Leaving your vehicle when driving through Yala National Park - home to Asian elephants - is forbidden, so it took some organisation on behalf of our local guides Ride Sri Lanka to organise that we could ride the smooth tarmac road through the reserve. Guided by a ranger in their truck up front, we followed closely, ushered to the other side of the road when we saw a wild elephant up ahead which the ranger would usher off the road and back into the bushes to let us pass.
We saw three elephants on this stretch, which was an absolutely incredible experience, and topped off with an enormous white-bellied sea eagle soaring overhead!