Ravana Ella( Ravana Falls)
It is on the Ella Wellawaya road and visible from the main road. Although the main drop is 30 ft in height, its a wide fall and the water rushes over several steps adding to its beauty.Ravana falls is closely linked in legend with the great epic of the east.Ramayanaya.It name is from Ravana, The powerful demon king who once ruled SriLanka.The cave hidden behind the fall is still believed by many to be one of the places where he hid the beautiful princess, Sita, after her abduction from India.
Peradeniya Botanical Garden
Situated in the Hill capital Kandy. This visit to this garden will provide spectacles at extraordinary beauty and absorbing interest for any nature lover and casual visitor. 68 miles off-Colombo, 4 miles off Kandy this garden dates from 14th century reign of king Vikrama Bahu III. Peradeniya is well know for it's large variety of plants ornaments, useful machine and other creepers that produce the special spices at Sri Lanka. The great lawns highlight huge tropical trees and variety at bamboo can be found in one place.The best know attraction of the garden is the orchid House, which houses more than 300 varieties of exquisite orchids. A spice garden gives you a first hand introduction to the trees and plants used for the traditional Ayurvedic medicine. Mahaweli river, Sri Lanka's longest river surrounding this garden gives an added beauty to this garden. It wont be wrong to say that this garden is one of it's best kind in the world and the best in Asia.
Maduru Oya National Park
The Maduru Oya National Park is located in the Dry Zone and is 300 k.m. away from Colombo and 58,849 hectares in extent. A wide variety of wildlife including some endemic birds species and reptiles are found here. Maduru Oya is rich in ancient ruins found in different places and its southern parts provide veddhas, indigenous people their living environment. Endemic purple monkey is among the important animal species that can be seen in addition to Sambhur, a member of the cat family etc. There is some endemic avifauna also found within this Park.
Horton Plains National Park
The Horton Plains National Park is the only National Park situated in the Hill Country and falls within the Nuwara Eliya district and is 200 km. away from Colombo. Panoramic scenic beauty of the Hill Country could be witnessed within the Park. The famous `Worlds End' is a major attraction within the Park. Endemic slender loris and endemic purple monkey are among the important animal species that could be seen in addition to sambhur, a member of the cat family etc. There is some endemic avifauna also found within this Park.
Wild Parks
Wild parks in Sri lanka
Sri Lanka has a rich and exotic variety of wildlife and a long tradition of conservation rooted in its 2,230 year old Buddhist civilization. The following are the most important sanctuaries in terms of attractions, accessibility and availability of facilities.
Animal Sanctuaries
The animals to be seen in Sri Lanka's national parks include elephant, leopard, sloth bear, sambhur, deer and monkeys, wild buffalo, wild boar (pig), porcupine, ant-eater, civet cat, jackal, mongoose, loris (unique to sri Lanka) several varieties of lizards, squirrels, reptiles and amphibians. Each park however has its own specialties.
Hikkaduwa
The beautiful world lies beneath the waves, and Sri Lanka offers a wide variety of experiences and vistas for photographers .Hikkaduwa reefs support five species of angel-fish and twelve species of butterfly-fish. These fish feed on coral tentacles and coral polyps. Statistics from the Hikkaduwa Marine Sanctuary have revealed that 18.2% of the lagoon area have live hard coral cover, 8.19% of coral rubble and 28.9% of dead corals.In this area, traditional fishing types such as angling and the use of cast nets are prevalent.
Hakgala Botanical Garden
Where plants and trees from around the world seen at homeHakgala Botanical Gardens, just 10km away from Nuwara Eliya City. Hakgala is one of the places one visits as an essential part of a pleasant journey in the famous hill resort of Nuwara Eliya. The site is legendary. It was once the pleasure garden of Ravana of the Ramayana epic and according to many, it was one of the places where the beautiful Sitha was hidden by the demon king. The present botanic gardens were founded in 1860 by the eminent British botanist Dr. G.H.K. Thwaites who was superintendent of the more famous gardens at Peradeniya, near Kandy.
t was the site initially for experiments with cinchona whose bark yielded quinine, esteemed as a tonic and febrifuge. Quinine at that time was widely used as a specific for malaria. This was perhaps the reason for the popularity of and tonic in these parts - quinine being the principle ingredient of tonic water.The cool, equable climate of the hakgala area, whose mean temperature is around 60 degrees Fahrenheit, encouraged the introduction of suitable temperate zone plants, both ornamental and useful. These included conifers and cedars from Australia, Bermuda and Japan, and cypresses from the Himalayas, china and as far a field as Persia, Mexico and California. New Caledonia gave Hakgala a special variety of pines and there are specimens of this genus from the canary Island as well.An English oak, introduced around 1890, commemorates the "hearts of oak" of Britain's vaunted sea power, and there is a good-looking specimen of the camphor tree, whose habitat is usually in regions above 12,000m.If you have left your heart in an English garden, you will surely find it again in Hakgala's Rose garden. where the sights and scents of these glorious blooms can be experienced in their infinite variety. From there it is a quiet stroll from the sublime to the exotic sophistication of the orchid House. A special attraction here is the verity of montane orchids, many of them endemic to Sri Lanka.It would be in the worst possible taste to describe the Fernery as a collection of "vascular cryptograms" But that is how the dictionary describes the plant whose delicate fronds conjure up visions of misty grottoes, lichen-covered stones and meandering streams. The Fernery at Hakgala is a shady harbour of many quiet walks, in the shad of the Hakgala Rock, shaped like the jawbone of an elephant, from which the place gets its name. Sri Lanka's ferns are well represented here, as are those of Australia and New Zealand.Hakgala is a temperate hill-country garden where also the languid low-country lotus and water lily floats in their serene loveliness. Pinks and blues emerging from a flat- floating background of lush leaves, recall the calm of yellow-robed monks, white-clad, devotees and flickering oil lamps.In time, the highlands bracing breezes dispel the languor of lotus land and even cause a shiver as a temperature lowers. The Hakgala Botanical Gardens is one of the lovely contrasts of Sri Lanka, a home to plants and trees from around the world, making them seem to be part of the scenic beauty.How to get to Hakgala: The nearest railway station is at Nanu Oya, from where there are buses or taxis on the Nuwara Eliya to Badulla road to Hakgala.
t was the site initially for experiments with cinchona whose bark yielded quinine, esteemed as a tonic and febrifuge. Quinine at that time was widely used as a specific for malaria. This was perhaps the reason for the popularity of and tonic in these parts - quinine being the principle ingredient of tonic water.The cool, equable climate of the hakgala area, whose mean temperature is around 60 degrees Fahrenheit, encouraged the introduction of suitable temperate zone plants, both ornamental and useful. These included conifers and cedars from Australia, Bermuda and Japan, and cypresses from the Himalayas, china and as far a field as Persia, Mexico and California. New Caledonia gave Hakgala a special variety of pines and there are specimens of this genus from the canary Island as well.An English oak, introduced around 1890, commemorates the "hearts of oak" of Britain's vaunted sea power, and there is a good-looking specimen of the camphor tree, whose habitat is usually in regions above 12,000m.If you have left your heart in an English garden, you will surely find it again in Hakgala's Rose garden. where the sights and scents of these glorious blooms can be experienced in their infinite variety. From there it is a quiet stroll from the sublime to the exotic sophistication of the orchid House. A special attraction here is the verity of montane orchids, many of them endemic to Sri Lanka.It would be in the worst possible taste to describe the Fernery as a collection of "vascular cryptograms" But that is how the dictionary describes the plant whose delicate fronds conjure up visions of misty grottoes, lichen-covered stones and meandering streams. The Fernery at Hakgala is a shady harbour of many quiet walks, in the shad of the Hakgala Rock, shaped like the jawbone of an elephant, from which the place gets its name. Sri Lanka's ferns are well represented here, as are those of Australia and New Zealand.Hakgala is a temperate hill-country garden where also the languid low-country lotus and water lily floats in their serene loveliness. Pinks and blues emerging from a flat- floating background of lush leaves, recall the calm of yellow-robed monks, white-clad, devotees and flickering oil lamps.In time, the highlands bracing breezes dispel the languor of lotus land and even cause a shiver as a temperature lowers. The Hakgala Botanical Gardens is one of the lovely contrasts of Sri Lanka, a home to plants and trees from around the world, making them seem to be part of the scenic beauty.How to get to Hakgala: The nearest railway station is at Nanu Oya, from where there are buses or taxis on the Nuwara Eliya to Badulla road to Hakgala.
Water Falls in Sri Lanka
Water falls
The mountains of Sri Lanka abound with waterfalls of exquisite beauty. Numbering more than hundred and many of them are virtually unknown, hidden away in forest or approached by steps and remote tea plantation tracks. In fact for its size Sri Lanka has recorded water falls than another country.Sri Lankas numerous revers, fed by two half yearly monsoons, with topography of high and steeply scarped peneplains, and rever beds of hard erosion-resistant metamorphic rock, all provide ideal ingredient for the formation of waterfalls.
Diyaluma Falls( skein of water)
Diyaluma ,on the Poonagala Oya rever off the Koslanda- Wellawaya road is another spectacular sight spilling over a straight rock wall. 559 ft in height. Diyaluma is often rated as Sri Lankas highest water falls, upstaging Bambarakanda.It is 13 km from Wellawaya town and 6 km from Koslanda in the Hills and seen like a soft veil, is seen from the Balangoda Wellawaya highway too.Legend says that Gods, seeing the heart break of a prince whose runaway romance ended in the death of his sweetheart whom he had tried haul over the Diyaluma precipice, created this beautiful cascade to weep forever in the wilderness.
Devon falls
Visitors to the Tea country get the opportunity of viewing it. 280 ft in height and viewing place for this lovely falls is from the 20th milepost on the Talawakelle Nawalapitiya road.
Bopath Ella (Bo-leaf fall)
Makes a leap of 100 ft on the Kurd gang, a tributary of the Kale ganga.a water fall not known for its height but for the sheer beauty of formation. The name Bo path Ella derives from its perfectly heart shaped head, much like the leaf of the sacred bo tree. It is one of the favorites picnic spot of Sri Lankans due to its proximity to the city of Colombo. just 15 km from Colombo-Ratnapura road, once reached the Higashena junction, and then branches off to the Agalawatta road and from there its only a few minutes
No comments:
Post a Comment