21/10/2023
Another successful tour with England family 🇬🇧🇱🇰
Madu ganga | 2023.10.14
The amphibic landscape of Madu ganga (Madu River) is Sri Lanka’s largest remaining mangrove swamp, home to several fish and reptile species. It’s a fantastic birding territory, too. Together with the smaller Randombe Lake, which is situated closer to the ocean, but further south, and linked with Madu River by two natural channels, it forms the Madu Ganga Wetland, inhabited by more than 300 species of plants and almost 250 species of vertebrate animals. Due to its rich biodiversity, Madu Ganga was listed under the International Ramsar Convention on Wetlands, an international treaty for the conservation and sustainable use of wetlands. The Convention on Wetlands is named after the city of Ramsar in Iran, where it was signed in 1971.
Halfway between the two popular coastal towns Bentota and Hikkaduwa, the mainroad A2 crosses the river mouth of the Madu Ganga. Farther upstream, this Madu River forms complicated network of mangrove swamps and a wide open lake dotted with islets. Both “32 islands” and “64 islands” are promonotional names for Madu Ganga Lake, though there are actually fewer islets. The lake is sometimes called lagoon. But it’s a river lagoon, the water is only slightly brackish, not as saline as seawater lagoons opening to the ocean. Madu Ganga could yet be called a freshwater lake. There are only two genuine seawater lagoons at Sri Lanka’s southwestern coast, namely Kalutara and Bentota. All the other so-called lagoons are linked to the ocean not by wide openings but by flowing narrow rivers. There is virtually a chain of such slightly saline river lagoons between Colombo and Galle, namely Bolgoda Lake in Moratuwa, Owinka Lake, Dedduwa Lake, Madu Ganga, Madampe Lake, Hikaduwa Ganga and Ratgama Lake, Madu Ganga being by far the largest of them.
Due to its location close to many popular beach resorts, Madu Ganga is a perfect destination for single-day excursions. Spending your holidays in the area between Beruwela and Galle, you should indeed not miss to enjoy this scenic boat ride. The Madu Ganga boat safari is an attraction rich in variety indeed. This activity will last for one and a half or two hours, in order to visit two islets and have time enough for a fish massage. The boat rides are on offer by several competing boat operators near the river mouth, located close to the main road.
Full boat ride itineraries should include the temple “Kothduwa Rajamaha Viharaya” as the farest point in 5 km distance and also visit Cinnamon Isle on the way and ride through two different stretches of mangrove forests and also come as closely as possible to the ocean.
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