Since the monsoons begun my journeys around Uva-Wellassa has been hampered. So I finally decided to gamble with the weather and loiter around a bit. There was a long list of archaeologically important places around Buttala and Wellawaya which I have been planning to visit. And since it’s raining and less chances of mountain climbing or forest trekking the set up was ideal for some temple visits but I had to face some unique problems in doing so.

Once reaching Anuradhapura town by road and travel up to Jaffna junction_( Yapane Handiya) its KM199 from that point to Jaffna. At Ranbewa it’s connected to the A9 road extending from Kandy to Jaffna. The road came to prominence during the war
Once reaching Vavuniya the gate way pictured below is the entrance to the North the predominantly Tamil area.

So after work on a Friday we took the bus to Kandy from Pettah and reached the city of Kandy late night around 23:00 hrs. However the Tuk-tuk drivers who were there at the bus station were quite supportive and they dropped us at our guesthouse. The reason why we decided to take a night out at a guesthouse in Kandy is to save the day time of Saturday without having to travel all the way from Colombo to Knuckles on Saturday which will consume atleast half of the day.

ll this started as my friend Yasa a keen wildlife enthusiast and the CEO of a private restaurant chain were planning to open their newest outlet in Anuradhapura and from last October, every weekend both of us were in and out to Anuradhapura to find a suitable location with the help of their Project Manager who was stationed in A’pura and all the time we used to go to Wilpattu on return journey for just a half a day run.

On a random day when I felt like sleeping for 24hours my instincts told me that I need to be exploring and within no time I got in to a bus and left towards Monaragala town expecting to visit few historical sites within few hours. There is a road which begins near the Victory Inn hotel at Monaragala which leads towards Thenagallanda and few historically important archeological sites can be found along this road.

o the waterfall hunter in my started grumbling need to go see a fall pretty soon, so I decided to go see this beautiful fall in Thudugala, Dodangoda which is 8m (27 ft) in height. After a bit of a delay, the three musketeers Dimuthu, Podi and me went in Podi’s new and 🙂 old car. This is the first time we went a long way in that car so I was rather skeptical as to what would happen if we came across any technical faults along the way.

Mulagama cave was another random site I noted on a sheet of paper (1:50000 maps) within the Gal Oya Sanctuary and later on only I found the relevant details about it on Ellawala Medhananda Thero’s publication. I have been planning to visit this site for few months and I had been gathering information since then, finally my dream came true.

We were travelling to beruwala and I wanted make the most of the trip and show my kid some interesting place from area , and then I came across the turtle hatchery places , the most famous place is kosgaoda hatchery Centre and since its was far from my destination so I wanted some place near. I’ve searched the Lakdasung forums also but could find any trip reports about the Induruwa Turtle conservation

Iginiyagala is a well-known travel destination for most of us but have you’ll ever noted the mountain peak which forms one side of the dam? The summit of mount Iginiyagala(1035ft) is one of those most scenic points I have ever seen which is why I wanted to climb it so much. So together with few friends working at Ampara, I decided to give it a try on a public holiday

The Distance between Ampara to Mahaoya is 60km. My objective of this journey was to visit at ancient places at A-27 road from Ampara to Mahaoya. Places were; Samanabadda rock cave shelter, Udayagiri ancient temple, Samangala hermitage, Rajagala ruins, Piyangala hermitage, Pulukunawa ruins, Aranthalawa

My mates start the trip from Colombo by 4am in morning and joined them from Ambepussa junction by 6.15am. 21 crew on a Toyota Coaster was our media of transport. We had everything for two days (Lunch, Dinner, breakfast is from bungalow) but we carried drinking water and things need for a BBQ dinner.

It was a two day trip to beautiful Kotmale with its lush greenery, paddy fields and mountains and more importantly because Kotmale is steeped in history and tales of the past making it a very interesting place to visit.