I was waiting for a long holiday to travel around Siyabalanduwa as there are so many places in the list of mine to be visited & it is not worthy to travel Siyabalanduwa for a one day hike & return back on the same day. Sinhala Hindu new year holiday was the high time to plan this so, Govindahela was one destination that we visited during this journey.

We (Sampath & Myself) were lucky enough to grab two seats of Ampara private bus which was left at 10.00 pm from pettah bus stand with big crowd. It was around 6.00 am when we got down at 9^th mile post of Siyabalanduwa – Ampara road, only one tea shop was available to fill our packs. After the breakfast we walked another 100 m towards Ampara to reach Buddhist temple called “Buwanekaba Viharaya” at the right side of the road & giant Govindahela was standing behind it. Only a samanera thero was there at that moment who came with us till the Bo tree & showed us the path to the left side of the Bo tree. We continued our hike along that path through the silent forest passing few land marks. As we knew villagers used to hike this mountain frequently hence, we could notice steel bridges, cemented steps & ladders made by them to make the hike easier. We came across four steel ladders until the summit. Though these ladders were not in a good condition we could manage to ascend otherwise we had to turn back if these ladders were not there. Just before the summit we reached the view point called “Hulang Kapolla” which provided a clear view towards eastern part of the country.

After 2 hours hike we started to enjoy & explore the beauty of the nature from the top of Govindahela. We moved from one viewpoint to another & witnessed Degalhela mountain, Maragala mountain, Muthukandiya lake, Wadinagala mountain, Jayanthi lake, A25 main road, Walasgala mountain, Pallanhela mountain, Inginiyagala mountain, Senanayake reservoir, Konduruhela mountain, Pannelgama lake & many more.

Our target

Forest path

Steel bridge

a cave

a hiking partner

Steel ladder

Still in good condition

Thanks to the villagers

Difficult but manageable

@ Hulan kapolla, Konduru hela seen

View from Hulan kapolla

Reached the summit

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Ruins

Ruins

Pond No.01

2 man team

Greenish

Muthukandiya lake & Maragala

Degalhela is far in middle

Muthukandiya lake & Maragala

Pond No.02

Treasure hunters were there

Treasure hunters’ work

Wadinagala, Jayanthi lake, Senanayake reservoir & Walasgala

Towards Ampara

Pannelgama reservoir seen

Pannelgama reservoir

Konduru Hela

Sugala devi lake

Pannelgama reservoir & Konduru hela

Jayanthi lake, Walasgala & Inginiyagala

Jayanthi lake, Walasgala, Inginiyagala (zoomed)

Towards Monaragala

the drop

Degalhela seen

beauty

Wadinagala & Jayanthi lake

Ampara side.

towards Gal oya national park

Raining around Degalhela

Sampath – my hiking partner

with Shanthasiri thero

We wanted to get down to the temple before the rain but, it was started raining during the return journey which took nearly one hour. After reaching the temple we had a friendly chat with samanera thero then headed towards Inginiyagala for our next adventure.

Thanks for reading…