In Sri Lanka, discover a gentler safari experience, perfect for families | Canada Voices

It’s while we’re eating lunch that we have our first up-close wildlife encounter with a troop of grey langur monkeys that barrel over the terrace of our hut, bouncing so hard upon a wooden chair that they break off the arm. The staff don’t bat an eyelid.

By dessert we’ve also spotted Indian palm squirrels, peacocks, a monitor lizard and two stripe-necked mongooses.

Uga Chena Huts is located on the border of Yala National Park, in the southeast of Sri Lanka within a diverse terrain ranging from grasslands to jungle to coast. We quickly learn to expect the unexpected within the property’s nine acres, which stretch down to the Indian Ocean.

Fourteen years ago, when my sons were just 6, 9 and 11, I chose Sri Lanka for our first safari holiday. For families with younger kids, it offers a gentler experience than those in Africa as it’s rare to see the explicit kills associated with larger cats such as lions. Yet it still provides the thrill of spotting Asian elephants, leopards, golden jackals, spotted deer and sloth bears among the 44 mammal and 200 bird species within Yala’s 378 square miles.

On this visit, I’m with my husband, Neil, and youngest son, Freddie, now 19, staying in two thatch-roofed cabins that sit unobtrusively within the sand dunes yet are wonderfully luxurious with polished floors, mosquito-netted four-poster beds, free-standing bathtubs, private decks and 14-foot long private plunge pools.

The park is divided into five blocks. Since Block One boasts one of the highest concentrations of leopards anywhere in the world, inevitably this is where all visitors flock. It’s best to enter as the park gates open and Uga Chena Huts is just a 10-minute drive away.

While most visitors are keen to tick off a leopard sighting (at the top of the food chain here, they are unusually active by day), we’re soon mesmerized by the birdlife, spotting white-throated kingfisher, painted storks, spoonbills and crested serpent eagles, just as splendid as their names suggest, and the rarely sighted Sri Lanka shama of the flycatcher family, with glossy blue-black plumage, long bobbing tail feathers and a striking orange chest.

We see crocodiles basking, wild buffalo wallowing, a female elephant and her calf drinking at a watering hole and while we’re watching grey langurs leap within the huge evergreen canopy of a palu tree, a male leopard unexpectedly appears. It trots in front of our Jeep, with a fresh hare in its mouth. Our ranger, Yesitha Rodrigo, introduces it as 11-year-old dominant male Lucas, who rules Block One’s southeastern corner. For a brief, yet spellbinding, moment, Lucas locks eyes with us.

The following day, it’s a 50-minute drive to Block Five from our hotel, where I count just four other safari Jeeps in our three hours of exploring the somewhat stark, arresting landscape, home to the Weheragala Dam (featured on the 5,000 rupee note), which provides irrigation, drinking water and wildlife support during the dry season.

Lifeless white trees stand within the reservoir, providing perfect perches for white-bellied sea eagles, Eurasian kestrels and brahminy kites. While we are distracted by a battle between a jungle crow and hare, Rodrigo is expertly tracking paw prints and listening for the faintest of alarm calls from birds and other mammals, a sure sign that leopards are close by.

“Hear that?” he asks. We strain to listen. “A peacock is sending out a warning, and I can hear spotted deer barking, too.” We drive in the direction of these distress cries to find Charlotte – a striking female leopard of around six years old – lounging on a rock, her magnificent long whiskers illuminated in the sunlight. She graces us with her presence for a riveting 25 minutes, before sashaying off into the wilderness.

The hours in between safari drives are free for soaking up the environment and I’m ever ready with my binoculars, even while relaxing at the pool, to spy the likes of little green bee-eaters and purple sunbirds. At sundown we drink Kirinda sours, a drink made with lime, grenadine, soda and Sri Lanka’s popular liquor arrack (distilled from the sap of coconut flowers). A refreshing way to admire views of crashing waves and the Basses Lighthouse, which has long guided fishermen home during monsoon season.

Dinner always feels special here: Barefoot on the sand, we feast on freshly made hoppers – a bowl-shaped pancake made with rice flour and coconut milk – accompanied by fish curry, by the light of a bonfire. Under a light-pollution free sky, star gazing proves a breeze.

“Shame no elephants are passing through tonight,” comments Rodrigo, as he stops by to confirm arrangements for tomorrow’s safari drive. “Last week we had two who wandered in.”

Not that we’re short on elephant encounters. Earlier we met one that poked its trunk into our open vehicle and left a trail of hot, wet breath upon my shorts. It served as yet another reminder of how all Sri Lankan people live cheek by jowl with wildlife, and how, for any visitor, it’s a joy to do the same.

If you go

Red Dot Tours offers 13-night Highlights of Sri Lanka tour, including a stay at Uga Chena Huts, fees begin at $8,300 a person, based on double occupancy.

Rooms at Uga Chena Huts start from $1,713, based on two adults, which includes all meals, drinks and guided safaris. For children aged 4 to 11 extra beds can be added for $275 a night. For over-12s the cost is $430. For younger children, a Junior Ranger Program focuses on wildlife found within the hotel’s grounds, such as tracking leopard paw prints on the beach.

The writer was a guest of Red Dot Tours, which did not review or approve this article. Stories are based on merit; The Globe does not guarantee coverage.