Bundala Safari with Srimal — Local services in Southern Province

Our family of five had a truly wonderful safari experience with Srimal. We weren’t looking for the busy, overcrowded Yala experience. We wanted a safari that was ethical, where animals were respected and not chased or disturbed. That’s exactly what Srimal offers.

He brings a genuine love, passion, and deep respect for all the animals in the park, especially elephants. While wildlife sightings are never guaranteed—and I made sure to prepare my children for that—we were incredibly lucky. We watched a herd of female elephants with their babies eating together. We also observed a bull elephant enjoying acacia leaves.

Srimal’s knowledge of wildlife is impressive. He shared interesting facts about the animals, especially the birds—our favourite was learning about the green bee-eater. He has a sharp eye for spotting animals we would have missed: jackals crossing the road, a mongoose eating a frog, and even a female crocodile guarding her eggs.

We only wish more national parks in Sri Lanka upheld the same ethical standards that Srimal does. Thank...

If you are looking for an ethical wildlife experience, there is no better guide and driver than Srimal. It was very important to us to have someone who had a lot of knowledge of the wildlife, and Srimal was the best person for this due to his knowledge about flora and fauna. He was able to spot elephants in the scrub whilst wildlife trackers and other guides drove right past. Bundala park is a much better choice if you want to see more relaxed elephants and wildlife, we saw only 3 other jeeps during the whole safari. (We avoided yala national park due to what people said about the lack of respect in terms of the distance from elephants and the sheer number of jeeps.) Both me and my wife think that the afternoon with Srimal was one of the best of our lives. We saw over 20 elephants across 5 different sightings, as well as crocs, water buffalo and monkeys. Don't use anyone else if you want a great experience. Srimal lives 20 metres from the entry to the national park so he knows this place better than...

The Safari with Srimal was pretty good - it was a pleasure to do. Srimal is in spotting animals probably as a good as the eagles we saw. The team and Srimal by itself were really friendly and it felt like they really want to show us the nature (instead of getting money for a booking). Srimal gave us a binocular for the tour - thanks for that. The national park is a wetland, compared to yala you can feel there the freedom on earth. There are just a few cars (3-5) in the complete area, you’re the most of the time alone with your jeep, the team and the nature. We can totally recommend to do a Tour in Bundala, especially with Srimal. His house is right in front of the entrance at the main road, so you can perfectly pass by, when you’re travelling from west to east or from east to west. We saw so many beautiful animals, to name just three of those: jackals, elephants and eagles. The animals come really close to the cars, so you can watch them even without a binocular pretty good. Was a great day, except the early...