Gal Oya National Park -Gal-oya special*

After the successful entry of “Nilgala”, the sanchare team visited “Gal-oya National park” for this week programme. Gal Oya National Park in Sri Lanka was established in 1954 with an area of 25,900 hectare surrounded by Senanayake Samudra. The park serves as the main catchment area for Senanayake Samudraya. Senanayake Samudraya was built under the Gal Oya development project by damming the Gal Oya at Inginiyagala in 1950

From Galloya

The specialty in *gal-oya special* is crossing the SAFARI through senanayake samudraya by boating or safari jeeps also could be used for accessing the park. Bird’s Island in the reservoir is an island used by birds for nesting. Where Gal Oya falls to the reservoir, water flows in a natural tunnel known as Makara Kata (Sinhalese for Dragon's mouth) or simply Makara.
Park wardon Mr. Buddhika recommends that the Best time to visit Gal Oya National Park is between Jan and April. The park is popular for Elephant watching. Anyone can enjoy the beauty of Gal Oya National park by either Boat or Jeep safaris. The boat safari is worthwhile and interesting as the reservoir has many small islands and it does not disturb the animals, you can have a closer look of the wild life and could see the swimming elephants one to the other islands. If you are doing a boat safari you will come across the “Bird Island” which is full with bird species. The jeep safaris consist of two tracks (one 5 km and other about 13 km). It is ideal for elephant, leopard watching and photographing.
There are 3 camping sites at gal-oya national park and one at lok-gal-oya, if you need to reserve please contact the wild life bungalow offices at Colombo or Ampara. In addition you could also get details of the 18 KM boat safari from Ga-oya bunt to Makare.
specially for catholic devotees :
Catholic could also visit Mother Mary’s church in the national park which is Similarly to Madu Shrine.
*gal oya special is a mostly spreaded arrack brand in Sri Lanka from Hingurana Sugar Copmany*


GAl OYA BOAT SAFARIView Larger Map