Madegala /Madiyagala (මාදේගල) (873m)….

Year and Month	2021 May 02nd
Number of Days	One
Crew	04-Amal Madawa, Prabath, Kasun Lakmal and Myself
Accommodation	Not Applicable
Transport	By car, tractor and hiking
Activities	Hiking and Photography
Weather	Excellent
Route	Colombo->Matara->Mattala->Buttala->Moneragala->Bibile->Ekiriyankumbura->Ekiriyankumbura Lake-> Madegala->Back along same route
Tips, Notes and Special remark	Locals called it as Madegala and Madiyagala is the name used in metric map. Locals hike to a rock at lower level to view the surrounding, but it is not the highest point. We didn’t go there. Be aware of wild elephants. We didn’t come across any or even fresh elephant dung. No risk of trap guns. The height of Madegala is 873m in metric map. We were not able to reach this highest point (7.311120, 81.263514) and the highest place of Madegala we reached was about 800m. (7.311079, 81.261517) A big thanks goes to Kalindu and his family.
Author	Niroshan
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Madegala (මාදේගල) (What locals called) / Madiyagala (මාදියගල) (mentioned at metric map) is an isolated mountain situated at Ekiriyankumbura-Padiyathalawa area. The important feature of this mountain is, it is situated at border of Badulla (Uva province) and Ampara (Eastern province) districts.

Madegala / Madiyagala in metric map. Please note it is situated at border of Badulla and Ampara districts.

I have noted Madiyagala at nearby two places: Kokagala and Viyanhela. Madiyagala is seen to Viyanhela as a range behind Amunehela.

Madegala is seen to Viyanhela behind Amunehela.

Madegala is seen to Kokagala.

This was the last hike before the third Corona wave pause our travel life. We have planned to hike Madegala from Ekiriyankumbura (ඇකිරියන්කුඹුර) side. Google map shows Ekiriyankumbura Lake situated at base of Madegala. Our main contact person was Kalindu who was a good friend of Kasun lives at Ekiriyankumbura.
Amal and Myself started the journey around 2am from Colombo to Matara via highway. Prabath and Kasun joined with us from Matara. Our long journey to Ekiriyankumbura ended at 8am. We have enjoyed the sun rise over paddies at Wellawaya.

Sun rise at Wellawaya

Sun rise at Wellawaya. Wadinahela Mountain is seen behind.

Our trail head started at bunt of Ekiriyankumbura Lake which is situated at base of Madegala. After having breakfast at Kalindu’s place he has arranged a tractor to drop us at lake bunt. Madegala rises as a giant behind Ekiriyankumbura Lake and Waradankuliya (වරදන්කුලිය) Mountain is seen at side of the lake. We followed the road on Lake Bunt and according to Google map we entered the forest. It was the journey through dry zone forest but ample of varied sizes of rocks were there. There was a water stream starting from Madegala and we have filled our bottles from it. A water tank has been built to collect this water to distribute.

At Kalindu’s place

Journey by tractor……

Journey by tractor…… Madegala range and Ekiriyankumbura Lake are also seen.

Ekiriyankumbura Lake and Waradankuliya Mountain

Madegala is seen to Ekiriyankumbura Lake.

Road over Ekiriyankumbura Lake bunt.

We have targeted the highest point of Madegala along a side ridge but it took a long time to hike along this ridge. Most of the time it was a continuous hike and we had to go around the rocks to overcome them. As it was a shaded path (most of the time
) we didn’t feel much tiredness. On the other hand it was a slow pace journey and we have come across a foot path towards the peak at middle of the journey. It took about four and half hours to reach a slab rock with surrounding view (7.310163, 81.260269) but it was not the highest point.

Amal (left), Prabath (middle) and Kasun Lakmal

Journey through dry zone forest

The ground is full of varied sizes of rocks to make the journey hard

Mushrooms

It was a continuous hike most of the time

Occasionally we had some open areas

Posed on our way up….

Time for a break

A cave

This slab rock is situated at the level of about 780m compared to highest point of Madegala at 873m. We were able to view Kokagala, Unukirigala, Maduru Oya reservior, Ulhitiya reservior, Kamburagala, Omanugala, Dimbulagala and Madulsima range. Amunehela and Viyanhela side was not clear to this slab rock due to forest cover. But we were able to view Viyanhela and Dhanigala (Gal Oya hills) by drone camera.

The slab rock with view

Ulhitiya reservior, Unukirigala, Kamburagala and Maduru Oya reservior

Kokagala zoomed. Thambaleygala (name according to metric map) is the mountain in between Kokagala and Madegala.

It’s raining…..

Highest point of Madegala

Kamburagala and Omanugala

Dimbulagala

Madulsima Range

The slab rock we have reached

The slab rock we have reached is circled by white. Viyanhela, Dhanigala Range, Amunehela and Avalahela are marked. Aerial picture

More close up view of Amunehela and Avalahela.

We have continued the journey towards the peak of Madegala following this slab rock. Unfortunately we could reach another one slab rock beyond the one we had the view. The approximate height of this slab rock was around 800m and we gave up the journey at this point. Reasons were
1. Seems it was not possible to move beyond this point. We have to try another way to reach the peak.
2. We were running out of time.

Therefore Madiyagala hike was an attempted hike and we turned back. It was around 4.30pm when we started to descend and followed bit separate way in getting down. Luckily we met a clear foot path people follow to reach the water tank situated at lower part of the mountain. It was around 6.30 pm (we ran in descend) when we reached the lake bunt.