Year and Month May, 2012 Number of Days One day Crew 2 Accommodation N/A Transport Public Transport & Trishaw (Sanjeewa the trishaw driver doubled as the guide) Activities Waterfall Hunting Weather clear sky Route Maharagama -> Pelmadulla -> Kuttupitiya -> Kirindi Ella -> Narangoda village-> Marakkala Ella-> Pelmadulla -> Pathakada -> Maharagama Tips, Notes and Special [...]

Westminister Abbey is an awkward name seen on each and every map of Sri Lanka. So I did a Google search when I was schooling few years (15 years) back to find out that this was an ancient place in SL called Govinda Hela. So I had done my reading and planned to go there someday but never thought I would do this on that particular day.

It was an extraordinary cool morning to Wellawaya. We waked up before the Sun and left the Little Rose Inn, the night stay of us at Wellawaya. We moved heading Diyaluma, as the first travel location of the day. The fall was rather young because it might rain at Bandarawela area, those days. Because Poonagalla Oya the stream Foamed Diyaluma, was originated from Bandarawela area.

Athwelthota is a well-known place for naturalist simply because many endemic species being found in this immensely bio diverse area. My visit was mainly to hunt few waterfalls which belong to Kaluthara district. I previously visited the same location in January 2012 but the water levels were so low due to the drought at that time. There have been few on and off showers around the island and that was enough to motivate me to re visit the area.

This time it was all about solving a mystery! Long ago there was a huge discussion in this forum about a waterfall called Galagama Falls which is marked on each and every SL map, but no one was aware about it other than few eye witnesses??. We decided to go in search of this waterfall of Belihul Oya, to solve the mystery.

Since I got my appointment at General Hospital Chilaw, I was planning to visit this place and finally the day arrived (almost after 1 year). I left towards Hettipola and beyond to meet one of my friends. We packed up our stuff and decided to go in his Maruti rather than the bike because it was drizzling. The mountain can be seen to the Chilaw-Kurunegala main road Between Hettipola & Medagama junction

Brandy rock is a unique rock and similar to Bathalegala in shape, when seen from Alawatugoda while travelling (on left hand side) on A-9 route towards Mathale. The rock is close by to Mathale but it’s hidden by the Wiltshire/Etigala kanda which is bordering the Mathale town. This rock is a well-known hiking destination but unfortunately there’s very few online literature.

Almost one week after the peacock hill adventure, it was time for another hike. Mount Kabaragala was an unknown mountain for me until one week back when I first saw it while I was on top of Monaragala. I had no idea about the geography and how to conquer it. Only few google images, survey departments map information and few photographs which I have taken few days back, were there for my aid. Kabaragala is unique in the sense it’s the tallest mountain peak of Dolosbage range and it has an almost flat terrain on top of it which makes you feel that you are walking in heaven.

How picturesque can a temple be? Without any special decorations, without twinkling multi-colored lights or spot lights which can be seen from miles away…? How many temples can be compared to the scenic beauty or the uniqueness of “Kothdoowa Raja Maha Viharaya”?

Year and Month February 2012 Number of Days One day trip Crew 2 ( 40-50 YEARS) Accommodation N/A Transport SUV/Jeep and motor boat from Fisheries harbour Activities Dolphin/Whale watching Weather From Hikkaduwa upto galle it was raining but eased up after that. By the time we started the weather was normal and the sun came [...]

Visiting ritigala has been on the cards for a long time now and the closest I got was a planned trip last August but had to cancel it at the last moment due to unavoidable circumstances. Yapahuwa too has been lingering in my mind for some time but never materialized. Due to the above reasons my initial idea was to do a 2 day trip but for that too work commitments got in the way and on the ‘thaipongal’ weekend on Saturday I hastily decided to do a one day trip the next day(Sunday) to visit the above places which I’ve never been to.

Hiyare Forest reserve is located just 18 km (about half an hour’s drive) Galle town. The 55 acre reservoir was built in 1911 to supply water to the Galle city and was only decommissioned in 2002. In 2003 the reservoir and 600 acres of the surrounding low country tropical rainforest was turned over to the Municipal Council of Galle.