Would you believe that if I said there is a mini Horton plains in the peak wilderness. Yes that’s true this beautiful savanna plain first came to my notice during an Adams peak hike in 2009 and after seen it for the second time in 2013 I started gathering information about this mysterious plains. Once there was a newspaper article but without any pictures of the plains and reading it urged me to explore this unseen territory some day in my life. It is said a Bison like buffalo called “Gawara” once lived here long ago and hence the name Gwarawila was given. It is also said that once the Haldumulla route to Adams peak fell across this plains of Gawarawila too.

Kalugala is a location on the northern point of Madulsima range which consist of two peaks and out of those Kalugala no 2 is the highest. Kalugala No 1 peak belongs to Monaragala district and is the highest point of Monaragala. I have been eyeing on this for few months and out of nowhere the anticipated day arrived.

The famous scenic hike from Kalupahana to Ohiya was one I wanted to do for a while and as usual this was decided within few hours. On the previous day we hiked Gommolliya and were spending the night at Bambarakanda rest relaxing and watching the football world cup. Since our Sunday plan was to return back to our homes we decided to alter it and do this hike. Bambarakanda rest which is managed by Mrs. Mayakaduwa is located 4km’s from Kalupahana so we had 20 more Km’s to get to Ohiya.

රුහුණු කතරගම දෙවියන්ගේ පිහිට ප්රාaර්ථනා කරගැනීමට කතරගම දේවාලයට එන බැතිමතුන් කතරගම දෙවියන් පිදීම සඳහා යන තවත් අනුහස් ඇති ස්ථානයක් යාල වනෝද්යාgනයේ පිහිටා තිබේ. ඒ සියඹලාව හෙවත් කැබිලිත්ත දේවාලයයි.දෙවියන්ගේ කැලය ලෙස අතීතයේ ජනයා හැදින්වු මෙම ඓතිහාසික භූමිය පිහිට ඇත්තේ යාල වනෝද්යාිනයේ කළාප අංක 3 කොටසේය.

Kumana was on the list for too long. So we thought of giving it a shot this time. Though the dry season is not at its peak yet, Kumana was extremely hot when we visited. The sightings were not the greatest, but we had enough sightings and more importantly had a great time especially at the awesome Gal Amuna campsite.

This is an isolated village completely surrounded by numerous mountains making it located in the bottom of a deep ravine. Badulla-Passara road seems to be running around this and a few other isolated villages. Namunukula-borne Loggal Oya flows between the border of Urumeethenna, the last village with main-line-supplied electricity, and Kohonawala before joining the mighty Mahaweli at Mahiyanganaya, making it further isolated.

The story behind the start of this village has many different variations. According to the folklore, they origins run far deep thousands of years backwards where the indigenous people of SL, the Veddhas, roamed this island at will. According to one old farmer, the leader of that Veddhas in the village was an elite archer. Once he won a contest of shooting an arrow through a golden ring thus getting the name “Ranpath Mudiyanselage” bestowed upon his clan. Surprisingly all the people in Kohonawala has that as their surname to-date. Everybody is called R.M. and their given name.

We decided to do this trip in two days and planned to stay the first day night in a small hotel near Wilpattu junction and to start the safari following day early morning. So on first day we started our journey from Gampaha at around 2 p.m. and reached Puttalam at about 5 p.m. where we stopped near the lagoon for a break.

It’s such an amazing sight to watch them and one would never get tired of watching, no matter how many times they come across, this wonderful creature. It’s even more wonderful when you get to see them in their natural habitat such as the wild life parks and forests. Lately, I was itching to go see as many of them as possible and when Sheham came up with the idea of visiting Maduru Oya I kept jumping up and down till I was exhausted.

It was a longtime dream of mine to tackle the devil staircase. But because most of the travels went by 4×4’s on this road I was a bit skeptical how my vehicle, which is a 2wd(RWD) would perform. So on our way back from Horton planes we decided to travel via this road. Luckily there weren’t many landslides which could have made our journey more difficult. But the mist did block our view of the beautiful sceneries.

I was home alone and since I will have to go back to ship somewhere in November, came up with an instant idea to visit Wilpattu once more. Called the usual resting place, L.L.T safari rest inn 1 day before to check the availability.I was lucky. One room was available. Spoke to my friends but no one could come in a short notice + since it’s during the week days. So, thought of going by bus instead of driving alone.

ince we have enough time, we decided to go to Devil’s Staircase around 2.00 pm. Road beyond BHR was very good (Concreted / paved). Even though we expect bad road, less than 2 kms from BHR road condition was horrible. After climbing about ½ km we decided to revise the vehicle for ½ km and came back to BHR.

We started from Gampaha at about 5 o’clock in the morning. The crew was five in a car. Could not book a bungalow inside the park and since arranged to stay @ L.L.T safari hotel close by wilpattu park. Owner Tiuder is a very nice and honest guy. He has few jeeps as well. Charges were very fair and helpful as well. Contact him through 0714187083 and try to arrange the driver named Dammika. Very nice and a great guy who will go for that extra bit to show us the best.