I was away from Sinharaja for too long……. It had been more than a year since the previous visit. Its a place which you can’t stay away from for long so I had to some how squeeze a two day trip in July. It was going to be Thihela’s first visit to Sinharaja as well. We left Moratuwa around 8.00 in the morning. With no stops, we straigt away drove to the Blue magpie lodge. We reached there just passed noon.

We started our journey at about 9 pm from Colombo with five members and headed directly to kurunegala to accompany with the other two. We spend the night at kurunegala and headed towards puttalm early morning, from this point onwards our crew was 7 in Hilux Vigo cab and a motor car. Road condition is excellent we only spend 45 minutes to travel 87 Kms. At puttalam we had our breakfast and drive towards Willpattu on A12 Puttalam Anuradhapura road.

Before the Sun wake up, we were busy in examination on 1:50,000 maps, to ascertain how & why we loss our goal during the last exploration. After such a hard trekking (not less than 13+3 =16km on foot) in the previous day, the crew was still aggressive to re-do the hike & not known the meaning of giving up. Having an idea on the road (Jeep track) network at the tea estates in and around Namunukula range, we decided to follow the path of the previous day as much as possible with our jeep & reach the village where we suspended our exploration last day.

Existence of nine peaks was caused to name the range as Namunu- Kula. It was the 12th highest mountain in SL. The highest peak out of 9 was climbed by many hikers each year; but from Spring Valley side which was considered as the formal path. Our ambition was to explore the whole 9 peaks from Passara side which was not popular trail and even done by nobody in popular travel forums.

After spending some time at the Adisham we hit the road again towards Ohiya. Road was not in the best condition, so it took us some time. After the Ohiya Railway station the road condition was good and started to be scenic. It was around 5.30 pm when we reached the turnoff to the Hill Safari’s gravel road. We were mesmerized by the stunning view and simply forgot to proceed towards the Hill safari.

As soon as we entered the 2 started taking us to most of the rocky places famous for LEOPARDS and at 6.10 we came across this family at Rukwila and the pictures will tell the story. It was amazing to watch and after that we had the luck to see 2 more during the day : one on a rock and another on a tree.It was a treat to watch and one of the best movements in wild life encounters .

Our trip was started from Rathnapura around 3.00PM in the evening. It took 3.00 hours to reach Samanalawewa VIP bungalow, because we stopped at Belihuloya to have a bath there. Several security checks were required to enter the bungalow. It was the first time I went to the VIP bungalow though I have been in to Samanalawewa several times and the view from bungalow was fantastic.

It was one of my dream journeys which I had waited for a long time to accomplished. Finally that day came.We departure from colombo on 4th of September by 12.45AM Ampara bus to go to the ancient Memure village.We arrived Hunnasgiriya at about 5.30 AM and get breakfast from there. We went to Loolwatta by a van which leaves at 8.00 AM from Hunnasgiriya. After that, there was no public transport vehicle on that road until 1.30 PM. After scenic drive along the Hunnasgiriya-Loolwatta road we came to the destination at about 9.00AM.From there we started our long walk towards Meemure.

Our first travel location, the historic temple at Thalagama was located at a distance less than a kilometer from Ambepussa, the first train destination of Sri Lanka. The temple was consisted with three levels. The Sangawasaya, Dharma Shalawa and other general buildings used by Bhikku are located at the lower level.

We planned the trip initially to the August school vacation but due to the National Elephant Senses which was on the way we had to reschedule the trip to September. All were enthusiastic on the trip and final number on for the trip was 10 with 3 teenagers, 2 youths and 5 adults. The campsite was booked in advanced and officers were helpful to provide us a campsite despite their strike. Cab service van was booked which was familiar due to the past experiences with the driver/owner of that van.

Our first stop was at Kurunegala for our breakfast. After the breakfast we drove through Dambulla,Nelumkulama and turned left to Anuradhapura air force camp road through Wilachchiya road to Nellikulama. Nellikulama was a modern temple but its concept was little different from our traditional temple.

We intended to cover Trinco and surrounding places of interest as much as possible and the trip was planned to the minute detail. However unexpected bad weather, poor road conditions and Grease Yaka prevented us from touching all places, meaning another trip when time permits!!!!