Peace in the country means that we can explore it at will and that was what took us to Mannar. Out of bounds until recently, exploring Mannar was an unforgettable experience as the area is steeped in both history and culture. After a lovely lunch at Four Tees, the first day had us exploring Mannar. The Fort and some birding at the Vankalai Sanctuary was all what we could manage

රාත්රිටය පිලියන්දල ගත කලෙමු. පසු දින උදයේ ලබුනෝරුව බලා පිටත් විය. එදින දිවා ආහාරය ඉබ්බන්කටුව ජලාශය අසලදී ගත් අප ලබුනෝරුවට ළඟවනවිට සවස් වී තිබුනි. රිටිගල කඳු පාමුල පිහිටි ලබුනෝරුව ආරණ්ය සේනාසනය ඉතා නිස්කලංක ස්ථානයක් වන අතර ඊට මද දුරක් ඈතින් පිහිටා ඇති මූරියන්කඩවල වැව රිටිගල කන්දත් සමග දර්ශනීය දසුනක් මවාපායි

කැබලිත්ත සියඹලාව දේවාලය හාස්කම් වලින් පිරුණු ස්ථානයක් ලෙස බොහෝ දෙනාගේ පිළිගැනීමයි. පුරාවෘත්තයන්ට හා ජනප්රවවාදයට අනුව ඉන්දියාවේ සිට පැමිණි ස්කන්ධ කුමාර හෙවත්, කතරගම දෙවියන් ලංකාවේ නතර වීමට තීරණය කල බැවින්, එතුමන් පැම්ණි රන් ඔරුව ගල් කල බවත්, එම ස්ථානය රන් ඔරුගල නමින් හඳුන්වන බවත් සඳහන් වේ.

It was end of the monsoons and everywhere seemed to be flooded. I did have few free days in hand but couldn’t think of a better thing to do other than a rail hike. Since I dint get a chance to do a long distance hike after last year’s 90km “Pada Yathra” I thought of walking 70km along the railway backwards from Badulla. Usually many hikers do not do the Badulla – Haputale stretch because nothing much to see but you won’t believe, there are plenty to see around.

පිළියන්දලින් රාත්රී 11 ට පමන පිටත්වූ අප උදෑසන 9 පමණ වන විට පොතුවිල් මුහුදු මහා විහාරයට ලඟා වුනෙමු. කුමන පිවිසුමට ලඟාවන විට දහවල් 12 පමණ විය. එතැනින් දිවා ආහාරය ගත් අප අපේ පළමු දින නවාතැන වූ කුඹුක්කන් ඔය හෙරලිගස් ආර බලා පිටත් වුනෙමු. කුමන පිවිසුමෙන් ඇතුල්වූ අප බාගුර පිටිය, කුමන විල්ලුව, මඩමතොට පසු කරමින් 23 පමණ දුර ගෙවා හෙරලිගස් ආරට ලඟා වුනෙමු.

Ohiya is a rural village and one of the most scenic and coolest places in Sri Lanka. Normal temperature is less than 12 Celsius. It’s a lonely and sleepy town. The entire town consists of two boutiques and the railway station only. Nearest town by road is Boralanda (10 KM). Nearest Petrol shed is Welimada (22 KM).

Night of 7th April 2012. I was waiting for the Poththuvil bus at Kaduwela junction. The bus was expected in Kaduwela at 9.45p.m. The bus arrived on time. Since we had spoken to the bus crew in advance they had seats reserved for me and Priyanjan. With extra loud music on, the bus sped along deserted roads at night.

We wanted to leave as early as possible but we also wanted to make sure that we see the sunrise from the eastern most point. With what we experienced in the previous day we were determined to ride as much as possible before noon. So we loaded everything in bicycles first and then went to the beach to see the sunrise.

It dawned to the second day of our cycle tour across the country. By 6.00 a.m. we were on the road leaving Uhana, heading towards Polwatta Junction. The Himidurawa road to Polwatta was great cycling route with lots of scenery and diversity.

Dawn of our third day of the tour was a very colorful one. As usual we were on the road by 6.00 a.m. We had to track back about 1km from the temple to find the gravel road through Nilgala forest towards Komana.

The night under stars in Maduruoya National Park was incident free. The first task of the day following morning was to pay an early morning visit to the Ulhitiya reservoir to see the Sunrise. It was just few hundred meters away from the wildlife office. We came back to the main irrigation canal and took the gravel road that ran parallel to the canal.

After a good night sleep we woke up to witness a beautiful morning in the middle of Knuckles range. Plan for the day was to cross over to the A9 highway at Naula, riding through some remote roads winding through knuckles range. As usual the departure time was 6.00 a.m. We thanked ශාන්ත අය්යා for the great help and hospitality and wished them all a happy new year. Then we started our journey towards Puwakpitiya from Illukkumbura via the Sera Ella road.