New additions of Hambanthota

Year and Month	2021 January 10^th and 11^th
Number of Days	Two
Crew	Two
Accommodation	Saraii Village-Weerawila
Transport	Car
Activities	Sightseeing, Road trip and Photography
Weather	Sunny and Gloomy
Route	Colombo-> Sooriya Wewa exit through highway-> Mirijjawila Dry zone garden-> Weerawila-> Back to Hambanthota Birds park->Sooriya Wewa entrance->Colombo
Tips, Notes and Special remark	Start the journey early. Better have your own vehicle. As there a lot of new roads and sign boards at Hambanthota I used Google map as my guide to find directions. And it was successful most of the time. Better get directions from locals at some places as map can’t assess the road condition Mirijjawila Botanical Garden Early morning or evening would be better to visit at garden. Weekdays are the best as weekends and public holidays can be crowded. Ticket price to botanical garden is Rs 100 per SL adult. Flying the drone at Weerawila area is restricted as Weerawila domestic airport is situated. Garden opens from 8 am to 6pm but tickets issued till 5am. They will charge for commercial photography at garden. There is no cafeteria inside the garden except the one at entrance. But they have placed few drinking water spots at the garden. The café at entrance was closed on the day we visited. Better carry something to eat. They will advise to get an electric vehicle with a driver (guide) for a quick go through the garden in 1 hour. But I would like to recommend walking through the garden to enjoy it well. What I felt was soon after monsoon rain was the ideal time to visit the garden as surrounding is green. Birds Park Hambanthota If you are coming from Southern highway take Magampura exit and then come to Katuwewa Junction. The distance from Katuwewa Junction to Birds Park is 7km and sign boards are there. It opens all days from 6am to 6pm. Entrance fees for a local adult are Rs 350. Follow the directions at Bird Park as it would not miss anything. It would take 2-3 hours to have a leisure look towards birds at Bird Park. You can have photos while birds are on your arm. This activity costs Rs 500 for two persons. There is a cafeteria inside the bird park. Better carry a bottle of water. Birds resort is the hotel attached to Birds Park. You can have a free visit to Birds Park if you stay there.
Related Resources	Amazing Lanka Weerawila Reservior Official web site of Birds park-Hambanthota.
Author	Niroshan
Comments	Discuss this trip report, provide feedback or make suggestions at Lakdasun Forum on the thread New additions of Hambanthota

In 2013 I have visited to Hambanthota in archeological point of view. Hambanthota had a rapid development during last decade with development of highway, Mattala airport and Magampura port. Meanwhile government has established the Bird Park and dry zone botanical garden to draw tourist attraction to Hambanthota. The purpose of this journey was to visit at those to new attractions of Hambanthota.

We have started the journey from Colombo and exit through Sooriya Wewa gate to reach Botanical garden. On our way through highway we had breakfast at service center. Directions from Sooriya Wewa exit to dry zone botanical garden were straight forward.

Dry Zone Botanical garden-Mirijjawila (6.153425, 81.065986)
This is the new arrival to botanical garden list in Sri Lanka and it was built in 2006 exactly at Mirijjawila. If you are coming by highway, Sooriya Wewa exit is the closest one and there are 16km from Sooriya Wewa exit. It is on the side of Colombo-Katharagama road.

The purpose of establishing this garden were
1. Ex-situ conservation of dry and arid zone plants of Sri Lanka.
2. Dry zone landscape improvement.
3. Ecotourism promotion
4. Providing knowledge and training on botany and floriculture.
5. Promoting medicinal herbs
6. Studies on lesser known and underutilized plants in the dry zone.

This is the first Sri Lankan botanical garden developed by local experts and second largest garden in Sri Lanka.
The total area of this botanical garden is 300 acres and three lakes were built to moisture the garden: Kohombagas Wewa, Maliththangas Wewa and Demataththa Wewa. There are well paved paths from the entrance to different sections of the garden. They have attached sign boards on most of the trees to identify it. The road boarded by Willow trees was the most attractive place of the garden for me and we have spent a lot of time to get different captures there. There were a lot of dancing peacocks all over the garden. The Cactus house was full of wet zone plants and it was an amazing place to visit. The commonwealth circle was another interesting place where you can view a set of exotic plants.
We spent almost 3 hours to roam in this dry zone botanical garden and covered most of the places by foot.

At the entrance

At entrance

The lay out of the garden

Rain tree

Rain Tree Avenue

A structure

.	A water spot….

.	Kohombagas Wewa

Loitering in the garden

Student garden

Willow Avenue

At Willow avenue

Different posture

The road ends…

The water tower

The path to Cactus house

Wow….

Another drinking point….

Commonest bird at the garden

Colorful

Close up….

.	Systematic garden

Maliththangas Wewa Avenue

Maliththangas Wewa

Another peacock

At Maliththangas Wewa

Floriculture unit

.	Floriculture unit

Proposed desert model

A Rum tree

Rum

At cactus house

Inside the Cactus House

After spend hours with plants and flowers we headed to Weerawila. Saraii village at Weerawila was our place of stay at this journey. This is a unique eco-friendly place situated closer to Weerawila Lake. We have selected a tree house suit which is a two stories structure. This was my first experience on a tree house and it was amazing. The food was average and this place is calm and quite. Their restaurant, swimming pool and pool bar are other important places at Saraii village. It was a walking distance from Saraii village to the bank of Weerawila Lake. Early morning we have walked to Weerawila tank to get pictures of some birds. The special feature of Saraii village is they encourage responsible travelling.

Saraii Village-Weerawila (6.267046, 81.228918)

Tree house suite of Saraii Village

It is a calm and quite place surrounded by forest

Bed room

Swimming pool of Saraii village

They use salt instead of chlorine to clean the pool.

The swimming pool

At pool bar

Restaurant

Tree house at night

Living room of tree house

Morning at Weerawila Lake
Weerawila reservior is the biggest reservior in the Thissamaharama area. It is fed by the Kirindi Oya. The ancient Weerawila tank was reconstructed during the period of Sir Hugh Clifford (1925-27). The area of water spread of this reservior is 1400 acres and its capacity is 10,500 acre-feet at full supply level. The length of the reservior bund is 9240 feet and its height is 17 feet.

Colombo-Wellawaya road (A2) runs over Weerawila Lake.

Early morning we have walked from Saraii village to Weerawila Lake along the muddy road. The lake brim is good for bird watching. There were number of peacocks at shrub area around the tank.

.	Peacocks are common finding at Weerawila tank.

Fishing at Weerawila tank

Morning view of Weerawila Tank

.	At Weerawila Tank

Weerawila Tank

Over Weerawila. It is bit difficult to fly the drone as we are at restricted area.

Over Weerawila

Birds Park at Hambanthota was our next place of visit on second day. You can watch number of exotic and endemic birds within this premise.

Birds Park Hambanthota (6.216140, 81.090115)
This is the Asia’s largest birds park and research center. It spreads over 35acres and home for 180 varieties of endemic and exotic birds. There are around 3200 birds in this bird park. The premise is dedicated for bird enthusiast and those who study ornithology.
Birds Park is exactly situated at Nagarawewa-Hambanthota adjacent to Nagara Lake.
The exhibit areas of the birds park are Wetlands, Wings of Asia, Flightless birds, Macaw and Cockatoo zone and Parrot paradise. They have put an effort to breed critically endangered as well as endemic birds of Asia and Sri Lanka.
The lay out of the park is interesting and directions are mentioned since start to end. And they display a small description about each bird at cages. It took about 3hours to cover the whole bird park.
Let’s go through pictures of the birds park.