Yakkuragala –යක්කුරාගල (600m)

Year and Month	2015 July 15^th
Number of Days	1
Crew	02-Sudesh and My self
Accommodation	N/A
Transport	Bus and Climbing
Activities	Mountain climbing and photography
Weather	Excellent
Route	Polonnaruwa->Dambulla (දඹුල්ල)->Kandalama junction (කණ්ඩලම) ->Kalogaha Ela (කලෝගහ ඇල) ->Yakkuragala (යක්කුරාගල)->Back to Dambulla->Polonnaruwa
Tips, Notes and Special remark	Start the journey in early morning. Carry at least 1-2liter of water for one person. No water sources in the mountain except origin of water spring. But there is a 100% chance to you to miss it. As we also accidentally found it. This is a moderate strenuous climb. No foot pathway. But it is not difficult as we had to walk under dry forest. On top of the peak wind flow is high. No risk of trap guns. Don’t pollute the area with plastic items It is easy to climb through forest plantation site rather than starting from one end of the mountain Better have a local guide.
Author	Niroshan
Comments	Discuss this trip report, provide feedback or make suggestions at Lakdasun Forum on the thread Yakkuragala – යක්කුරාගල (600m)

Yakkuragala was an isolated mountain with height situated in Dambulla area in between Dambulla-Matale (A9) and Dambulla-Bakamuna (බකමූණ) roads. As it has no archeology or historical importance, no body tries to climb it. Locals only visit there to pluck “Gal Siyambala”. Later I knew they also miss their return pathway once they reach the mountain.

Villagers believe “Yak Ura’s” (‍යක් ඌරා)-Devil Pig’s footsteps can be seen on the mountain. Therefore it is called Yakkuragala. But actual Yakkuragala is situated closer to the main Mountain.

Yakkuragala drew my attention when I was travelling from Dambulla to Kandy. Then I have climbed a number of nearby peaks. Therefore this was the remaining peak. According to my map reading the best side to climb it is from Dambulla-Bakamuna road.

Where Yakkuragala is situated – click to enlarge

Different view’s of Yakkuragala

Yakkuragala was captured on my way back from Gal Koth Kanda

Yakkuragala was captured when we were at Pleasure Island

View of Yakkuragala from Gal Koth Kanda.

We got Dambulla-Bakamuana bus and got down at Kalogahaela area (in between 6-7km posts) and reached the base of the mountain at 10am. (This time we had a late start) We were seeking for a point to start climbing and one villager said to start from one end of the mountain which is closer to the main road. Other villager told us to climb via forest plantation site (There is a forest replanting site closer to base of the mountain).Then we decided to enter the forest just before the end which is closer to the road.

It was successful and we reached the edge of the mountain first and then climb up to the highest point. Initial part of the climb had forest with a lot of bushes with thorns. But later it became a typical dry forest. We reached the highest point around 1.30pm.

On our way to the highest point we have passed two view points.

First part of the forest..No ascend…Flat

Climbing started……

It has short episodes of rock climbing as well

Our destination was seen in back

Through a cave….

On top of first view point

Back to forest

Second view point

Heading to second view point

ගල් සියඹලා

Typical dry forest. No under growth

Interesting tree pattern

Reaching the destination-highest point

On top of Yakkuragala you can have nice surrounding view. Beliya Kanda in Galewela, Dambulla cave temple, Ibbankatuwa tank, Kandalama Lake, Erawula Mountain, Gal Koth Kanda and Gedaragala pathana were seen. Far away points were: Manikdena peak, Arangala, Sigiriya and Pidurangala. After photo shooting on top of the peak we left it around 2pm.

Other end of the mountain: Point A seems at same level of the point we were. Point B is somewhat lower but it might provide good view towards other side. We didn’t try to go there.

Ibbankatuwa (ඉබ්බන්කටුව) Lake. Red arrow shows Pleasure Island (refer trip report http://trips.lakdasun.org/fun-at-pleasure-island.htm) and Black arrow shows Dambulla cricket stadium.

Ibbankatuwa (ඉබ්බන්කටුව) Lake. Red arrow shows Pleasure Island and Black arrow shows Dambulla cricket stadium.

Beliya Kanda-613m.

Dambulla rock, cave temple and golden plated Buddha statue

Gedaragala Pathana (ගෙදරගලපතන).

Puswellagolla (පුස්වෑල්ගොල්ල )-579m

Erawula Kanda-695m ( http://trips.lakdasun.org/view-point-of-kandalama-erawulagala-695m.htm) is shown in black arrow and Gal Koth Kanda-631m (http://trips.lakdasun.org/gal-koth-kanda-631m.htm) shown in red arrow.

Erawula Kanda-695m is shown in black arrow and Gal Koth Kanda-631m shown in red arrow.

Road towards Bakamuna

Fainted view of Manikdena peak-865m (http://trips.lakdasun.org/menikdena-peak-865m-and-archeology-site.htm) -in red arrow) and Arangala (792m) (in black arrow)

Fainted view of Manikdena peak-865m -in red arrow) and Arangala (792m) (in black arrow)

Paddy fields and vegetable plots were zoomed

Kandalama Tank. Sigiriya and Pidurangala are shown in black arrow.

our return journey is shown by white arrow. Black arrow shows where we climbed up.

We decided to come down through forest plantation site. Therefore we descended straight away down towards forest plantation site. It was not a smooth journey as descend was tough. Somehow we reached Dambulla-Bakamuna road around 3.30pm. On our way back we were fortunate to find origin of tiny water spring to fill up our thirsty.

We had a nice bath at Kalundawa Oya (කලුන්දෑව ඔය) before we got into the bus.