Taking time off to relax saw us heading deep down south a few weeks ago. Our destination was Sella Kataragama where SLAF has chalets for its officers. Travelling was easy as we took E1 to Matara. The drive was a breeze! A short stop at Devundra was all what we needed.

After going through all corners of Jaffna it was my dream to visit and stay a night at Chundikulam Nature Park managed by Sri Lanka Army. I was able to realize that dream at later part of last year. My son and three other friends joined me for the trip.

The initial plan was to travel somewhere around Mathale and Reversten, with a bunch of officemates. But everyone seemed to be busy, visiting relatives for the new year. Knowing that it would be a crime to spend the holidays at home, I decided to visit Hiyare, Kottawa, and Kanneliya. This is my 1st ever solo travel experience

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.

Hmmm! Thought of doing a report after a while and this is one report I couldn’t finish off last year! Im really happy my second home is not in an urbanized area like Colombo and there are plenty of places to hang around whenever I visit there. Chilaw area (Pitigal korale) is known to have 999 lakes which belong to god “Thaniwelle” and few of them are known for their bird life. I will be posting few snaps taken at those locations and if I haven’t mention the name of any bird that’s because I don’t know it or can’t recall the 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.

After seeing the Niran’s post and referring to some articles in the web I decided to do this visit as it’s just 35 km away from my home. While trying to catch a companion I reminded mighty Tony as he’s working in Gampaha area. But it was unsuccessful as he was very busy with office work.

There were an endless number of sea gulls crashing like a stone and catching fish and at times floating on the water with the waves like ducks. We got fooled at first they were real ducks. The average speed of the ferry was about 8-10km an hour. It recorded a highest speed of around 20km according to Sheham’s GPS. Time wore on and all of a sudden Nissanka showed us a distant communications tower which was at BG Navy Camp. Without even knowing we had moved from Dutch Bay to Portugal Bay but for me it was the same lagoon or rather the sea. However the water looks more clean and clear than it was close to the mainland. We could clearly see the ocean floor and the depth can’t have been more than 10ft. The water looked a gorgeous emerald green too.

We started the journey not so early as we planned due to some serious setbacks at the last moment and reached Dambulla for breakfast around 8 am where another friend joined us. After the breakfast we went straight passing Polonnaruwa towards Dimbulagala. Our first stop was at Namal Pokuna archaeological site.

We reached Palpatha around 4.30am and decided to take a nap till the caretaker got up. Finally at 5.00am having left the equipment needed for the work there, we headed towards Wilpattu Junction where Bobby, our driver, waited. We left the car and got into his brother’s Bolero 4-wheel drive jeep (most commonly available kind of jeep at Wilpattu) coz both his modern Mitsubishi L200 jeeps were on hire. It was freezing cold in Wilpattu and I’d never imagined it could get that cold there. It was like Nuwara Eliya and the temperature must’ve been around 20 degrees or even less. Sheham and I were shivering in the open jeep but the luxuriously done cushion sheets provided a comfy sitting position. The whole area was covered in a moderate layer of mist too.

We woke up around 5am after a deep sleep and straight away went out looking for the rising sun through the mountains. The pointed shaped rock is not in fact Lakegala, but called Thunnisgala. No wonder people say that there are 7 people alike in the world and it seems it goes to the nature too, especially for mountains and waterfalls. The cloud cover was a worrying factor and sun had no chance of penetrating this thick layer. Ranjith and Wasantha arrived with coffee and it warmed our bodies. We decided to go as early as possible coz wanted to see as many things as possible. The breakfast was extra-large Rotti with Luny Miris and Chicken Curry. We ate and was on our way merrily. This area is a cluster of few villages; they are Pitawala, Atanwala, Rathkinda & Mahala Kotuwa. It’s however very hard to distinguish one from the other as there are no marked boundaries.

It’s very unusual of me to visit the peak wilderness twice within one year but 2013 was a special one. Suddenly out of nowhere the idea popped out and I called my better half and agreed her to join me this time and as usual few lakdasun members answered my calls. I was so happy because Kasun and Sri were joining us, so we won’t feel lonely with their company. I have been through both Rathnapura and Hatton trails but I have not ascended from Rathnapura and after almost 5 years the trail was said to be totally different than the one I knew previously.