Since we have not been to down south for a while thought to organize family trip to Kataragama and then to Yala national park. We took following root starting from Matugama and crew was 3 adults and my son who is just 3 years old 🙂 and we were traveling by car.

1st Day – 18th July 2011

We took Galle road and we depart from home early morning 5.30 AM since we are planning to visit Weherahena and Wawrukannala temples in Matara as part of this trip. Took our breakfast at Koggala beach and drive towards Matara and arrived at weherahena around 9 AM. Since this is a week day (Monday) there were only few visitors to the temple and we had good chance to observe the Lord Buddha statue (It says tallest statue in Sri Lanka but not sure since Kandewihara Lord Buddha statue might be taller than that) and also Umang wihara (tunnel) art works as well.

Koggala beach – Galle road

Weherahena Raja maha viharaya – Matara

Next destination was Wawrukanala temple at Dikwela and it was nice to see great Load Buddha statue and also the famous tunnel paintings and Sculptures to represent Yama Raja and Apaya (under word). It is sad to say that most of the paintings are ruined and damaged by visitors 🙁

Wewurukannala Raja maha Viharaya – Dikwella (Matara)	Yama raja statue at Wewurukannala raja maha viharaya
Ancient clock at Wewurukannala raja maha viharaya

Road condition from Tangalle to Ambalantota was in excellent condition and drive speed was almost between 90 to 100 Km/h and at last got caught to Police for crossing single line 🙂 Had to pay the price (Rs. 550 penalty) and such a time wastage 🙂

There was so many massive construction work going on at Hambantota – Weerawila area due to 2018 Commonwealth Games preparations (Not sure whether 2018 games will be given to Sri Lanka or Gold Coast – Australia). Here roads are extremely wide and in top condition and you are welcome drive at top speed. 🙂

salterns (ලුණු ලේවාය) at Hambantota	Wind mills to produce electricity at Hambantota
Beauty of mother nature – Weerawila

We arrived Tissamaharama around 1.00 PM and we took our lunch close to Tissamaharama tank. This is a nice place to relax and perfect place for Bird watching in the Tissamaharama tank. If you have a Binocular you can easily observe so many water birds and also if you have time you can take a boat ride around the lake for Rs. 500

Tissamaharama tank – best place for Birth watching

You can have a boat ride in Tissamaharama tank

After the lunch we rushed to Kataragama and drive towards Katagamuwa to visit Sithulpawwa temple. Road was in gravel condition and dusty but there were only few potholes and we drove almost 50 KM/h speed across the Kataragama protected wild life sanctuary towards Katagamuwa entrance point of Yala. Middle of the way we observed few birds including
Blue-faced Malkoha

Katagamuwa entrance point to Yala was still closed for visitors and totally governed by the SL Army. We heard that they are going to open Katagamuwa entrance to Yala on 30th July 2011. We took permission from Army personal to drive towards Sithulpawwa and it is 18 KM from Kataragama to Sithulpawwa and it took about 1/2 hour drive to reach there.

Sithulpawwa was nice place to overview Yala national park in birds eye and temple and facilities were well maintained. At sithulpawwa we saw Tusk elephant which had got used to visit temple area to eat garbage thrown by visitors. There were large group of wild monkeys (25 to 50) at temple premises where we parked our vehicle and while we were out they took vehicle under their custody and we had to fight back to drive them away. 🙂

Kataragama dewalaya - Kataragama	Kiri-wehera chaithyaya – Kataragama
Tusk elephant at Sithulpawwa raja maha viharaya	“Leave me alone” – Deer at Sithulpawwa raja maha viharaya
Man made pond at rock mountain at Sithulpawwa Raja maha viharaya	Ancient විහාර ගෙය at Sithulpawwa temple
Yala national park from Sithulpawwa mountain	කුට්ටම් පොකුණ (Twin Ponds) at Sithulpawwa Temple
Small වැව (tank) at Sithulpawwa	කුඩා සිතුල්පව්ව
Sithulpawwa chaithyaya

Our next destination was Yoda kandiya (close to Kirinda) and there was 35 KM gravel road from Sithulpawa to Yoda kandiya but we heard road condition was not good and therefore we came back to Kataragama and visited Kiri wehera raja maha vihara Temple and then to Kataragama Dewalaya. Due to dry weather water level in Manik ganga was very low.

We drive back to Tissamaharama and drive to Yoda kandiya situated 6 KM from Tissamaharama towards Kirinda. We stay night at Duminda rest house at Yoda kandiya own by Harsha. He was very friendly and helpful to arrange Safari jeep for us to visit Yala next day. Duminda rest house was privately owned small guest house having 3 rooms with attached bath rooms with basic facilities. Room was clean and furnished with 2 double beds. It cost Rs 1000/= for 1 night (room only) and it is well worth to its price. If anyone interested to stay here and arrange Safari jeeps to visit Yala you may call Harsha’s mobile – 0726645587

2nd day – 19th July 2011

Next day we gotup early morning (4 am) and prepared to visit Yala, and our Safari Jeep – Land rover owned by Priyantha came to the guest house around 5 AM early morning. Road condition from Yala junction to Palatupana entrance (12 KM) was in bad condition. We took tickets from the office and there was a museum and an information center at ticketing office providing details regarding the Yala wild life sanctuary. We took tickets for 4 people and for the Guide / Trekker (Priyantha) cost almost Rs. 900/=

Our guide Priyantha told us that there was no raining for almost 2 and 1/2 months and due to that reason Yala was very dry and dusty. We had to wear handkerchief across the nose and mouth (මුඛවාඩම්) to protect from dust when driving through gravel roads inside Yala. Since it was early morning we had a good chance to observe so many birds including following.

1. GREY HERON (Alu Koka)
2. BLACK-CROWNED NIGHT HERON (Re-koka)
3. BLACK-NECKED STORK (Ali-manava)
4. PAINTED STORK (Latuvekiya)
5. BLACK-HEADED IBIS (Hisakalu Deketta)
6. ASIAN OPENBILL(Asiya Vivaratuduva)
7. PIED KINGFISHER (Gomara-pilihuduva)
8. COMMON KINGFISHER (Mal Pilihuduva)
9. SRI LANKA JUNGLEFOWL (Sri Lanka Vali Kukula)
10. INDIAN PEAFOWL (Monara)
11. MALABAR PIED HORNBILL (Poru-kedetta)
12. GREEN BEE-EATER (Punchi Binguharaya)
13. GREEN IMPERIAL PIGEON (Nila Mahagoya)
14. COMMON WOODSHRIKE (Podu Vana-seratitta)
15. ASIAN PARADISE-FLYCATCHER (Asiya Rehenmara)

Also we observe following animals while driving though Yala Park

1. wild rabbit
2. Wild fox
3. wild boar
4. wild buffalo
5. Deer and Gona
6. Crocodile
7. Civet cat (Urulewa)
8. Sri Lankan Leopard

Priyantha’s Land-rower safari jeep	Museum and information center at Yala entrace / ticketing center
Yala entrance	Skeleton (head) of a dead elephant
Off-road experience	Green bee eater
Very rare incident – Peacock (Monara) fully extending feathers	Wild Buffalo – other names “Kula” / “gawara”
his deer wounded by vehicle accident and unable to walk. Our guide tring to help	Wild rabbit – “හාවා”
Wild fox – "හිවලා" / "නරියා"	වළි කුකුලා - Jungle Fowl
Small deer	Female peacock with kids
Water birds	Manik ganga
Giant kumbuk tree at Manik ganga	Nature’s beauty at Manik ganga
Another view from the middle of Manik ganga	Closer view of deer
Flock of wild pigs drinking water	Wild Buffalo enjoying the water bathing
Wild pigs enjoying mud bathing

We are so much lucky to observe 2 Leopards in a tree top. Since it was far away from the Jeep we had to use Binoculars to observe them (too bad it was out of my camera zoom range ) Also we had to face unexpected incident close to Manik ganga block inside Yala. We were at Manik ganga river taking some photographs and suddenly a troop of monkeys were making distress calls (indicating near by danger) and our Trekker / Guide asked us to immediately get in to Jeep since a Leopard was some where close to us. Calls of Monkeys were heard very closely, I guess almost within 100 meters range. We rushed in to Jeep and Priyantha asked Jeep driver to go through the road towards where we heard Monkeys shouting. Just after 50 meters from Manik ganga our Tracker Priyantha found very fresh foot prints of passing by Leopard in the sand. We stay for a while anticipating to see a sight but unfortunately we missed the chance. I took a photograph of the foot print (see the photographs) to memorize this incident.

Very fresh foot print of Leopard – “දිවියා”

After spending almost 4 hours we were so much tired and lucky we had some sandwiches we took with us and we departed from Yala around 10.30 AM and drove towards Kirinda temple.

Kirinda temple and chaithya	Kirinda beach
විහාර මහා දේවි (Vihara maha devi) – statue at Kirinda

After that we drive back to Tissamaharama and took Pannegamuwa road towards Wellawaya road. However road was closed due to construction work and there was an alternative narrow road (recently concreted) that joined the middle of walawaya road. I am totally disappointed since I was planing to spend couple of hours at Weerawila tank and Pannegamuwa tank for Bird watching.

Yoda kandiya tank (between Tissamaharama and Kirinda)

Tissamaharama chaithya

Road condition from Tanamalwila to Udawalawe was perfect and we drove our car almost 100 KM/h. Close to Udawalawe we saw more than 5 elephants waiting near the electric fence until someone offer them food. I stop the car and took some photographs as well. There were some small shops close by and I asked whether those elephants come everyday and their response was people throwing fruits (pooja wati) close to fence and due to that reason elephants used to come and eat them.

Just after drive over the Udawalawe dam (View of Udawalawe tank and surrounding from the dam was fantastic), We went to Udawalawe – ඇත් අතුරු සෙවන : The elephant transit Home and we were happy to see baby elephants feeding with milk and enjoyed their freedom after that. While we were there one of the Safari Jeep fellows asked us to visit Udawalawe for Rs 2500 (I am not sure if this the correct cost for a Jeep safari in Udawalawe ?) but we refused since we are totally tired after Yala trip.

Elephant near electric fence at Udawalawe	Udawalawe tank
Baby elephants at “ඇත් අතුරු සෙවන” – Udawalawe	Baby elephant enjoy freedom after milk feeding

We drove across Godakawela towards Palmadula and took shortcut to Niwithigala from Kahawata that leads to nice road across beautiful tea plantations in Rathnapura district. After reaching niwitigala we took road towards Kalawana and then to Baduraliya. We came across Athwaltota and nice to drive across this road and we almost feel like we are going across Sinharaja rain forest

After Baduraliya we drive to Matugama and and finaly we are back home.