Coastal Belt from Chilaw to Kalpitiya

The stretch of coastline North of Colombo up to Chilaw has been quite popular for tourism and leisure activities for a long time.

After the situation of the country turns better the tourism industry seem to be thriving in this region and beyond. Recently the region North of Chilaw up to Kalpitiya is also attracted by many large scale hotel companies both local and foreign.

The coastal belt between Chilaw and Kalpitiya up to now remains as a quite remote area explored by a few tourists and locals only. This region is rich with unique natural eco-system that is not found in other parts of the country. One such place is Anawilundawa area, which I mentioned sometime back. In addition the Mundal Lagoon area, the coastal belt up to Kalpitiya and the most of the main land coastline up to Wilpattu National Park and beyond, still remain as unspoiled area.

The above picture was taken at the beach front east of Anawilundawa close to a small fishing village called, Udappuwa.

Banyan Tree

Banyan (Nuga) trees are kind of nature’s wonder to me. The large numbers of aerial roots which are coming down from the branches grow into thick trunks later on. An older banyan tree would have hundreds of such smaller trunks all around the main trunk.

An old banyan tree is a photographer’s delight and this particular photo was taken near the famous Thalawila Church in the North Western Province (Wayamba) of Sri Lanka.

Anawilundawa

This interesting scenery was seen at a place called Anawilundawa in the Puttalam District. You can reach here via Colombo – Puttalam Road. A traveler had to turn towards the sea side after Baththulu Oya.

This area is connected to Mundal Lagoon South of Puttalam. It is a marshy area but very scenic in its own unique way. The watery landscape is full of different types of water lilies like Olu and Manel. The land is generally grassy but lots of thick forest patches can be seen.

It is a great place for bird watchers and to my knowledge, Anawilundawa is already identified as a bird sanctuary.

Wonderful Rock Formations

This amazing rock was seen near Arankele.

Infact I have seen quite a few similar rock formations in Wayamba and North Western Provinces. It is difficult to explain how it is balanced over there but definitely this must have created over thousands of years of sunlight, wind and rain.

It is another remarkable creation of mother nature.

Ethugalpuraya

Ethugalpuraya or Kurunegala is famous for its many surrounding rock formations. Out of them, Ethagala (Elephant rock), Anda gala (Eel rock) and Ibba gala (Tortoise Rock) are more famous rock outcrops. The name Ethugalpuraya must have derived from Ethagala which is very prominent from the town.

You can climb all of the rocks and make sure you do it early in the morning or late in the evening otherwise the heat reflected from the rock will be quite unbearable.

The view from Ethagala is superb and you can see the whole Kurunegala town, the wewa (Reservoir or tank) and endless 360 degree panaroma till the horizon!

See more pictures of Ethagala from amilatravels.blogspot.com.

Arankele Monastery

There are hundreds of monasteries all over the country where buddhist monks live closer to the nature practising meditation.

Anyone can visit such places, but you have to observe extreme silence.

One such attractive place is situated about 20km from Kurunegala town in Arankele close to Hiripitiya. There are long and straight walking paths and terraces through the forest. This place has lots of ruins of ancient buddhist temples as well.

Can there be a better place for meditation than closer to the nature?