Every university has its favourite destination and this time I picked one of those places for a change. Been a Colombo Uni guy our favourite destination was the western coastal line other universities like Peradeniya has Hanthana range, Uva Wellassa has Namunukula & Sabaragamuwa has Adara kanda. As usual I searched for literature on the web but found nothing convincing about “adara kanda” though there were many images of Sabaragamuwa university students hiking in hundreds. So the best way to get more info is to explore it ourselves.

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.

After reading several posts in Lakdasun we decided to do this hike. But holidays were just passing and finally we decided to make this on a weekend. So we took the Ratnapura bus from Mawanella early morning. But when we reached Bus stand they said as it was a holiday the bus will not run. So we got into a Colombo bus and get down from Kegalla.

We left Mawanella around 11.30 am on 13th April and reached Kadugannawa Station and waited for the Badulla train to go to Nawalapitiya Station. The train was too late and arrived at 12.40 pm. The train, fully packed with passengers began its destination. Unfortunately the train stopped due to technical failures after passing GeliOya. So we got down from the train and crossed the paddy field to get on to the road.

How can I start? As you may aware Sri Pada and Knuckles are my favourite places on earth. I used to visit them at least 2-3 times per year. If I talk about knuckles it’s a vast area covering more than 30 mountains, more than 20 isolated villages, so many waterfalls and caves large variety of flora& fauna etc. Importantly in this range you can find waterfalls cascading over caves. One example is Sera Ella in Puwakpitiya area.

This time we select the second youngest Knuckles mountain range. The way Theldeniya, Rangala, Thangappuwa across Kandy is used as entrance for that. Thangappuwa is a small colony who lived in estate laborers. 50 families are lived in this village. Plucking tea leaves, growing vegetables, plucking cardamom and in addition to that guiding for tourists are the ways of living in the people who lived there.

Around 4.30pm, the clouds arrived thick and fast and we heard the distance rumble of thunder making us run all the way back to Nava mama’s house. If I had any hope of doing Lakegala, this nearly made it the last nail of the coffin. Having come back and lying in one of the mattresses cursing the rain and thunder with all the bad words I could think wasn’t gonna help my cause but I kept at it. The sky split into many pieces with lightning and I decided to call it quits.

Around 8.00pm, everything settled down and thunder and rain vanished without a trace of them being just a short while ago and my hopes soared into the sky. I went and asked Nava mama, “Mama, shall we go no matter what happens? To hell with this rain and thundering.” He must’ve sensed my state and very reluctantly agreed. I came and broke the news to Dodam and asked if he’d wanna join the hike regardless of what happens and he jumped in. That settled everything in under 5mins and we were ready to go.

We started from Kalupahana and came to V cut by a three wheeler and started walking in the jeep track. Had a de tour to Top of Bambarakanda falls and came back then continued walking. After passing Devil staircase and walking further few kms we camped in the last part of the jeep track (in the tea estate) and reached Ohiya – HP paved road next morning and reached ticketing office around 8.00 a.m.

We stopped to take a few pics of the morning sky painted with gorgeous colors. The shadows of trees added to the beauty with the contours of the mountains in the distance. I wouldn’t have minded walking along this road at this time as it felt heavenly. However, time was a luxury we couldn’t afford at the time as we had planned something unprecedented even in Nava Mama’s standards. KCC at Deanston was still in darkness and no sign of activity there. It’d’ve been grand if we could be at the mini world’s end when the sun is rising. We could’ve got a super panoramic view towards Ududumbara, Hasalaka and Mahiyanganaya. I had to restrain myself so hard not to venture into the trail without this early and there was no way to get permission.

Passing Loolwatte tea shop made me crave for yet another coffee but we simply wanted to get to Meemure as soon as we could and start on our first hike. We stopped nonetheless at Corbet’s Gap for a few pics of the mountains which were rising majestically to a clear blue sky. From then on, it was a downhill journey along a circular road that entwines the mountains like a giant snake. It’d already gone by 6.30am and we hurried. There were a few places where the road was terrible but we had a somewhat higher ground clearance enabling us to pass without incident. Reaching Kaikawala concrete bridge, we saw a monk who’s going collecting his meals (Pindawatha Wadinawa). He simply stepped out of the road, without even looking back and kept looking downwards till we passed.

There are a few monks who stay meditating in this part of SL as it’s so beautiful and calm. We even came across one such place deep inside the jungle on our way back from Gala Muduna later in the day. Closer to Nava mama’s house, we got the first glimpse of the gorgeous Lakegala. Whoa, what a beauty she is despite being continuously harassed by unforgiving sunlight and intermittent rains.

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.

hen we were (Ashan, Sanketha and Me) climbing Pettigala I pointed my finger to a far end and asked Ashan whether it’s Horton plains. He replied me with a smile “Hariya Nogiya Thenna “. Surprised???? Yes for more than 30 years of my life I had never been to Horton Plains. So I was desperately needed to do HP ASAP and was in a hunger to do many trails within a short period. Within 3 days we ( Me and my friend Thenuka ) were able to cover five paths/trails of Horton Plains

By February of 2012 I had climbed Adams peak 6tims using all 6trails. Since my initial plan was to complete all 6trails and once this objective was achieved I decided to retire from climbing this peak. But this decision to retire only lasted a few days because as soon as I downloaded my GPS data of the Hapugastenne trail to my computer I found out that there are 2more possible trails that could be done