Driving Sri Lanka’s B35 Road Was Better Than Our Safari

We genuinely couldn’t believe this road was free.

The B35 Road runs alongside Yala National Park in Sri Lanka and ended up being one of the best wildlife experiences we’ve had anywhere. Not “best free thing”. Just one of the best, full stop.

No safari jeep. No guide. No entry ticket.

Just us slowly driving a TukTuk down a road staring into bushes every five seconds like complete lunatics.

We’d rented a cabrio TukTuk through this rental deal with an automatic 5% off, and honestly having our own transport completely changed this experience. We could stop whenever we wanted, drive at our own pace, turn around when we felt like it and, most importantly, take the roof down.

That roof being down made a massive difference.

All the way Jax and I were basically standing on the seats scanning the trees while Oli was driving about 12km/h.

Jax turned it into a wildlife spotting competition within about three minutes.

The road itself is the attraction

The funny thing is, if you looked at the B35 on Google Maps without context, you probably wouldn’t think much of it. It’s just a road cutting through dry forest near Yala National Park.

But because it runs alongside the park boundary, the wildlife is everywhere.

And unlike a safari where someone else decides where you stop and how long you stay, this felt completely ours.

We drove slowly the entire way down the road. Then got to the end, turned around and drove all the way back again. Then turned around AGAIN and did about three quarters of it one more time because we still hadn’t seen a leopard and had become slightly delusional about our chances.