In and Around Inginiyagala with Monks

The map | Spill in pink, Ovagiriya in violet, path in green | Click Map to Enlarge

Mount Inginiyagala as seen from Pallan hela

Inginiyagala is a well-known travel destination for most of us but have you’ll ever noted the mountain peak which forms one side of the dam? The summit of mount Inginiyagala (1035ft) is one of those most scenic points I have ever seen which is why I wanted to climb it so much. So together with few friends working at Ampara, I decided to give it a try on a public holiday. So we arrived at the starting point which is the “Inginiyagala Piriwena” at around 9am. There is a path starting from the temple which will take you to one of the peaks which the locals call as “Punchi Siri Pade”. Four little monks from the temple did volunteer to take us to the summit happily with no hesitation at all.

Dam of Senanayake reservoir

view towards ul hela of Gal oya park

Gal oya reservoir

drought

The path will first take one towards the Mini pagoda built on a rock from where you can see the fisheries of Inginiyagala clearly. From here onwards the uphill adventure was quite a challenge and the little monks were jumping, crawling, screaming and happily climbing uphill with us. We did take few pit stops before we reached the “Punchi Sri pade” summit where the “siri pathula” stone is kept for worship. Though the surrounding panoramic view was bit obscured we did identify some common landmarks such as Ali oluwa lake, Namal oya reservoir, parts of Gal oya reservoir, fisheries etc. after having some “Weera fruits” we descended a bit to find a rock pond which was formed in the rocky wall, which we had to climb up to collect some pure water to satisfy the thirsty young ones and our four legged guide (a temple dog)

our guides

plucking Weera

the mini pagoda

Weera

the wise one

more to climb

Wasp’s in vicinity

a natural cave

the little monks

they really loved taking snaps

Punchi siri pade

on the summit of punchi siri pade

the siri pathula

towards Ali oluwa lake

Wadinagala, Walasgala, govinda hela and part of jayanthi wewa can be seen

Gal oya reservoir through the bushes

an old mill

Govinda hela and walasgala zoomed

Pallan hela seen on the right

the other peak which we need to get to

mans best friend

getting down from the rock pond

crystal clear water

I actually wanted to get to the second peak but time was a major factor on that day. So I would add some info about the second peak which I visited recently for the sake of completeness. Actually the second peak is not so far away and one need to go along the neck which connects both peaks together and it won’t even take 15 minutes to reach it. After tackling some bushes we came to the 2nd peak which has one of the best views as I expected and I would never forget the scenery which I enjoyed on my second visit. From the top of Mount Inginiyagala one can easily visualize the Gal oya reservoir, the dam and the bund house, the spill, fisheries, Pallan hela, mountains of Damana, Ekgal oya, wadinagala, Ul hela, Danigala and Rathugala mountains, the Iginiyagala – Wadinagala road, Gal oya power house and out of all of them I loved the sight of bathing elephants. Very close to the summit there is a huge cave which belonged to the “Vedda” called “Igini” which can easily accommodate 100 people.

Namal oya reservoir

towards Makare

namal oya zoomed

on the way scenery

the cave of IGINI

the perfect shelter on the summit

the summit of Iginiyagala

a Panorama of gal oya reservoir

towards Wadinagala

the 1Km bund of the reservoir

wow!

the forest reserve

towards the spill

The spill of inginiyagala zoomed

time for a bath

hay are you fine pal

Senanayake reservoir

the fisheries

the power house and gal oya

the drop

the largest reservoir in Sri Lanka

drought has affected the water level

an isolated island

classic

superb scenery

the bund house

The downhill journey on both occasions was tricky and we lost are way on both instances, while descending we came across a Wasp hive and fortunately we saw it on time before experiencing nightmares in day light. After getting down to the mini “sthupa” we had some bread to satisfy our hungry stomachs, before we left the temple premises saying good bye to the little monks.

Atamba

having some bread

Spill of senanayake reservoir

on the spill

Our next plan was to visit Kossapola camp site and enjoy the dusk while spotting few elephants and birds. And guess what we were lucky enough to achieve our objective before leaving the camp site. At around 5.30 pm just before the sun decided to set we arrived at Ampara tank and watched how the sun disappeared to rise again on another day.

on the way to Kossapola

mixed with nature

care of a mother

oh three jumbos seen far away

and more of them

towards Wadinagala

a fish eagle

Bark gecko

an Indian roller

a Path of an Elephant

I really love this picture

Fly away birdy

no idea

honestly I wanted to have a dip

at Ampara tank

sun sayed good bye to us

Walking on gold

Friends

Wadinagala at the back drop of Sama Pagoda

lit up

annual gathering

Next day morning my friend and I left towards Deegavapiya and on the way we did stop at Irakkamam tank too. Before reaching Deegavapiya we took the right hand turn towards Deegavapi “Parivara sthupaya” which seemed to be a modified place with nothing much ancient to be found. At this point we were lucky enough to observe a fish eagle at close range by a nearby tank before leaving towards Deegavapiya. Deegavapiya premises remained crowded at that day we visited, because the previous day was a full moon day. It was very interesting to witness excavation been carried out in large scale. After having a “Beli mal” drink with “hakuru” we left towards Ampara where I had to say good bye to my friend.

Sun rise on the very next day

fishing at Irakkamam lake

seems like all are fishing

at Deegavapiya Pariwara pagoda

scenery from Deegavapi pariwara pagoda

another majestic fish eagle

in action

a Brahmin kite

Deegavapiya

to be re constructed

parts of the wahalkada

steps

excavated

part of a budhdha statue and some siri patul stones

Athulu maluwa

Elephants

inside the newly built image house

Since it was around 8am I decided to go to Kondawattawana in search of some ancient ruins (this place is very difficult to find). A farmer volunteered and showed me some ruins which were across an elephant fence. Sadly there was no one in this deserted area to inquire further about any other ruins. So ending my brief visit I got in to a Iginiyagala bus and left towards Ovagiriya(at Polwatte junction) which is a very unique road side archeological reserve that one needs to visit. At that time the most fascinating findings were the Budhdha statue resembling the Maligawila statue and the remains of the building which had two floors once. At that stage the pagoda was not excavated but recently after they excavated it I paid another visit to see this unique construction where the “athulu maluwa” was found to be an Octangle in shape. After hanging around a bit I had to decide to end my plans of any further adventures because my camera battery ran dead. So I got in to the very next bus and returned back to Monaragala with some awesome memories.

the board which led no where

a ancient building at Kondawattawana

few stone pillars

lush green kondawattawana

the kondawattawana lake

ruins at Ovagiriya

the statue and remnats of the image house

more ruins

serene

note the korawak gala and , moon stone

steps

a chatra stone

another building

ancient tiles

remnants of a two floor building

minature umbrellas

in July

in October

note the octangle shape of the athulu maluwa

excavated

vandalized years ago

a siri pathul stone