A day at Danagala Estate

Danagala Estate /දනාගල වතුයාය (6.798550, 80.225195)

Danagala estate is a private property situated at Idangoda-Rathnapura area. This estate spreads over hundreds of Acers consisting of Tea, Rubber and variety of fruits specially Rambutan and Dorian. Dr. Nath who is the owner of the estate has invited me to spend a day at this beautiful estate. This journey occurred as a result of that invitation and Kasun Shanaka, Dimal and Keshan have joined with me for this trip. As we have planned to reach the estate by evening, on our way to the estate we visited Bandaragama Lake and Madakada Aranya. This was my second visit to Madakada Aranya. (More details are in Madakada Aranya and Nachchimale Dola report)

Some photos of Madakada Aranya / මඩකඩ ආරණය

Madakada Aranya Senasanaya is a monastery located about 1 mile (1.6 km) towards Padukka from Ingiriya. The history of this monastery goes back to 1940, when there were over 100 meditative monks living there. The new monastery was built by Rev. Ranwala Saddhatissa Thero in 1948. In ancient times, this area was a forest with caves. After the arrival of Saddhatissa Thero for his meditations, it became a forest monastery.
Madakada Aranya is one of the premier Vipassana meditation centers in the country. It has branches in places such as Navinna and Salgala. Presently, there are about sixteen resident monks and seven resident laymen practicing Vipassana meditation at any given time. The local community, which is primarily Buddhist, looks after the day-to-day needs of the devotees.
There are about 12–15 meditation caves here. The main cave has many Buddha statues and paintings and is decorated with flowers. The monastery is situated in a Natural Forest Reservation. A stream called Nachchimale flows through one boundary of the monastery. There are many local plants, birds, rare butterfly species, and wild animals in this environment.(Quoted from Wikipedia)

Enter to the hermitage

Walking pathways

Walking pathways

Message…

Good boy….

Nachchimale Dola is situated closer to Madakada Aranya

Rising up….

Nachchimale Dola…

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Bo tree

.	Group of devotees came for alms giving

After visiting Madakada Aranya we were back to Panadura-Rathnapura road and reached Dammulla junction. Here you have to get left hand turn to reach Danagala Estate. It was a narrow road with some bends but can be managed with a low ground vehicle. The distance to estate entrance from Dammulla junction is 7.7Km.

The bungalow is the hall mark of this estate and statues of Rome mythology stand on your way to the bungalow. We have passed a small but beautiful waterfall where my drone had a dip as well. The waterfall has a shallow pool to have a safe bath. The estate bungalow is demarcated by surrounding due to it’s white and blue paintings. As this place is situated at about 200m attitude it provides a nice surrounding view including Gawaragiriya Mountain and Thorana Kotha Mountain.
Next day morning we started to explore the estate. It was like walking through Rambutan estate and we were fully saturated with Rambutan. I felt that we have visited the estate at ideal time. In addition, there were number of ripen Dorian but none of us were Dorian lovers. We hiked to the highest place of the estate.

A statue comes in Roman Mythology

A statue comes in Roman Mythology

Small waterfall comes across in your way to the bungalow

The pool with waterfall where you can have a safe bath.

Another place of natural pool

Estate bungalow

Danagala estate bungalow

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The evening was misty and cool

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.	The mountain situated in front of the estate

Next day morning

View from estate bungalow

View from the place of bungalow: Gawaragiriya (nearby) and Thoranakotha (pointed and far)

Gawaragiriya Mountain

Group photo

My crew

Rambutan trees were full

Ripen Rambutan

It was difficult them to get away from Rambutan trees

Shady path

Team goes to the highest point of the estate

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The view

Nath’s friends. Here I warmly remember Nuwan Sampath (second of left) who has passed away by an accident.

The picture without me

The picture with me

In addition to their main bungalow there are newly built villas at the estate. And most spectacular new addition is infinity pool.

Infinity pool of Danagala estate

Infinity pool with view.

One of the main tasks of our visit was to get some aerial snaps of Danagala estate. Let’s see them.

The estate bungalow at night

The estate bungalow at night

Estate bungalow demarcates from surrounding due to it’s blue paintings.

Aerial view of estate bungalow

The mountain situated just behind Danagala estate

View of Gawaragiriya at much higher level

Right top of the bungalow

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A sheath of mist goes over the estate

Drone photo of the waterfall situated at estate. Drone had an emergency landing into the water just after this photo.

It was another enjoyable two days at Danagala estate. I must thank Dr.Nath and his friends for their great hospitality.

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