Three children, two parents, one 4WD Jeep, and the most heart-stopping wildlife encounter of our lives. We'd seen leopards on nature documentaries — the kind where David Attenborough explains everything in that calm, reassuring voice. Nothing prepared us for the moment our Oleen driver, Saman, whispered “look left — very slowly.”
Yala National Park covers over 97,000 hectares of dry-zone forest, grassland, and lagoon. It has one of the highest concentrations of leopards in the world — but that doesn't mean they simply appear. We'd entered the park at 5:45am in the back of our open-sided jeep, wrapped in layers that made no sense for Sri Lanka until the pre-dawn chill hit us. Saman drove slowly, reading the bush with the kind of quiet expertise that comes from years of watching.
The Moment Everything Stopped
We had been watching a family of spotted deer grazing at a water hole — our youngest, Ella, aged 7, was convinced she could see “something moving in the shadows” — when Saman cut the engine. He pointed to a low branch of a palu tree, not 40 metres away. A female leopard lay draped across it, utterly at ease, her spotted coat dappled by the early morning light filtering through the canopy.
Nobody breathed. My eldest, Tom, who is 14 and had spent the entire flight from London telling us safaris were “boring”, turned to me with an expression I will never forget. His phone was in his hand but he didn't raise it. He just watched. That, I think, was the moment I knew this trip was worth every penny.
More Than Just the Leopard
The leopard was extraordinary, but Yala offers much more. By 8am we had also encountered a herd of wild elephants crossing the track barely 20 metres from us (the children were simultaneously terrified and exhilarated), a pair of sloth bears foraging at the forest edge, peacocks in full display, and so many species of bird that our bird-watching guide list was already overflowing.
Saman's knowledge was remarkable. He knew which tracks to take, when to wait, when to move on. He read the bush and the animals the way you read a familiar book. Over lunch — a packed meal our lodge had prepared — he showed us photographs of the same leopard from previous seasons. She had cubs. He called her by a nickname he wouldn't translate.
We returned to camp at noon, sunburned and grinning. Ella declared it “the best day ever.” Tom asked if we could extend the trip by two days. We couldn't — but we're already planning to come back.