We have visited the Bulathkohupitiya area recently while we going to another function of one of our friends. It was a clear day and had enough water level to feel nature’s voice in this magnificent environment. We have visited several waterfalls and fortunately, there was enough water at this time. Also, we have climbed up to the Olu fall and caught the amazing beauty hidden at the top area.

The area called Dumbara will come across after passing Ella Dewalaya (ඇල්ල ලග දේවාලය) following Ingiriya town in Panadura-Rathnapura road (A 8). You have to cross the bridge over Kalu Ganga at Elle Dewalaya and turn to right to go to Dumbara. This shady road and misty treetops give the feeling of Knuckles-Dumbara when you drive there.

The Olde Empire Hotel building, which is located within walking distance from the sacred Buddhist Temple of the Tooth, was established as a coffee factory over 110 years ago has been declared a conserved building in the world heritage city of Kandy by the United Nations. The building was converted to a Hotel in the late 1800s.

This is the first time that my wife visited peak wilderness for the pilgrimage of holy foot-print. We had this on a poya day as the Uda Maluwa is open on poya days. We headed to Hatton by night mail the previous day and we have arranged a van to pick up us from there and to Nallathanniya for Rs.3,500/-. We started our hike in the dawn and slowly we were able to reach the summit at 12 noon and fortunately, the Uda Maluwa was open for worship.

දින දින නොඅඩු දින පුද පැවති මනහර
දනමන රඳන සැදි ගෙඋයන් සිරිත් සර
වැජඹෙන පසිඳු මහ රයිගම්පුර අතුර
බබළන සොඳුරු වීදාගම මහ වෙහෙර

Labuheladola Waterfall chain is a hidden waterfall in the area as there is a risky path but we were get notified of this from one of our contact at the Gawawragiriya. After that, he was able to give the exact details of the area and the path and advised us to be more careful as the path is too risky.

We had another day to enjoy by hunting a few hidden waterfalls in Horana and Ellagawa which were we noted during our previous journeys. We headed from Bandaragama and continue the first visit to Ella Kanda Ella/ Elle Kanda Fall/ Elle Kanda Ella which is near to the famous Ella Kanda Dewalaya. This was what we identified on our previous journey to Wanahami Cave complex.

Bambugala is a small tower type peak situated near to the Narangamuwa Lakegala/ Komalewegala. The hike should start from Narangamuwa and offline GPS is needed to find the exact locations without following any wrong directions. It is not far from the Narangamuwa but we can follow the usual pathway which is from Narangamuwa village to Komalewegala via Uyangomuwa.

Bypassing Uyangomuwa we can get entered to the left side forest where the Rehessa located. And after that, we can directly go to the Bambugala plains as we can see the Bambugala at Rehessa. Bambugala plain has a small slope and we can follow the ridge of the plain up to the Bambugala peak. The tallest peak looks like a Cylinder which is called in Sinhala as “Bambu”

Be more careful once you step into the summit of the peak as it has a very limited area to climb. It is not suitable to climb this during a heavy windy season as if something got wrong you will have died.

This hike was planned by Nirosh as he has noticed this place according to a blog post. After I joined with him at Bandaragama we headed to the location and parked our bike near a village house and walked along the footpath. There was a small path but it is not much clear. However, within a few minutes, we were able to reach the cave complex, and the environment and the caves are really attractive and beautiful. Below is the blog post that Nirosh kept and we followed.

This was the first official trip I had after joining. This was to Habarana Village by Cinnamon for 3 days and we have enjoyed a lot and I and two of my friends had a small adventure on massive Habarana lake as it was fully dried. We walk around the lake and crossed it and again walked for nearly 2Km on the river to explore the atmosphere to get an understanding of the status of a dried lake.

After the Covid-19 pandemic situation, we had our first journey to Sripada on Erathna route especially to check about the status of the name boards and dust bins which we were placed in December 2019 during our Cleaning project. We informed to PHI Kuruwita and had this hike without informing anyone as the offseason hike is not yet started at that time.

We were lucky to invited from Manusath Derana to lead the cleaning project on Kuruwita – Erathna route on this massive project. As we planned we came to the Galwangediya Ambalama and get down via Erathna route for cleaning and collecting garbage. It took all over the day and Derana has provided garbage bags and some stuff for the participants and it was much easier for everyone too.