The coming weekend was Vesak holidays and there would be plenty of free food everywhere waiting for me to have a taste. So I decided to hang around Maha oya and experience the village style of celebrating Vesak though my main objective was visiting few archaeology sites. I got together with my batch mate Chanaka and arrived at Maha oya leisurely at around 9am and after having some breakfast we wanted to visit one of the Mega irrigation projects which was underway.

This year was not helpful at all for mountain climbers and whenever I planned one the weather conditions turned from bad to worst and it has been a gamble with the weather all the way long. So on a day with a relative good weather forecast I decided to climb a prominent peak at Passara which was on my “to do list” for a while. To appreciate a clear view one needs to climb as early as possible, so on the previous day I arrived at Mahadowa and took shelter at my staff members home which was few Km’s away.

It was a rainy Friday when I went to Gampola from Colombo to spend the weekend at my aunt’s place. I took the 5.50 am train from Colombo and reached Gampola at about 10.30 am. My mother was at my aunt’s place and as we were having a small chat, she wanted me to go to Haputale and deliver some documents to a relative. I was instantly willing to go because I have not been to Haputale for years. As soon as I was dreaming about going by train to Haputale, I remembered Ashan ayya’s trip report on his hike from Badulla to Ambewala 🙂 YES, I wanted to do at least a small bit of it.

I started looking for options for another journey and came across Kalthota Doovili Ella from Harinda and Prince. After our unsuccessful attempt at Asupini Ella, I was planning on visiting her again but intermittent rains kept me isolated only in my dreams. So Wuminda’s phone call was a disguised blessing and I immediately formed a group called “Balangoda” on Facebook and sent the requests to my former crew.

Nuwaragala the fortress on top of a rock in the deep forest of elephant country was once a dream, nevertheless just like many other dreams this one also came true. After getting guidance from Priyanjan who had been there last year, I got together with my friend Dumidu and decided to give it a try. Though it was raining elsewhere and drizzling on and off at Maha oya we went ahead with our plans.

It was a period of mixed weather and I had been away from temples and Archeology sites for a while so decided to have a small tour around Padiyathalawa and Maha oya region on a weekend. Visiting archeology sites and temples is not an easy task since there are many issues lately that cause significant problems and it’s essential to win the trust of the head priests these days otherwise you would be labeled as a “Nidan hora” and be arrested by the 119 squad. Despite all the barriers I decided continue on my quest so on a Saturday I headed towards Padiyathalawa and took a bus towards Wahawa to start things off.

Some friends came to our home to spend a holiday with us. As they hadn’t gone in a local train we decided to do a short train trip. The easiest trip to do was to take the morning train to Pattipola and to catch a train back home.

I Picked Sri from Embuldeniya sharp at 5.00 am. and came to Godagama junction around 5.30 hoping my friend prince would come there by that time. And he came there at his royal time 6.30 and we moved along high level road and reached Meepe .From there we turned right at clock tower and reached Bope junction after few minutes

Horton Plains is one of my favorite places in Srilanka. So I spoke with some of my friends to go on a trip there and Pasindu, who has prior experience in camping, was the first to jump in and suggest the idea of camping at HP. I put in that we walk the whole journey from Pattipola to HP and back. We gathered all information from “Lakdasun” and www.travelogueslanka.com

We started our journey around at 6.00 in the morning with the fear of torrential rain spoiling the weekend. It took around 1 & 1/2 hours to reach Dodangoda exit from Ja-ela. Mathugama to Agalawaththa, road condition was superb and I was so happy to be the driver….But from Agalawaththa-Baduraliya road was under constructions and was in bad shape. Again the road conditions were ok from Lathpadura to resort. It took close to 1hr to reach kukuleganga from Highway.

The people who’ve been on either along the road or by train must have seen a gorgeous girlie from Kadugannawa towards Aranayake. She’s so unique and iconic; you simply can’t have missed seeing her. I’ve seen many people including myself, craning their necks out of the windows to get a better look at her.

Pollonnaruwa is rich of archeological sites. There are rare places than our popular visits. I got to know about some of these places by a book and it made my visit at these sites. I did this travelling intermittently when I found a free time as well as a friend(s) to travel with me. Therefore I can’t say exact number of days need to cover all these places.