Angammadilla

Great engineering achievements of the past...Lots of water and wildlife...Including Mugger Crocodiles...Angammadilla national park has it all..

Location - Polonnaruwa district, north central province.

Getting there:

Colombo->Kurunegala->Dambulla->Habarana->Minneriya->Girithale->Polonnaruwa->Dam of “Parakrama Samudraya” weva->Kalahagala->Angammadilla (23km from Polonnaruwa)

Girithale->Diayabeduma->Bakamuna Road->Turn from Aththanakadawala->Madudamana->Diggalapitiya-> Angammadilla



Angammadilla is the 19th national park of Sri Lanka. Consist of 7500 hectares. The park is located centering several man-made ancient irrigation tanks call “Weva”.

Facilities:

Park has a single forest lodge. Reservations should be done through the wild life conservation department Head Office at Colombo. But ample lodging facilities are available in Polonnaruwa, and Habarana area, which are in close proximity to the park.
Two nature trails call “Sudu kanda” (White Mountain) and “Raja Bamma” (Royal Dam) are available for nature lovers.

Entrance to the park:
Main entrance is from the park management office which is located at "Kalahagala" near the Angammadilla new water gate. This trail stretches for about 5km to the beautiful “Mahayyawa” Tank.
Another trail is from "Mahayyawa" to "Parakrama samudra" tank stretching about 10km.

Physical characteristics:
Great “Parakrama samudraya” tank is the main water source of the park. Apart from that “Mahayyawa” tank, Amban ganga (river) and Angammadilla Stream (man-made) makes this park rich with water. The old water gate area has swamps with deep water holes creating ideal habitat for crocodiles.
“Sudukanda” or the White Mountain is the main highland in the park. It has a good vegetation cover providing important water resources for the great tanks.

Biodiversity:
Mammals – Elephant, Sri Lankan axis deer, Samba deer, leopard, Sloth Bear, wild boar

Endemic Birds - Sri Lanka Red-faced Malkoha, Sri Lanka Yellow-fronted Barbet

Other Birds – Great Egret, Little Egret, Purple Heron, Eurasian Spoonbill, Brahminy Kite, Common Kestrel and most of the common birds of dry lowlands.

Reptiles – crocodiles are common in the park. Pythons and other dry zone reptiles are also can be seen.

Historical places and information:

The most important place in the park is “Angammadilla” old dam. This was built by ancient Sri lankan kings to divert water of river “Amban ganga” to irrigation tanks. King “Prakramabahu” the great (1153-1186 AD) rebuilt this dam to supply water to the great tank (Weva) “Parakrama samudraya”. This is a very important and significant engineering achievement of the ancient Sinhalese irrigation system.

There are ruins of an ancient temple and “Dagaba” inside the park near “Weheranagala”.
Other important places in and around the park includes, the “King Prakramabahu statue”, “Gal Wiharaya” , “Nissanka Latha mandapaya “ and many more.




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Flood Plain National Park

Flood Plain National Park

A majestic river, beautiful swamps, wild elephants and big crocodiles, these are only few attractions of the scenic flood plain national park in Sri Lanka.

Location – Polonnaruwa District close to Manampitiya, North Central Province.


Getting there;
Colombo->Kurunegala->Dambulla->Habarana->Minneriya->Polonnaruwa->Mananpitiya (233km)

By Train;
Trincomalee Train - Should get down from Mananpitiya or Gallalla stations as the park is situated between these two.

Facilities:
There are no facilities yet within the park since this has been considered a threatened area due to terrorist activities in the past. But it is easy to find accommodations and other facilities in the surrounding towns like Polonnaruwa.

Flood Plain National Park (FPN) is the 9th national park in Sri Lanka, declared on 7th august 1984. This covers an area of 17,350 hectares and it connects to the “Somawathiya” national park from the north, and “Wasgomuwa” national park from the south.
FPN has one of the most important ecological systems in the country known as “Mahaweli swamps” within its borders. These hold the overflowing water of river “Mahaweli” specially during monsoon season giving the park its name.
FPN is based centering the river “Mahaweli” the longest river in Sri Lanka. In this area the average width of the river is about 200-300 meters and there are also several small islands made out of river sand. Dense riverbank forests can be seen in these islands and alone the riverbanks. During the monsoon, the whole park becomes a massive lake and later on a big swamp with the lowering water level.
“Thunmodara” the place where “Amban ganga” a small river meets Mahaweli is a very attractive place in the park.

Close by “Dimbulagala” rock temple is also a famous tourist attraction.

Biodiversity of the park:

Large mammals – Elephant, Sri Lankan axis deer, Samba deer, leopard, Sloth Bear, wild buffalo,

Small mammals - Chevrotain, wild boar, Porcupine, Mongoose , Civet, Golden Jackal, wild Hare, Indian Pangolin

Reptiles – Crocodile, Pythons, Cobras, Vipers

Birds - Brahminy Kite, Little Cormorant , Indian Cormorant, Purple Heron, Grey Heron, White-breasted Waterhen, Red-wattled Lapwing, Yellow-wattled Lapwing, Purple Swamphen


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Galvesland

This small yet beautiful national park is situated close to Nuwara Eliya town center, within the city limits. Park is ideal for birds watching and to enjoy the amazing mountainous forests while spending your vacation in this famous tourist destination known as Little England.

Location: Nuwara Eliya city, Nuwara Eliya District, Central Province

Getting there:
Alone Nuwara Eliya – Udupussellawa road, about 1km from town center is the Galvesland road adjoining Nuwara Eliya economic center

Facilities:
Since this is a very small park, no camp sites or lodging facilities inside the park. It’s open during day time for holiday spenders at Nuwara Eliya where there are ample facilities for tourists.

A well designed forest trail covers whole the park which allows a walking tourist to experience the biodiversity and climate conditions of the forest.While enjoying various bird songs, the thick vegetation of the forest and the high forest canopy presents truly nice scenery. Alone this trail which stretches about a kilometer, there are patches of open grass lands and a fern forest section too.

Galwaysland may be small in size, but it’s rich in biodiversity. Its isolated nature in the middle of busy Nuwara Eliya has prevented it from inhabiting by large mammals. But there are small mammals like wild boar, Chevrotain, Grizzled Giant Squirrel, Rusty-spotted Cat, Purple-faced Langur and hares.

Reptile species found here includes, Black-cheek Lizard, Rhino-horn Lizard and rare Pygmy Lizard which are endemic to Sri Lanka.

Birds and butterflies make Galwaysland a true paradise. Butterfly species includes Lemon Emigrant, Common Bluebottle, Great Eggfly, Common Birdwing, Red Pierrot, Common Rose and Common Leopard in great numbers.

There are 35 species of birds in this park where 7 of them are endemic. Among them Sri Lanka Yellow-eared Bulbul can be seen in pairs or as small groups. Sri Lanka Whistling Thrush and Sri Lanka Dull Blue Flycatcher are also among endemic birds found here.

Sri Lanka White-eye is also a common resident of the park, always flying around gathering nectar from various wild flowers. Small Minivet, Black-hooded Oriole, and Emerald Dove are common breeding residents.
Winter visitors like Forest Wagtail and Brown Shrike can also be found in the park.

Galwaysland is famous as a breeding ground for Kestrels. These birds make their nests on forest canopy and their loud calls echoes all over the park.

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Gal-oya National Park

Beautiful Gal-oya national park is based around the Galoya reservoir in the eastern Sri Lanka. Together with scenic land trails, fabulous water trail along the reservoir brings a unique experience with several welcome surprises.

Location : Ampara & Monaragala districts – Eastern Province

Getting there:

* Colombo -> Kandy -> Bibila -> Inginiyagala
* Colombo -> Ratnapura - >Balangoda -> Wellavaya - > Monaragala - > Siyambalaanduwa - >17 handiya Ampara road (Wadinagala) - >Inginiyagala
* Colombo - > Ratnapura - >Pelmadulla->Thanamalwila->Wellawaya-> Monaragala - > Siyambalaanduwa - >17 handiya Ampara road (Wadinagala) - >Inginiyagala

Close by towns: Ampara, Inginiyagala, Bibila

Accommodation

Facilities: Galoya Park has a single tourist bungalow by the beautiful “Ekgal oya” river, which is near the 36th kilometer post in Ampara-Siyambalanduwa road.
Park has 4 camp sides also. They are “Kossapola”, ”Kaballabokka”, “Diggalamulla” and “Nilgala”


Park Management office is situated at Inginiyagala. The permissions to enter the park is also should be obtained from here.
There are two jeep trails to the park. But the most interesting trail would be the water trail. The safari boats start their journey from the jetty near the wild life information center situated on the main dam of the reservoir. Boats go up to the place where Galoya (river) meets the reservoir, which is about 18 miles away and takes one and half hours to reach.
The whole park and the reservoir are surrounded by a mountain range and famous hills like “Westminster abbey” and “Wadinagala” also makes the scenery picture perfect. Reservoir has several solitary islands like “Birds Island”. The rocky area where the Galoya meets the reservoir is called “Makara” (dragon mouth) which is famous among tourists.
Galoya Park is home to about 250 wild elephants. It is not rare to see elephants alone jeep trails and also during the boat ride. Alone the banks of the reservoir and in the islands, there are about 100-150 elephants in groups or in solitary. And if you are really lucky a surprise awaits you..! Rare site of swimming groups of elephants that cross the reservoir to the islands is truly amazing.

Other wild life of the park includes herbivores like Sri Lankan axis deer, Samba deer, Chevrotain, wild boar, wild buffalo, and carnivors like leopard and Sloth Bear. There are many small mammals also like Toque Macaque, langur, Giant Squirrel, Porcupine, Mongoose and Civet to name a few.

Next to the elephants, the other main attraction of the park would be birds. Galoya is truly a birds’ paradise. While the reservoir inhabits many aquatic birds, surrounding sav

Image via Wikipedia

anna is also full of forest birds. Birds among the savanna include Sri Lanka Jungle fowl, Spur fowl, Brown-capped Babbler, Grey Hornbill and Red-faced Malkoha which are endemic to Sri Lanka.
In and around the reservoir it’s common to see aquatic birds like Little Cormorant, Malayan Night Heron, Lesser Whistling-duck, several Kingfisher species and the endangered Spot-billed Pelican.

Reptile diversity of the park is also high. Crocodile leads the pack with its size which includes Star Tortoise, monitors, Agamid Lizards, Snake-eye lizards, and wild geckos. There are several snake species including Python, Cobra, and Viper in the savanna.
Main fish species found in the reservoir are mottled eel, Wallago, Magura, Thilapiya and carp. More studies are underway to identify the biodiversity of the area.

Forest and vegetation
Generally the forest is a dry evergreen forest since it’s situated in the dry zone. But because of the Galoya reservoir there are several deviations visible from the common regional forests. There are areas of grass lands, savanna and riverbanks forests and of cause dry evergreen forests mainly covering the surrounding mountains

Close by important places:

* “Buddhangala” – a famous Buddhist temple built in ancient times. Some 15km from Inginiyagala town
* “Deegawapiya” – another ancient Buddhist temple about 10km from “Buddhangala”

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Whale watching in Sri Lanka

Vast Indian Ocean around the island of Sri Lanka flourishes with all kinds of marine mammals. Until recent times, only fishermen, navy and may be wealthy yaught owners were able to see these beauties with their own eyes. Things are changing for good in recent times.

As a part of these new developments, Fisheries Department under the ministry of fisheries and Aquatic Resources introduces an ocean safari service for both foreign and local tourists.
Initially this will be operated from the “Mirissa” fisheries harbor, in Matara district. Safari will be into the southern ocean (North Indian Ocean) towards the international shipping lane which is about 13 nautical miles from the cost. The area around this shipping lane is known to inhabit large schools of whales belongs to various different species. And alone the way to the area, it is not rare to site large pods of dolphins too.

Blue whales, Sperm Whales and humpback whales are sited in large numbers in the area ,where the ocean is about 3500 meters deep. It is truly a majestic seen to watch how humpbacks jumping into the air and falling back to the water creating long running waves. On a lucky day, few Orcas will also add verity to the journey.

This whole safari takes about 6 hours to complete. Boats leave the harbor at about 6.30 in the morning since it’s very hard to ride towards the land during high noon with strong winds towards sea. Every traveler will be provided with a life jacket and every boat carries two experience lifeguards and a specialist guide too. A single boat can carry up to 12 people and for larger groups they provide special boats on request.

The service is open for both foreign and local tourists.
This is a good opportunity for most people since this whole idea of whale watching is relatively new to the local travelers.

More information is available from the manager of the Mirissa fisheries harbor (041-2251660).

Reference:
(“Enna yanna thalmasunge natum balanna” – Divaina(2009-06-16) – Ranjan Gamini Jayawardena)

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Morning Side

Image via Wikipedia

It dawns to Sinharaja from the south of “Sooriyakanda” mountain which belongs to the “Rakwana” mountain range. This area of the Sinharajas Ratnapura District border (to the Beverly estate) is called the “Morning Side”. During the colonial times, morning side was an estate governed by the English and even today there is an estate named morning side in the area.

Sinharaja is the only world heritage rain forest in Sri Lanka which borders to Rathnapura, Galle and Matara districts with an area of 11187 hectares. Generally Sinharaja stretches from North West to South East like a belt of forest. Morning Side is the only small area of this forest which stretches towards east.

Sun bathed Sinharaja canopy is a heavenly picture to a waking eye in the morning. Air is filled with the songs of early birds like the Ashy-Headed Laughing-Thrush (Garrulax cinereifrons), Purple Sunbirds (Nectarinia Asiatica) and many more.
Morning side is known to be one of the favored place for the only remaining three elephants (Elephas maximus maximus) in the Sinharaja. Apart from that there are signs of the presence of leopards (Panthera pardus kotiya) and samba deer (Cervus unicolor unicolor) in the area.

Morning side is situated in a high mountain face, in the middle of a mountain range. Thus fog is common during good part of the year, making the climate chilly. Regular drizzling reminds the climate of “Horton planes” in the central highlands.

Since morning side is an entrance to the Sinharaja rain forest, there is a forest lodge maintained by the Department of forest conservation. It can house ten people easily and bookings should be done from the head office at Battaramulla.

Forest lodge and the morning side estate are situated about 7 KM into the forest from the main road. Condition of this road demands a four wheel drive (off-road) vehicle to get there.

From the morning side forest lodge, there is a trail crossing the morning side estate into the forest which stretches about 7 kilometers. This trail ends with a waterfall called “Doowili Ella” (dust fall). The only other trail leads to a natural pool filled with icy cold water.

Morning side is a magnificent part of this majestic forest which carries such beauty and charm to one’s eyes. There is no doubt that we should put our full effort to protect this land for generations to come together with the Sinharaja. So if you are a responsible nature lover, consider morning side for your next intimate escape and experience the nature at its best.

Remember to take back only pics and good memories with you and leave behind only footsteps.

And don’t forget to Share your experience with us too :)

References:
("Sinharajaye Himidiri Pedesa (Divaina 2009/05/17) - Jagath Kanaharaarachchi)

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Hotels

Ampara

Ratna Rest Inn
no 579,Dharmapala mawatha,Ampara
Tel: +94632224951,+940777756490

Ariyawan Rest
KP-66, Nawagampura Road, Ampara
Tel: +940632223801

Kandy

Le Kandyan Resort
Heerassagala, Peradeniya
Tel:+94082233521, +94082233522, +94082226186, +94082233947

Earls' Regency
Thennekumbura,Kandy
Tel :+940812422122

Topaz
Anniewatte,Kandy
+940812224150
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