Seethawanniya (500m) / සීතවන්නිය

This is the second day of two days trip to Maha Oya. We have stayed at Wijewickrama Guest at Maha Oya last night. Maha Oya has limited accommodation options and Wijewickrama guest is the most easily available one at the town but not in good quality. We got the breakfast from “Homemade” at Maha Oya which can be recommended for meals. Our main target was Seethawanniya (සීතවන්නිය) peak which is standing with Rambakan Oya reservior. Seethawanniya is also a part of Nuwaragala forest reserve.
We successfully finished the hike Rawulagala / Pethangala in previous day and Keshan joined with us for Seethawanniya hike. Our access point to Seethawanniya was Pollebadda village (පොල්ලේබැද්ද ගම්මානය). The distance from Maha Oya town to Pollebadda is 10km and it has some gravel sections but can be managed by a car.
My last visit to Pollebadda was in 2019 in view of hiking Ethbadda and Nuwaragala. When we entered Pollebadda we met “Gunawardana Aththo”
(ගුණවර්ධන ඇත්තෝ) who is a Vedda lives at Pollebadda. He voluntarily came to show us Rambakan Oya reservior and it’s archeological site.
“Gunawardana Aththo “is said to as the leader of Pollebadda Vedda community at Pollebadda and Kasun knows him before.

First we came to see Rambakan Oya archeological site. Rambakan Oya archeological site has a slab inscription and ancient granite rock canal.
Rambakan Oya (රඹකැන් ඔය) which is a tributary of Mundeni Aru (මුන්දෙනි ආරු) and it is dammed for irrigation purpose of surrounding areas. History of ancient Rambakan Oya reservior goes back to King Saddhatissa (137-119 BC) and King Parakramabahu I (1153-1186 AC) periods. But ruins of rock canal remains today from ancient time and it is situated closer to new Rambakan Oya reservior. We were able to reach the place by car.

Rambakan Oya Ruins of Ancient Granite canal (රඹකැන් ඔය ඉපැරණි ගල් ඇල) (7.456282, 81.398746)
The canal has been built with massive interlocking granite slabs as a twin canal system to get connected with ancient Rambakan Oya dam. There is a slab inscription situated closer to these granite sluice mentioning the stone canal was built by Liyana Nayakayan and Kananthkan Vahanse who lived in Gal Weta area. It is about 250 feet long and no evidence to prove that the construction was completed or the reservior was functioned.

Information about ancient granite canal

Twin canal

Twin canal

Granite slabs of ancient Rambakan Oya canal

Granite slabs of ancient Rambakan Oya canal

Granite slabs of ancient Rambakan Oya canal

Rambakan Oya slab inscription

View of Gorikana Mountain

“Gunawardana Aththo” is delivering a voice cut

View of Seetha Wanniya

Then we have moved to visit new Rambakan Oya reservior. Here we followed a gravel road from archeology site to the Rambakan Oya spill canal and parked the car there. We have noticed locals come by vehicles to have a bath at this spill canal. But this gravel road is not suitable for a car. Then we got on to Rambakan Oya dam.

Rambakan Oya Reservior (රඹකැන් ඔය ජලාශය) (7.444476, 81.406379)
Rambakan Oya reservior is developed under Mahaweli Development project in view of irrigation purpose and drinking water. This project started in February 2007 and opening ceremony was held on 20th July 2013.
Rambakan Oya dam is an earthen dam of 1225m length to cross Rambakan Oya. It has 24.7m height. There are two spillways.
Rambakan Oya project is the 10th zone of Mahaweli Development project. Seetha Wanniya mountain range is situated on one side of the reservior and Gorikana Mountain (As “Goraka” (ගොරකා) trees are ample here it is called as Gorikana) is situated behind Rambakan Oya dam. In addition there are a lot of mountains seen to Rambakan Oya dam but I couldn’t identify them exactly as I am new to this area.

New Rambakan Oya reservior and dam

Rambakan Oya reservior and dam

Two spillways of Rambakan Oya reservior

Mountains seen to Rambakan Oya reservior.

Mountains seen to Rambakan Oya reservior.

Mountains seen to Rambakan Oya reservior.

Gorikana Mountain.

There are few caves situated closer to Rambakan Oya which were used by ancient Vedda people. Gunawardana Aththo has shown some of them and we said good bye him following this activity. We are interesting in seeking these caves lived by ancient Vedda people and there are few around Nuwaragala and Ethbadda. Therefore I would like to come in a separate report with these ancient caves.
Let’s move to our main target of the day-Seetha Wanniya / Seethawanniya

Dr. R.L. Spittle has described in his book of Vanished Trails how this mountain got the name Seethawanniya / Seetha Wanniya. (192-193 pages)

එක් කලෙක මෙහි විසූ සීටා නම් වැද්දෙක් විය. එක් දිනක් ලබු කැටයකුත් රැගෙන කැකුරන්පොළවට ගිය ඔහුගේ අඹුව වළෙන් දිය බොන බඹරුන් වගයක් දුටුවාය. පැය ගණනක් තිස්සේ මේ බඹරුමැස්සන් පසු පස්සේ වනයේ ගමන් කළ මේ වැදි ගැහැණිය මේ කියන සීතලවන්නියේ හෙල වෙතට පැමිණියාය. එහි බැද තිබුණ බඹරවද රාශියක් දුටුවාය. එතනින ආපසු ආ ගැහැනිය බොහෝ ප්‍රමාදවී දිය ගෙන ගෙදර ආවාය. දිය ගෙනෙන්නට ගොස් මෙතෙක් ප්‍රමාදවී පැමිණීම නිසා මැය අනිකෙකු හා යන්නාට ඇතයි සැක කළ ඇගේ සැමියා ඇගෙන් ඒ ගැන විමසුවේය. තමා බඹරවද බලා ගැනීමට බඹරුන් හමා ගිය බව ගැහැනිය දිවුරා කීවාය. හොදයි එහෙම නම් ඒ බඹරගල හෙට උදේ මට පෙන්වන්ට ඕනෑ යයි වැද්දා තරවටු කලේය. පසුව දා උදයේ අඹු සැමි දෙදෙනා එක්ව බඹරගල සොයා ගියෝය. එහිවූ බඹරවද රාශිය දුටු වැද්දා ඒවා කොටාගැනීමට බිරිදත් සමග හෙල මුදුනට නැoගේය. ගලමුදුනෙන් පහළ බඹර කඩා ගැනීමට වුවමනා සදහා අවශය දේ සපයා ගැනීමට මෙහිදී දෙදෙනා දෑතකට ගියහ. වැද්දා ඉණිමගට වේවැලක් හා කිරිවැල් ද සපයා ගෙන එන විට වැදි ගැහැනිය ඊට කලින් වැල් ඇදගෙන අවුත් ඉණිමග තනා බඹර කොටාගෙනත් ඉවර බව, හේ දුටුවේය. මෙයින් පුදුමයටත් අඹුවට පැරදයාම ගැන ලජ්ජාවටත් පැමිණි සීටා වැද්දා එකෙණෙහි ගලෙන් පහලට පැන දිවි නසාගත්තේය. මෙතැන් සිට මේ ගලට සීටාවන්නියා මළ හෙල යයි නම් වී පසුව එය සීතල වන්නිය හෙල යයි වවහාරයට ආවේ යයි මෙහි ගම්මු කියති. Quoted from “මැකී ගිය දඩ මo” translation of Vanished Trails.

Metric map of Seethawanniya. (Circled). Here you can’t see Rambakan Oya reservior as this is an old map. One of the old Vedda villages called “Kurunduwinna” is marked here but it was submerged with Rambakan Oya reservior.

Seetha Wanniya / Seethawanniya / Seethalawanniya (7.440989, 81.426825) (සීත වන්නිය)
There is a gravel road in left bank of Rambakan Oya. We have followed it according to the Google map and Seethawanniya was seen in our left hand side. Seethawanniya has two peaks to be conquered. With guidance of Google map we got into the forest and started the hike. Throughout this journey we were cautious about wild elephant as they can come across at any time. Within about an hour time we were able to reach the first peak of Seethawanniya. Both peaks of Seethawanniya were amazing viewpoints of Rambakan Oya reservior and dam. In addition to Rambakan Oya reservior we were able to view Madiyagala, Kokagala, Viyana Hela side, Oyabodahela (the one next to Seethawanniya), Walimbe Hela, Wadinagala, Govinda Hela etc. Ethbadda and Nuwaragala side was covered by the forest.

Along the left border of Rambakan Oya Reservior

Along the left border of Rambakan Oya Reservior

Gorikana and Omanugala (far) are seen to Rambakan Oya

Mighty Kokagala

We were so careful about wild elephants especially at this stretch of the journey

Seethawanniya

One peak of Seethawanniya

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Get into the dry zone forest

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Rambakan Oya reservior and dam. Here you can see the spill canal of Rambakan Oya reservior (right side). We stopped our vehicle closer to this canal and followed the way along the bank of the reservior.

Rambakan Oya reservior and dam. Towards Pollebadda village and Kokagala.

Other side of Rambakan Oya reservior

This mountain is mentioned as Oyabodahela (470m) in Google map.

Govinda Hela, Wadinagala and Senanayake Samudraya

Towards Dora Ira area

Mountains seen beyond Rambakan Oya reservior. The one rising in the middle must be Madiyagala.

Mountain seen beyond Rambakan Oya reservior. Towards Viyana Hela.

Towards Walimbe Hela. Here you can see typical appearance of Walimbe. Ethbadda is covered by forest

Close up of Walimbe Hela

Distance peak of Seethawanniya.

Distance peak of Seethawanniya. “Sada Sulang Kadawadina Gal Ge” (සැඩ සුලo කඩා වදින ගල්ගේ) is situated here.

On top of Seethawanniya peak-Shashi Gayashan

On top of Seethawanniya peak-Kasun Lakmal

On top of Seethawanniya peak- Duranga

After having enough pictures from this peak we were back to forest and moved towards the second peak of Seethawanniya. “Sada Sulang Kada Wadina Galapita Galge” (සැඩ සුලo කඩා වදින ගලපිට ගල්ගේ) is situated here. Dr.R.L.Spittel also has mentioned about this cave in his book called Vanished Trails (page 37). This cave gets roaring wind due to it’s situation on top of a mountain. There is a unique slab rock at this peak where everyone get snaps at it’s edge

Back to forest

Famous slab rock of Seethawanniya

The famous slab rock of Seethawanniya where everyone gets pictures

The famous slab rock of Seethawanniya where everyone gets pictures

The famous slab rock of Seethawanniya where everyone gets pictures

On top of second peak of Seethawanniya. The cave is shown by an arrow.

View of Rambakan Oya reservior to second peak.

First peak of Seethawanniya is seen

When we were at Seethawanniya, mist came and wrapped around to give the real meaning of Seethawanniya. I was able to fly the drone at first peak as it had more flat surface than second peak.

Mist came in between Seethawanniya and Oyabodahela.

Mist came.

.	End of another successful journey.

When we were at second peak of Seethawanniya. Another information we could get from this picture is provincial border of Eastern and Uva lies next to Seethawanniya second peak.

Summary of the journey to Seethawanniya.

Aerial photos taken from Seethawanniya

Over Seethawanniya

First peak of Seethawanniya

Second peak of Seethawanniya. Walimbe Hela is seen behind.

Rambakan Oya reservior, dam and spill canal.

I was able to identify number of distance peaks in this picture. It includes Kokagala, Madiyagala, Hela Gala, Amunehela, Avalahela and Viyanhela. I would have taken this shot bit higher.

We expected a rain following the mist. Therefore we were hurry to get back to the vehicle. Luckily rain came when we passed Pollebadda village. It was the end of another successful hike at Nuwaragala forest reserve.

Thanks for reading