On our way we stopped at several places, first stop was near the Victoria power house office where the dam is visible. It was very difficult to capture a photo with the drizzle but managed to take one picture. Then again we stopped at “Hilpankandura”, there was a small boutique and we were in need of refreshment specially a plain tea. And there was a mini water fall adjoining the road it took some time to take the kids out of that place as they started playing in it.

The hired van (Dolphin) started with me from Kalutara and travelled via Panadura, Kottawa and Malambe to pick some of my batch mates. Our friend in Batti also joined with us going home for the vacation. We arrived at Polonnaruwa via Kurunegala and Habarana. We did not intend to visit many places around Polonnaruwa as everybody in the crew had experienced Polonnaruwa before. Then we directly proceeded to Batti without having a bath in Passikudah as we were not early enough to so.

The very idea of being able to visit Delft was so exiting since it has been relatively inaccessible for a long time. We were all excited in spite of being forewarned about having to forego the usual creature comforts that we were all accustmed to when on holiday. The varied sites all within this island also stirred our curiosity.
Eight of us, together with our van driver and a guide from Jaffna, visited Delft Island in September 2010.

Arrived at the Mirissa harbour by 6.20am since we were to leave by 7am. Was at sea for around 40 minutes when the guide spotted whales. Got to see 3 whales(for the entire trip….hmph) of which only 1 posed for the camera. Disappointed with the lack of show put on by the whales for us we were circling around at sea for another good 2-21/2 hrs hoping to see some more when we came across a school of dolphins that put on a terrific performance cheering the whole group up after a disappointing morning……Should say that the dolphins made up for it..

I and three of my friends decided to attend the Somawathi religious function on 8th May. Along with that we decided to go to Aukana and the ancient city of Polonnaruwa. So we took off at 2.00 a.m. on 7th May from Kiribathgoda. We used a Maruti 800 as our transportation medium because of its fuel economy.

Around 5.00 a.m. we took a left turn from Mirisgoni Oya junction and headed to our first place of interest.

Total distance of the boat tour was around 14 Km and it took 2 hrs. We started from Hamilton canal and the canal was full of water monitors. We were fortunate to see a young crocodile. We reached to Negombo lagoon within 20 minutes. Then we entered to Dandugam oya through boarder of the Muthurajawela marsh. There we saw lot of fishing boats (canoes) with fishing nets.

Actually this was an official journey to Mahiyanganaya but we planned it out to perfection. We took the 11.45pm bus to Mahiyanganya (the bus was packed @10.45pm) and the journey was a long one and we never regretted the night journey because the road trough Hunnasgiriya was heavily under construction these days. After the bus tackled the 17 hair pin bends, it was time for us to get down at Gurulupotha. The time was 5.30a.m so we decided to have breakfast at a nearby Tea shop and started our journey towards the Seetha Kotuwa ruins at Gurulupotha (the path starts near to the Rest house).

A week end trip to Kalpitiya was planned as a family vacation. The main attraction was the dolphins but some detours to see interesting sites on the way were also in the itinerary.
We started around 4.00 am on a Saturday – just 3 of us in our car. En route to Palavi along A3, we visited the Munnewaram Kovil in Chilaw. The Munnewaram Hindu Kovil has many little shrines within the main complex; dedicated to various Hindu deities. Photography is not allowed inside the kovil.

The event was organized as the 6th event of Adventure Sri Lanka flickr travel and photography group. As planed we left Colombo around 2 in the morning after going through few unexpected things on transport (Unfortunately it continued). We were travelling in three vans with 21 members of Adventure Sri Lanka group soon joined by three other members by a car at Seeduwa around three in the morning. We all started going towards Kalpitiya. On the way we looked for a place to get a short breakfast and tea.

We started the journey from Colombo around 8AM and the crew was four. We used a Suzuki Swift as our transportation.

The drive to Balapitiya was quite effortless and the Galle road was in pretty good shape. Although it is good be sure to stay in the speed limit. Because occasionally you find traffic cops waiting for you to speed!