This was a hastily organized trip as my initial plan was to do “eli hatha”, but inability to do it in 1 day forced me to abandon it 2 days earlier. Since the weekend was free I was determined to go somewhere and my initial idea was the knuckles but inability to find accommodation resulted in dropping that too.

With 1 day to go we decided to go waterfall hunting knowing that the four of us would be able to find lodging in Nuwaraeliya.

On the 18th two of us left delgoda at about 4am and picked up the other two crew members from ambepussa and we were past gampola when the sun was rising above the mountains. It was a beautiful morning with a slight chill in the air and the scenery that unfolded before us when we drove past nawalapitiya on the talawakelle road was simply amazing.

Sun about to rise	Nawalapitiya-Talawakelle road views
More stunning views..
Kadianlena/Kataboola falls upper part	Kadianlena/Kataboola falls lower part
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Views past Kataboola	View towards Nawalapitya/Gampola past Kataboola
Roadside cascade

We were making slow progress as we spent more time enjoying the stunning views that was spreading before us as we gained altitude.

Next on the cards was mt.vernon and poonkanda falls (previously visited by Ashan) in dimbula but we couldn’t find a person who could lead us to the two waterfalls since everyone we asked had no idea about it until 1 person directed us to this particular fall (name unknown)

Unknown waterfall	.
On all fours….it was a difficult climb back up	Devon falls

St.Clair falls

Dunsinane-Sheen falls

Dunsinane-Sheen falls lower part

Unknown waterfall close to Nuwaraeliya main road

We reached nuwaraeliya at around 4.30pm and after a quick lunch we headed to lovers leap falls. Although nuwaraeliya experienced heavy rains a couple of days earlier lovers leap falls was just a trickle.

Lovers leap falls

Panoramic view of sunset over Nuwaraeliya

Next day morning we were greeted by a clear view of Sri Pada

Sri pada from Nuwaraeliya

At around 9.30am we left Nuwaraeliya heading towards welimada with the intention of visiting “Rawan Ella” and “Manawela falls” which are situated in the uva-paranagama area. We reached “ambagasdowa” junction and asked for directions towards Rawan ella but nobody knew of such a waterfall (everyone we asked laughed at us saying what we were looking for is at ella).

We were determined to somehow visit the waterfall and seeing the falls we were looking for was close to “bomburu ella” according to the survey dept. map we drove towards uva-paranagama..

On the right track (Click Image to Enlarge)

Rawan ella

.	Top part of the falls

Side view of Manawela falls

Manawela falls

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Manawela falls seen from udapussellawa road

We hit the road again heading towards udapussellawa and was amazed as to how the climate changed the moment we crossed the district boundaries of Nuwaraeliya and Badulla.

The road we came (welimada area – warm and sunny)

This picture (nuwaraeliya side-misty and cold) was taken within 1km of travelling from the previous one

Uda pussellawa covered in mist

Roadside cascade

Would have been beautiful had it had more water

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Ragala too was misty and cold

Randenigala reservoir zoomed from walapane

Walapne

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After a refreshing bath at belihuloya(raja mawatha) it was time to head back home and into the real world after a wonderful journey searching for waterfalls.

Crew after river bath

-THE END-