains. It’s also an incredibly social event for these enormous Pachyderms who are notoriously social creatures. There are some 7000 wild elephants roaming Sri Lanka and during The Gathering, it is not uncommon to see herds of over 200 of these huge mammals!
We had originally booked in to do a safari to Minneriya National Park, however upon our arrival in Polonnaruwa, Mr Manjula informed us that Kaudulla would be a much better park to visit at this time. We were a little hesitant as I had done some research prior to our arrival and was convinced that Minneriya would be our best bet at seeing wild elephants and was the most famous park for The Gathering. We did however, decide to put our trust in our professional and experienced tour operator and agreed to go to whichever park he felt would be best.
Our main motivation for doing a safari in this region of Sri Lanka, was the hope of seeing “The Gathering” which occurs once a year between July – early November. The Gathering is an annual event where hundreds of elephants converge on the shores of the ancient reservoirs in North-Central Sri Lanka in search of young, lush grasses that sprout up after the rains. It’s also an incredibly social event for these enormous Pachyderms who are notoriously social creatures. There are some 7000 wild elephants roaming Sri Lanka and during The Gathering, it is not uncommon to see herds of over 200 of these huge mammals!
We had originally booked in to do a safari to Minneriya National Park, however upon our arrival in Polonnaruwa, Mr Manjula informed us that Kaudulla would be a much better park to visit at this time. We were a little hesitant as I had done some research prior to our arrival and was convinced that Minneriya would be our best bet at seeing wild elephants and was the most famous park for The Gathering. We did however, decide to put our trust in our professional and experienced tour operator and agreed to go to whichever park he felt would be best.
We decided to do an afternoon safari after a pleasant morning exploring the ruins of the Ancient City of Polonnaruwa. While the weather was slightly overcast, we were hoping that the rain would hold off long enough for us to enjoy the open top Jeep as we cruised through the National Park. Kaudulla National Park is slightly further out of Polonnaruwa than Minneriya and in total took around 45 minutes drive from Samagi Villa.
Our guide, Neil was friendly and spoke quite good English and reassured us that he would do his best to spot some animals for us! When we arrived at the entrance gate to Kaudulla, Neil peeled back the tarpaulin cover on the Jeep and from here on, we were able to stand in the Jeep and get a full birds eye view of the park. For the first 20 minutes, we weaved our way along a narrow path, spotting monkeys, birds and a HUGE water monitor. When we eventually came into the open grasslands, it was a slippery and muddy drive as the recent rains had turned many of the tracks into muddy puddles. Neil proved his skills as he navigated around the park, pointing out the Sri Lankan National Bird – which kinda looks like a chicken! - some deer and a few peacocks.
Our guide, Neil was friendly and spoke quite good English and reassured us that he would do his best to spot some animals for us! When we arrived at the entrance gate to Kaudulla, Neil peeled back the tarpaulin cover on the Jeep and from here on, we were able to stand in the Jeep and get a full birds eye view of the park. For the first 20 minutes, we weaved our way along a narrow path, spotting monkeys, birds and a HUGE water monitor. When we eventually came into the open grasslands, it was a slippery and muddy drive as the recent rains had turned many of the tracks into muddy puddles. Neil proved his skills as he navigated around the park, pointing out the Sri Lankan National Bird – which kinda looks like a chicken! - some deer and a few peacocks.
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But the real moment for me came when Neil pointed out a huge male bull elephant in the distance. It took my breath away and I reached for Wade pointing and snapping happily on our camera, completely unaware as to what lay just over the nearby hill. As it turned out, Neil was a master of building anticipation and while I was oohing and ahhing over one single elephant, Neil was only just getting started. I noticed that instead of heading in the direction of the elephant, we were actually veering away from it so I decided to ask our trusty guide.
“Neil, are we going to get closer to the elephant?” “Yes Miss, soon” he replied. “You know you are very, very lucky to see an elephant here”. Hmm, I was so excited and yet so confused. We certainly were lucky to see an elephant, I knew that but why weren’t we getting any closer? |
Just as I was thinking about interrogating Neil further, we rolled over a small grassy hill and the car stopped. So did my heart. Standing before us, gathered around the large body of water in the distance were over 100 elephants! I’m not embarrassed to admit that I cried, I cried like a little girl! There were baby calves as young as just a few months old and some giant males with enormous white tusks, which is very rare in Sri Lanka.
We sat, watching these glorious animals from the comfort of our private Jeep, for over 40 minutes. We watched as they bathed, played, fought, ate, sprayed water, jostled and just peacefully grazed, all right before our eyes. I think we took over 500 photos during that time, but eventually we put the camera away and just sat and enjoyed it. Sure, it started sprinkling after half an hour, but this experience was way too good to let a bit of rain ruin! As more Jeeps arrived and the herd began to wander away from us, we decided to leave them be and move on to explore the rest of the park. Neil offered to close the roof of the Jeep and dry off the damp seats for us, but by this stage we were having too much fun and didn’t want to miss a minute so we stayed standing in the drizzling rain! For the next hour we saw two more huge bull elephants standing alone in a separate field, lots of buffalo, more peacocks, a few huge Hawk-Eagles and another group of very shy and nervous spotted deer.
We sat, watching these glorious animals from the comfort of our private Jeep, for over 40 minutes. We watched as they bathed, played, fought, ate, sprayed water, jostled and just peacefully grazed, all right before our eyes. I think we took over 500 photos during that time, but eventually we put the camera away and just sat and enjoyed it. Sure, it started sprinkling after half an hour, but this experience was way too good to let a bit of rain ruin! As more Jeeps arrived and the herd began to wander away from us, we decided to leave them be and move on to explore the rest of the park. Neil offered to close the roof of the Jeep and dry off the damp seats for us, but by this stage we were having too much fun and didn’t want to miss a minute so we stayed standing in the drizzling rain! For the next hour we saw two more huge bull elephants standing alone in a separate field, lots of buffalo, more peacocks, a few huge Hawk-Eagles and another group of very shy and nervous spotted deer.
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Throughout the safari we were lucky enough to see:
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After doing a huge loop through the park, Neil dried off the seats for us and closed the roof before we left the park and then we headed home. By the time we left, we were cold and wet from the rain, but absolutely buzzing from what we had just experienced. It was a shame not to be able to witness a sunset, however October-November is unpredictable in it’s weather and this is obviously something that no one can control!
Overall, the safari was absolutely mind blowing! Seeing so many wild elephants in one place like that is something I will never forget. I’ve done multiple safaris in Tanzania and never saw more than 4 elephants at a time, so this truly is a spectacular sight!
While the weather did mean that many animals took shelter amongst the foliage, the main reason for visiting Kaudulla is the elephants, so don’t come here expecting to see a huge variety of animals or birds. Our guide Neil has seen one leopard in his four years of guiding!
Speaking of Neil, he was friendly, informative and helpful throughout our safari. He stopped whenever we wanted so we could take photos, spotted plenty of birds and knew them all by name and even took a few photos of the two of us.
The Jeep was definitely comfortable for 2 people, however with the inwards facing benches, I would be hesitant to use this Jeep for a larger group of 4 or more as it could be quite difficult to move around with more people.
If you have the chance to visit Sri Lanka between July and November, I highly recommend visiting this incredible region of the country to witness “The Gathering”. It is such a unique and special event and we felt that Samagi Villa Safaris did a wonderful job of guiding us through the National Park. They were informative, reliable and offered an excellent overall service.
While the weather did mean that many animals took shelter amongst the foliage, the main reason for visiting Kaudulla is the elephants, so don’t come here expecting to see a huge variety of animals or birds. Our guide Neil has seen one leopard in his four years of guiding!
Speaking of Neil, he was friendly, informative and helpful throughout our safari. He stopped whenever we wanted so we could take photos, spotted plenty of birds and knew them all by name and even took a few photos of the two of us.
The Jeep was definitely comfortable for 2 people, however with the inwards facing benches, I would be hesitant to use this Jeep for a larger group of 4 or more as it could be quite difficult to move around with more people.
If you have the chance to visit Sri Lanka between July and November, I highly recommend visiting this incredible region of the country to witness “The Gathering”. It is such a unique and special event and we felt that Samagi Villa Safaris did a wonderful job of guiding us through the National Park. They were informative, reliable and offered an excellent overall service.
* All opinions expressed in this review are that of Wade and Sarah Harris. All photos are the property of Wade and Sarah Harris.
Wade and Sarah are not paid for their opinions and aim to deliver honest reviews and recommendations from their real life travel experiences
Wade and Sarah are not paid for their opinions and aim to deliver honest reviews and recommendations from their real life travel experiences
