You come to Sri Lanka in pursuit of animal encounters.
It's a walking safari everywhere; it's so easy to miss a lot if you keep your camera holstered.
Small squirrels importuning tourists for food are not hard to come by; a monitor on speed, a langur unobtrusively watching you recede into the distance.
An elusive elephant by the road can cause quite a stir in transit, especially if you come from a country where animals are running out of places to live.
In Sri Lanka, you don't get to see a leopard, in the wild, every day. And finally meeting the sensational big cat, in Yala, can strike as deeply felt.
You're made special by it. | Via Vernon Velasco
