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.

Around 4.30pm, the clouds arrived thick and fast and we heard the distance rumble of thunder making us run all the way back to Nava mama’s house. If I had any hope of doing Lakegala, this nearly made it the last nail of the coffin. Having come back and lying in one of the mattresses cursing the rain and thunder with all the bad words I could think wasn’t gonna help my cause but I kept at it. The sky split into many pieces with lightning and I decided to call it quits.

Around 8.00pm, everything settled down and thunder and rain vanished without a trace of them being just a short while ago and my hopes soared into the sky. I went and asked Nava mama, “Mama, shall we go no matter what happens? To hell with this rain and thundering.” He must’ve sensed my state and very reluctantly agreed. I came and broke the news to Dodam and asked if he’d wanna join the hike regardless of what happens and he jumped in. That settled everything in under 5mins and we were ready to go.

I started around 5.30 am on Poya day with my wife and younger son and reached Eheliyagoda and turned left along Dehiowita road and reached Eheliyagoda Rubber estate where you can see Bisodola Ella. Then we came back to A4 and turned left before Kuruvita junction to reach Bopath Ella.

Following day we all got up early in the morning and had a cool dip in Kumbukkan oya and then packed our stuff to go. We started the journey as early as possible so that it would definitely help to avoid the burning heat. For the day three, our target was Navaladi hot water wells. Very first group crossed the river at Madamethota and thereafter no one was allowed crossing from there due to high water levels.

සිංහල ජනතාව අතර “කතරගම දෙවියන්” යන නමින් ද හින්දු ජනතාව අතර “මුරුගන්”, “ස්කන්ධ” යන නමින් ප්රචලිත කතරගම දෙවියන් පිළිබඳ ජනප්රවාද රාශියක් තිබේ. කතරගම දෙවියන්ගේ උපත පිළිබඳව විවිධ මතිමතාන්තර තිබේ. ඉන් එක් මතයක් වන්නේ ඊශ්වර හෙවත් ශිවගේත් පාර්වතියගේත් පුතකු ලෙස ස්කන්ධ කුමරු උපත ලද බවයි.

ur First stop was the MalwattaMahaViharaya opposite the DaladaMaligawa. It is one of the major Buddhist monasteries of two nikayas (orders) of ‘Theravada’ Buddhism in Sri Lanka. Malwatte Maha Viharaya and the Asgiri Maha Viharaya are the responsible caretakers of the sacred tooth relic in Kandy.

We booked the campsite early and arranged everything for 3 nights. Drive up to kumana was soo long and tiring. We left Gampaha around 11.30 in the night. Stopped several times and reached Arugambay around 8.30 am. Spent around 2 hours in the beach and went to Panama to meet our jeep guy, Sena. He is the only Sinhala guy operating in the area.

We started the journey around 10 from Colombo. Our target is to reach Kudiramale point before 4. We stopped at Halawata to fill our cooler boxes. We reached Wilpattu border around 3.30, but unfortunately that road was closed because of rain. It’s better if there’s a way to know that before we turn that way from Puttalam, but even Villages did not know that. So we had to turn back and go around the park to reach Mannar

One of my favorite hiking places is knuckles. I can still remember my first trip to knuckles about decade back. It was in 2003 and we went to Meemure and hike Lakegala Mountain. After that I went several times to Knuckles range with different entry points. Last time in April 2013 we hike Knuckles peaks. After this I had a dream to climb highest peak in Knuckles range, its Gombaniya Mountain. I read a trip report published in LAKDASUN.

Year and Month July, 2013 (12th to 15th) Number of Days Four Day Trip Crew 3 on 12 & 13 July & 4 on 14 & 15 July (Age: Classified) - Tony, Lasantha, Dimuthu and Me with our helpful host Nava mama Accommodation Nava Mama’s House (081-3804191) – Best place to stay with a real village […]

Year and Month April, 2013 Number of Days Four Day Trip Crew Five (Myself, wife, daughter and two sons) Accommodation Four Tees Rest Inn at Mannar and a private house at Wilpattu Transport Car Activities A Family trip, Visiting Adam’s bridge, Wild life Weather Excellent Route Gampaha -> Puttalam -> Nochchiyagama -> Oyamaduwa -> Thanthirimale -> […]

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