| Year and Month | March, 2015 (27th to 29th) |
| Number of Days | Three Day Trip |
| Crew | 9 (between 25-50 years of age) |
| Accommodation | EkgalOya forest department bungalow |
| Transport | Toyota Dolphin Van |
| Activities | Wildlife, Photography, Hiking |
| Weather | Excellent |
| Route | Colombo -> Ratnapura -> Udawalawe -> Thanamalwila -> Wellawaya -> Monaragala -> Wettambuyaya -> Siyambalanduwa -> Wadinagala -> Ekgaloya -> Digawapiya -> Buddangala and return on the same route. |
| Tips, Notes and Special remark |
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| Author | Ranitha |
| Comments | Discuss this trip report, provide feedback or make suggestions at Lakdasun Forum on the thread |
We started form the suburbs of Colombo at about 4.30 in the morning. The crew was 9 in a Toyota van. We were fully geared up for two nights and 3 days.
The drive to wettambuyaya was quite effortless. The road via udawalawe is in good condtion, thanks to Ashan’s and suneth’s info via lakdasung we managed contact Ajith who is the contact person to take us to wettambuyaya, not even the local villages there are familiar with this place or its value. the service of guide is a must as there is about 6-8KM distance from the main road to “wettambugala” in “wettambuyaya”. The main turn off is at “kodayana” KST corn factory, it’s a large corn factory near by the road, a landmark that cannot be missed .a vehicle can only go up to certain point through the corn fields afterwards it’s either by three-wheeler or foot, unless you have a 4*4 drive
 The road was in bad shape and not reachable by van so we stared the walk |
 Even Ajith’s three-wheeler got stuck at some points |
After completing about 3-4km distance walk we managed to arrive at “wettambugala “, from their also you need to climb a rock and go to the other side of the rock
 Making our way to the rock |
 Not easy on a hot day |
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Once on the other side of the rock, the paintings can be seen. According to ajith, there were many paintings earlier but slowly they are disappearing because no authority is taking any action to preserve them
 An elephant like picture |
 Some of the paintings |
 Pictures that are fading |
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Ajith who helped us to come to this place
After the visiting “wettambugala” in “wettambuyaya” .Ajith showed us a place to buy vegetables and showed us a place to have lunch also , he was extremely helpful to us.
after having the lunch we straightaway went to “Ekgaloya” forest department bungalow, the main turn off point was 34 mile post and on the left hand side there is a notice board saying “Ekgal oya kandawura”,
 Dining Area |
 River to bath |
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 The evening was certainly beautiful from here |
The place is designed very beautifully, but the maintenance of the property is extremely disappointing the property can accommodate 12-15 people , and has about 5 rooms altogether, but out of all the 4 toilets in the property only 1 was functioning properly, so is the other in bathrooms faclities no showers /no bath room doors
The property had a cook earlier and he has left and has not come back, the person who cook’s there is not an actual cook he has little knowledge on the subject , despite that they only have very limited cutlery ,for example one single burner to cook everything in the kitchen , so it takes considerable amount of time to prepare all meals (we had a problem when we wanted to leave earlier to senanayake samudraya for the boat ride to makare), basic crockery such as cane openers is not even their
Not even the rooms /toilets were cleaned when we got their , its sad to see a beautiful located and designed property going to waste
On the second day we went “senanya samudraya”
 We had previously booked the boat via “inginiyagala” wild life department office its about 7800/- to “makare” |
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 We spotted this giant coming out if the water |
 Along the river |
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 Hunting |
 This is somewhat sad to see, some fisherman’s have laid their nets but didn’t come collect the catch |
 This is somewhat sad to see, some fisherman’s have laid their nets but didn’t come collect the catch |
 “Makare” we wanted go to the other side but the water level was too high so we were advise not to leave the boat |
After 4 hour boat ride and having lunch we went to” buddangala” , from our place to Ampara and then to “buddangala” it’s about 20km but the journey doesn’t take that long because of the good road and less traffic
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 This was interesting |
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After visiting buddangala we went to “digawapiya” one of the places lord Buddha has visited
 Click Image to Enlarge |
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 Leaving ekgaloya |
it was a memorable experience to all of us ,with some of the guys joining us after some years. We discussed our next trip and hopefully we will start planning it soon
below are some contact numbers which might be useful to any one going their
Ajith wettumbuyaya guide 0772657465
Forest Dept.Ekgal oya – 0632222685
Wild life Inginiyagala – 063 2242 002
jagath Jeep safari GalOya -0773838454