SRI LANKA

Big wildlife encounters. Historic rail journeys. Ancient culture. There’s a reason why this resilient island keeps winning gongs – here’s how to explore its wonders

- EMMA BOYLE

We stepped outside our hotel and the heavens opened. It was past 4pm, but we were determined to try our luck in Minneriya National Park and witness ‘The Gathering’: the largest congregation of wild elephants in the world.

When the driver turned up in his Mahindra jeep, he smiled. “Not Minneriya”, he said in his broken English, “We go Kaudulla”.

Slightly taken aback, we climbed aboard and set off, racing through the rain to Kaudulla, Minneriya’s lesser-known sister reserve. We were the last vehicle to enter and, as we navigated our way through dark jungle, we passed plenty of Jeeps heading the other way but precious little wildlife.

Finally, we emerged onto a large plain, and while the rain had eased, dark clouds billowed low in the sky. We pushed on, passing more exiting Jeeps with sodden occupants.

Our driver seemed to relax, and at that point the dark grey shadows of elephants started to emerge on the horizon. More appeared in the grasslands and soon they were close enough for us to smell the earthy hunks of grass they plucked with their trunks and twisted into their mouths. The animals appeared unruffled as we raptly observed them, then our driver pointed to the distant lake where further herds dotted its banks – a count of 300 seemed conservative.

Minneriya and Kaudulla are connected by a wildlife corridor and the spot where elephants congregate depends on the day. Our driver admitted we had been lucky, although our journey around Sri Lanka often resulted in serendipitous, right-time, right-place events, such as seeing dolphins while fishing and, as we walked hilly tea trails, stumbling across sari-clad female tea pluckers weighing huge bags of leaves.