4. Bull Standoff
Now we're getting somewhere
08.10.2021 - 08.10.2021 91 °F
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Chapter Four, August 10, 2021
After a jet-lag impacted (which means often interrupted) sleep, at 8:20am, the room 126 telephone chirped. “Mr. Russell, we have received your PCR report. Shall I send it to your room?” One wonders how many guests have any reply to that inquiry other than mine: “Yes, please.”
The intervening minutes passed with a slower than normal beat. Five minutes, nothing. Ten minutes, nothing. Fifteen minutes, nothing. For the record, Jetwing Lagoon room 126 is 150 yards from the front desk and the pathway between the two is without impediment. Motorized carts abound. There are virtually no other guests on the property.
At 8:56 (who’s counting?) a knock. “Here’s your PCR report. You’re good to go,” he said. The “confidential” laboratory report did not say, “Negative.” Instead, it says “Not Detected.” In any event, it appears that I will be fine to meet Mr. Kalika at 10:00. Not to belittle Dr. King’s speech but be it known that I feel “free at last.”
As we drive in his Toyota, (it is cloudy and 82 degrees) the first thing I notice is that all the road signs are in three languages: Singalese on top, Tamil in the middle and English on the bottom. Singalese has 56 unrecognizable letters; Tamil is equally foreign to my eye. We travel on a super-modern expressway built by the Chinese—the same people who sent almost all the vaccines Sri Lanka has deployed to date.
The pandemic has hit Sri Lanka hard; many people have been hired by the government for about $10 a day to trim the roadside and even, with brooms, sweep away the clippings. I see Sri Lankan exports: rubber from rubber trees, cinnamon, coconut and tea. More farms grow rice and bananas which are consumed locally.
There are signs warning of peacock crossings and we see elephant fences. At 1:40, bid Mr. Kalika goodbye for a few days and transfer to a Toyota pickup outfitted as a safari vehicle for a ten minute drive down a bumpy track to the Yala Campsite. I am greeted by Camp Manager Mr. Mapatuna, my guide Avinka, my driver Nichantha, and Dining Area manager Sagara. Chef Ruan is busy preparing my lunch and will greet me later. There are four other staff here: Pradip, Rajithe, Salin and Chaminda to see to my every need. My needs are the only ones that matter as I am and will continue to be their only guest. The pandemic has clobbered them.
I eat a very light lunch and am ready for my first game drive. Explained by Avinka, the Palu and Tamarind trees are things to watch for as leopards like to climb to the top to see where lunch might be. We drive through Matagamuwa Sanctuary and then into Block One of Yala National Park.
Sightings include lots of buffalo, spotted deer, fresh water crocodiles, peacock, hare, a wild boar, monkey and, at day’s end, elephant. First a cow and her calf and later an encounter with a 30-year-old bull elephant who enters a stand-off with us but then moves on his way.
During our drive we heard spotted deer giving warning yelps but never found the source of their fear: the leopard. Sundown is a bit after six and we are back at camp in time for me to write this before Avinka comes at 7:30 to fetch me for dinner.
It has been a very long day during which I only managed to take 7,800 steps, many fewer than I require. But, steps won’t be easy here. I’ll spend most of my time on my backside, scouting the roadside bush for quarry.
