කඹුරුපිටියෙන් උදේ 7ට පමණ ගමන් ආරම්භ කර අනෙක් සාමාජිකයින් 5 දෙනා සමග අකුරැස්ස, උඩුගම හරහා නෙලුව බලා ගමන් ගත් අතර මංජු සහ ජයනෙත්ති පිලියන්දලින් ගමන් ආරම්භ කර දක්ෂිණ අධීවේගී මාර්ගයේ වැලිපැන්න පිවිසුමෙන් පැමිණ පැලවත්ත හරහා නෙලුවට පැමිණ අප හා එක්විය. නෙලුවෙන් අවශ්ය ආහාර ද්රාව්ය හා අනෙකුත් භාණ්ඩ මිලදී ගැනීමෙන් පසු අප පලමුවෙන්ම නෙලුව ලංකගම මාර්ගයේ නෙලුවේ සිට 7km ක් පමණ දුරින් පිහිටි කොස්මුල්ල දුවිලි ඇල්ල නැරඹීම සඳහා ගියෙමු.

We, two groups on two vehicles, met at a road side night shop near Negombo at around 3.45 am. Six of us were on Prasanna’s Mitsubishi jeep, started from Nugegoda and went to Negombo while Theshantha started from Kiribathgoda, picked up 3 others and came to Negombo in his Toyota Double cab. We had a tea there and set off towards Puttalam

කැබලිත්ත සියඹලාව දේවාලය හාස්කම් වලින් පිරුණු ස්ථානයක් ලෙස බොහෝ දෙනාගේ පිළිගැනීමයි. පුරාවෘත්තයන්ට හා ජනප්රවවාදයට අනුව ඉන්දියාවේ සිට පැමිණි ස්කන්ධ කුමාර හෙවත්, කතරගම දෙවියන් ලංකාවේ නතර වීමට තීරණය කල බැවින්, එතුමන් පැම්ණි රන් ඔරුව ගල් කල බවත්, එම ස්ථානය රන් ඔරුගල නමින් හඳුන්වන බවත් සඳහන් වේ.

It was one of the dream trip for Dhanushka and myself to Go around Srilanka on our motorcycles. We thought why not call it “Around Srilanka in 80 hours” and to circumnavigate around Srilanka in less than 80 hours. We decided to leave on 18th February 2012, Dhanushka rode 35 km from Colombo to Negombo and we both left around 11am. The plan was to ride to Jaffna and stop over for the night.

The journey was stared on a evening of a busy Friday (15TH February 2013), from Colombo around 10:30pm. We reached the Kandy city by 1:00am and had a snack and started travelling towards Matale road and then to the Daha ata Wanguwa- Hasalaka. We reached Wasgamuwa Park at 5.45am and began a morning safari. As we planned our jeep came loaded with our breakfast which we in the river bank of Mahaweli River inside the park.

We started the trip by 4.30am by 2 4X4 from Colombo. But due to heavy rain on last few days we got news as many roads were under water but we just went ahead with our plan decided not to have a route plan. We had everything for three but we carried drinking water and things need for a BBQ dinner.

As we had a long year end vacation we planned to go Horton Plains via Devil’s staircase-ohiya route. But due to bad weather condition we had to cancel that trip. But badly wanted a similar trip. While thinking about trip ideas I remembered the mountain in front of our home at Pundaluoya. So here we go.

A Group of my friends organized a safari at Willpattuwa including a camp night at Kokmote to explore the exciting heritage and wildlife. A fellowship of ten members joined the trip and the journey began from Wadduwa at 7.00 am on September 11. On our way we paused shortly for a quick breakfast, and then to a shop at Chilaw fish market for necessary food supplies for the night stay. After taking a dip in the Deduru Oya and stuffing ourselves at Puttalam town where we stopped for lunch, we reached Wilpattuwa at 3.30 pm in a happy and relaxing mood. Mr Anil (WLD tour guide) and Samantha (Jeep driver) also joined with us at the entrance.

For no particular reason, with no particular exploration in mind we booked accommodation in Weeravila for the long week-end. With three days looming, the question ‘what can we do around Weeravila’ was thrown open. Priyanjan’s suggestion of ‘go to Kaltota’ I thought was a joke, despite his ‘it’s a small country’ tag. Yohan’s ‘try Yala Block III’ seemed a possibility.

The main target of this one day trip was to see the Dooli Ella which is situated near to the Neluwa town. There is a very beautiful trail though the Sinharaja Forest reserve up to Deniyaya from Dooli ella through the Lankagama and Pitadeniya. Travelling along the A17 high way between Deniyaya and Rakwana was a very interesting one.

After mountain climbing around Ella on the previous day I was clueless what to do on day 2 and 3 because my previous agenda was not feasible at this point. After discussing with my friend Priyanjan I decided to go to Hadapanagala Lake and end my day. That was the fixed plan for the day even when I left his premises. It was around 11am when I got in to a bus towards Wellawaya and the bus conductor came close to me to issue a ticket and suddenly a question popped out. “කන්දෙ විහාරෙ ගාවට යන්නෙ කොහොමද?”

It had been almost six years since I last visited Wilpattu. My last visit was in 2006, few weeks before the tragic incident of the landmine explosion which killed six visitors who where on safari. The park was pretty much out of bound since then until the end of the war in 2009. Even after it was re-opened I wasn’t able to plan a trip due to various constraints. This is when a firend at work invited me to join him in a three day trip to wilpattu. I couldn’t have been happier!