It’s been while after my last report. I did Wangedigala Hike on September 2014. It didn’t go well because of bad weather condition so I didn’t write a report. Then I planned to hike to HP via Kalupahana – ohiya on December. Again unpredictable weather condition stopped me. So I decided to go Ella.

Katchatheevu is the farthest island belongs to Sri Lanka. The church of St.Anthony is situated at Katchatheevu island. This is about annual festival of St.Anthony church.

The day I did the ‘Nil Diya Pokuna’ exploration, I was eager do the Kululangala too. Once I thought should have done with Nil Diya pokuna exploration, but this can be done in one shot (not on the same day). I buzzed trip partner, Kasun Janaka. He is always ready for adventures trips. So read the trip report by Ashan and called Methananda to check the weather. Everything was on the positive side. And also I remembered Kasun Des was telling about Budupatunna.

Studying the map was my childhood hobby. As soon as I returned from school every day, I used to open the World Atlas Map book and travelled around the world in my imaginations. It is still my hobby but the medium has changed to technology, a.k.a Google Maps. A couple of years ago, when I was looking for trails to Adam’s peak on Google maps, I noticed a place like Horton Plains on the peak Wilderness Sanctuary. It looked nearly impossible to access through the ground on Google Maps due to sudden elevation. Though I was eager to find out more about it, I couldn’t find a single thing for years.

We started our journey on November 21 on 3.00 a.m & we reached Hunnasgiriya at 8.00 a.m. From there we took 2.5 – 3 hrs to reach Meemure. Firstly we went to Meemure temple , met thero & disscuss about katina pinkama programme. After that we went oya & had a bath. Lunch prepared at temple & after lunch we went to see “Sooriya Arana Fall”.
In the evening we arrange Bodhi Puja Pinkama & Dhamma Desanawa. We prepared & serve dinner for whole village.

Year and Month 2014 November & 2015 June Number of Days 2 ( November 22 – 23 & June 28 – 29 ) Crew 25 – 30 (between 6-75 years of age) Accommodation Temple Premises Transport By hired Bus Activities Religious , Photography Weather Too Hot Route Colombo -> Dambulla -> Habarana -> Polonnaruwa -> […]

I did the sensible thing on Ashan’s advice and hired a tuk-tuk. The driver was a friendly person called Ranga and we drove up to the last house where you have to start walking along an irrigation canal for about 400m. The path is now well paved and easy to reach the falls. We met one Mini Hydro Power Plant and Ranga informed that it is now redundant after the main power supply came to the area and he went onto say that the village used to have three such power plants. However all of them have been made redundant since the arrival of national grid. Hurrah!!! I felt like dancing.

We could also see the rocky hill where Kurullangala is. The memories of our back-breaking journey in the recent past sent a shiver down my back. Ranga said that there’s even a path from the top of the Wisari Ella to the Rakkiththakanda Cave Temple where we went last time before the hike. Project sites of Uma Oya could be seen in the distance and the water in the streams has turned into an unusual white color after the ammonia mixed with it as a result of tunnels dug out to take water for the Uma Oya Project. That was quite visible even to the naked eye.

After a tiring day around Mullaitivu it was time for a relaxing evening. So we were headed on a rugged road from Iyakachchi towards Kaddaikadu. On the way at Kuweni junction we came across some ruins of fort Beschutter which is one out of the tree forts which were built around Elephants pass area.

We made an unplanned trip to Kataragama on the 17th and 18th October 2015 and on the return trip decided to visit some important temples on the way travelling on Galle road. We onward trip to Kataragama was on the National Highway up to Matara. As we have visited few historical temples in Hambantota and Matara (see previous trip reports on Hambamtota and Matara) we decided to visit temples beyond Matara starting from Kataluwa. But the evening thunder showers was dampening and hampering the sight-seeing.

On Aug 8 2014 three of us started the journey from Kandy at 14:30, it was a rainy day and we were about to miss the bus to Ratnapura but managed to catch it. We reached Ratnapura around 19:30, two of our crew were on their way to Ratnapura from Colombo and they reached around 21:30. There was a cab service we hired previously and they reached to the town around 22:00 and we all set to go.

Ok there was a huge gap in my traveling history and I needed to cover it up ASAP. Yes Mullaitivu needed to be explored but in a unique way. Both of us decided before hand not to focus on any remains that glorify the past of Terrorism other than few road side monuments. So this was more of a road trip and exploring beautiful and giant reservoirs in this virgin forest district.

This was my second attempt to walk along Mahaweli River and we started from Mahiyangana.