In 2015 I shifted to Chilaw from Monaragala and I was seeking for places to travel. When I was in Uva I was fond of hiking along the railways and ended up doing rail hikes covering Badulla to Nawalapitiya by foot. So I was wondering what this coastal line would provide me with.

Hi folks, I hope you enjoyed the first-ever trip report in Lakdasun on Runakanda, a part of Sinharaja. Afterwards I was craving to pay a visit once again to Sinharaja despite my being there from all 4 entrances before.

Wilpaththu NP (විල්පත්තු ජාතික වන උද‍යානය) is the largest (131, 693ha) and oldest national park in Sri Lanka. It is famous for visiting Leopards and wild bears. Special feature of Wilpaththu NP is having water filled natural lakes-Willus.

Sri Lankan rail tracks run in different environmental locations of the country where you can have different experiences with rail walk. Rail hike along central part gives maximum beauty of the country and costal rail walk is totally different from it. We thought of doing a rail walk in dry zone mainly rail tracks runs through forests.

December 11, 12 and 13th were the days and it was a long weekend which was not to be wasted. Our decision was to go on camping in Udawalawe or in Wilpaththu but ultimately a decision was taken to go for Udawalawe.

After a snail-like journey, we reached Maskeliya and bought a couple of essential things like instant noodles. We were planning to take a tuk-tuk from here but our luck held coz there was a Nallathanniya bus leaving at 10am. So having breathed a sigh of relief we got into the bus and settled. The sun was back and my hopes soared like an eagle. However as we got closer to Nallathanniya aka Dalhousie (remember it’s Dalhousie not Delhouse or Delhousie), those hopes came down and down like a deflated balloon.

It was very gloomy and there were a couple of passing showers as well. “This is going to be one heck of a hike” I told Atha and we both regretted not having brought the umbrellas. Well we shouldn’t have worried coz the usage of umbrella becomes next to zero after Geththampana due to the open area and strong winds. We had our long overdue coffee from the shop just before the bridge. Already there was a group of people getting ready to climb for a Pooja and we started our hike around 11am, after 8.5hr journey, well literally.

Ok, back to Runakanda. This is a part of Sinharaja actually but is now being proposed as a separate Forest Reserve. I hope this will get legalized soon as we’re fast losing our forest areas. Even Runakanda like many wet zone rain forests have been ravaged by the Walla Patta Hunters. According to villagers many outsider had come in gangs and stayed inside the forest living in makeshift shelters or caves chopping down Walla Patta trees and making loads of money. The FD and Police are in high alert even though the damage has already been done thus the reason why you shouldn’t venture into these areas on your own.

We heard that the FD is now distributing Walla Patta plants for commercial planting where they help with the chemicals to produce that specific bit of residue after 5 years. At the age of 8, the tree is good to cut down and harvest. Hopefully these will put a stop to the destruction of our virgin forests.

Year and Month 11-12 Jun, 2016 Number of Days 2 Crew Hasi, His Wife, Gayan, His Wife and Me Accommodation Heenwewa Bungalow Transport By Car & Safari Jeep. Activities Safari, Photography, Sightseeing, Wildlife, etc… Weather Excellent. Route Colombo->Kottawa->Matara along Highway->Tissa->Yala and return on the same route. Tips, Notes and Special remark Remember first and foremost […]

I hope you liked the new version of report which I’ve introduced which sort of told you the story of our wildlife, especially the plight of them in Wilpattu thanks to a Government Minister who’d taken the law into his hands destroying many acres of precious lands belonging to the buffer zone of Wilpattu by giving it to his supporters. It’s just pathetic the way things happen even though the Ministry of Environment is under the President himself. We also saw how they started building Mini Hydro Power Plants at Handagiriya destroying many more cascades very recently. It’s just so saddening to see the people who’ve been elected to safeguard these things help destroy them for monetary benefits. I hope they will soon see the erroneous ways they’ve been handling our natural resources and get back on track to protect them. However the million dollar question is, “Will it be too late?”.

So, just like that journey, I’m going to plunge straight into business and leave the fairy tale stuff aside. I’m sure the story of the wildlife in Kumana, the farthest away from Colombo, is much more interesting than my vivid imagination. However, just a bit of foreplay wouldn’t be too much to bear I suppose. Well, the newest of our crazes has become the wildlife, probably due to the less appealing states of my beloved waterfalls. Thankfully Hasi too shares the same taste and ever since Wilpattu, we’ve started to manic chase of our wildlife.

As soon as you hear the name Sri Pada, there’s this calm and soothing sensation which goes through your system as if a nice cool flow of water through a parched throat. That mountain is so special even her namesake alone is enough to make us feel reinvigorated. I don’t think there exists any such mountain in the whole wide world that has been worshipped and visited as much as this despite her location in a tiny out of the way island in the Indian Ocean with nothing below it until the frozen Antarctic Glaciers. This is very special and it further proves by it being chosen to leave the footprint of one of the most respected and enlightened philosopher that walked on this earth some 2600 years ago, Gautama Buddha.

Since then, this has been worshipped by millions of devotees every year between Dec (Unduwap Poya) and May (Vesak Poya). However the situation has become a bit alarming due to the unprecedented crowds that gather to visit and worship the sacred footprint every year. If you were following the media (and supposing they were reporting the truth), there were reports of some 800,000 people visiting on long weekends and somewhere in April that figure rose to some 1.5 million. There were so many who were planning to go from Hatton but due to the large number of people ultimately ended up climbing from Kuruwita. Just imagine the plight of those people who were only prepared for an easy ride of 4-5km yet were forced to do 12+km. Most of them had been in tears by the time they had reached Galwangediya.

I’ve been more than lucky enough to visit Knuckles from most of the above mentioned paths. However only this time I managed to visit it from Naula-Elahera-Pallegama end coz other times it’d been either Hunnasgiriya or Matale-Rattota access routes. Just be warned about the Naula-Elahera road as it’s not in good condition mainly due to the Moragahakanda Project and the many Sand Lorries which come from Manampitiya and Bakamuna areas. The road is still under construction so it’s best if you avoid it for some time. However if you have a high clearance vehicle, this can still be done but with a great difficulty and more time.

Year and Month 23-24 Jan 2016 Number of Days 2 Crew Hasitha, Gayan and Me + Wildlife Tracker and Our Jeep Driver Senevi Accommodation Manawila Wildlife Bungalow Transport By Car and Jeep Activities Wildlife, Photography, Relaxing, etc… Weather Excellent but some showers in the afternoon on the first day. Route Colombo->Puttalam->Saliyawewa->Wilpattu National Park and back […]