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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