Tag Archives: Celebrity Millennium

The chap you see above is a changeably hawk-eagle. This particular one is a subspecies that is endemic specifically to Sri Lanka. So, if you’re a birder with this guy on your to do list, you need to get out here to Udawalawe National Park, about an hour north by car or tour bus from Hambantota. But, as you may recall, Ursula and I came for the elephants. Specifically, we were on a safari in search of the Sri Lankan elephant, the largest of the three Asian elephant subspecies. But before we return to elephants, here’s another pair of peafowl roaming around (peacock showing off in the foreground; peahen trying to appear unimpressed to the left and behind):

Now back to the main objective of this safari. Take particular note of how close we got to these giants:

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A brief recap on our journey here aboard the Celebrity Millennium: After Penang Island, Phuket, Thailand, Celebrity’s Millennium sailed for two days to our next port. And so it was, on 19 November 2025, we found ourselves setting foot in Hambantota, barely east of the extreme southern tip of the island nation of Sri Lanka, on the extreme southwestern edge of the Bay of Bengal in the northeastern Indian Ocean. In other words, we were here (Hambantota — lower left) after having started out from there (Phuket — lower right), a journey of about 1,200 miles/1,950 kilometers:

For a detailed description of what we’re doing here in Sri Lanka, see Monday’s article at this link: Sri Lanka — Udawalawe National Park Elephant Safari Part 1. For those of you who are caught up, let’s continue with our safari into the Udawalawe National Park by today taking a look at some of the park’s other residents. In addition to Sri Lankan elephants, here you’ll also find primates such as this tufted gray langur:

And this spotted dove:

It seems everywhere you go in this park you’ll find herds of Asian water buffalo:

The buffalo in the park are feral, but they are descended from domestic Asian water buffalo rather than true wild water buffalo, which are endangered:

And let us not forget the ever-present peafowl:

I’ll leave you today with this last two images. The first is another terrain shot, and the second shows a convoy of safari vehicles:

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