Taking time off to relax saw us heading deep down south a few weeks ago. Our destination was Sella Kataragama where SLAF has chalets for its officers. Travelling was easy as we took E1 to Matara. The drive was a breeze! A short stop at Devundra was all what we needed.

Few weeks back, I saw a clip of the cave on Sirasa news, which looked like Nil Diya Pokuna. Worried about the excessive exposure it could get, I sat in front of the TV, waiting for the story. Thank god! It’s not Nil Diya Pokuna but Sthreepura. Immediately, I called my partner in crime. (You can watch the short clip here )

This was a long awaited trip for Wuminda and me. I could gather enough information about Mannar and places on the way to Mannar by reading Lakdasun reports. We started the journey from Colombo around 7.30am due to my job commitments. On the way we have visited some other places and reached Mannar around 8.30pm. (I will discuss it later by a separate report). We were warmly welcome by Mr.Rohan at Four Tees Inn.

Every university has its favourite destination and this time I picked one of those places for a change. Been a Colombo Uni guy our favourite destination was the western coastal line other universities like Peradeniya has Hanthana range, Uva Wellassa has Namunukula & Sabaragamuwa has Adara kanda. As usual I searched for literature on the web but found nothing convincing about “adara kanda” though there were many images of Sabaragamuwa university students hiking in hundreds. So the best way to get more info is to explore it ourselves.

I had a dream experiencing a bird eye view from my childhood and finally I was able to achieve that in 2012. I was almost satisfied about that dream. However accidentally I heard about another thrilling ride called ‘Para-motoring’ last year which I never heard before.

Waterfalls have always been my great passion and will always be. It’s such pleasure to go see them flowing down in their pristine white veils looking like angels descended straight from heaven. However it’s so painful and depressing to witness the tragic situation enveloping these gorgeous virgins by the vicious, greedy and ignorant people in our country.

The future of them looks so uncertain and I wonder how many of them will still be standing in a few years. So my aim to go see as many of these beauties has to be intensified especially in the monsoon season. I was glad when Hasitha called asking what my plans were for Poson. Tony and I celebrated Vesak skirting around Deraniyagala and the prospects of doing something similar on Poson lifted my spirits tenfold. I suggested we visit Bambarella following Niroshana’s footsteps. Even though Hasi had been there before, he still wanted to do it once again as there had been very little water at the time due to the drought.

Ambokka which is an isolated mountain situated at the border of Kurunegala-Matale districts. (Border of Wayamba-Central provinces). It is also called Kondagala කොන්ඩගල (looks like a bunch of hair) and Salagama Kanda (සැලගම කන්ද). Special feature of this mountain is, most of the time peak is wrapped by the mist. No other peaks in this area are covered by the mist like this.

රුහුණු කතරගම දෙවියන්ගේ පිහිට ප්රාaර්ථනා කරගැනීමට කතරගම දේවාලයට එන බැතිමතුන් කතරගම දෙවියන් පිදීම සඳහා යන තවත් අනුහස් ඇති ස්ථානයක් යාල වනෝද්යාgනයේ පිහිටා තිබේ. ඒ සියඹලාව හෙවත් කැබිලිත්ත දේවාලයයි.දෙවියන්ගේ කැලය ලෙස අතීතයේ ජනයා හැදින්වු මෙම ඓතිහාසික භූමිය පිහිට ඇත්තේ යාල වනෝද්යාිනයේ කළාප අංක 3 කොටසේය.

eading Sri’s report made a few of us think of getting the wheel chair that was needed by the little boy in Kohonawala. With Sri’s help we made contact with the Hamuduruwo to get a bit more information. During the conversation he spoke of many older people who had bad eye sight but were unable not get spectacles. So could we arrange for something to be done about it?

Ritigala the giant of ancient capital Anuradhapura stands tall with an altitude of 766m and is the best view point of north central Sri Lanka. Ritigala is an important asset to us in terms of history, folklore and bio diversity. It is the birth place of Malwatu oya and during the North – East monsoons it receives heavy showers more than any other place in the region. Most of the time there is a veil of mist covering its summit.

Just after Hari’s Doowili Eli Hike, I received a call asking if I’d like to join him for a leisure journey as he felt he deserved a break after the mighty hike. I too didn’t mind one so long as it met my expectations. Fortunately, Hari managed to convince Sanketha too to join and we decided to go to Elpitiya where one of the least heard and explored Andahelena Falls is located.

He’d come across Malaka’s Trip Report about this waterfall and the nearby Monastery, Diwankaralena and we thought it’d be a good opportunity for us to visit them at a snail’s speed. He set the date for 15 May and it turned out I will of course not have a break as Tony and I were to visit waterfalls in Ratnapura and Deraniyagala on 13 and 14 May.

We set off around 6.30am on the 15th May in Sanketha’s car and I was grateful for that coz 550+km on two consecutive days sitting on the back of Tony’s old bike had taken its toll on me.

The five-day holiday following Vesak Poya was a long awaited event in the calendar and we planned to venture into an area that we have never explored – Namunukula and Ella. Ella of course we have passed many times en route from Wellawaya, but Namunukula was a totally new destination.