On the 23rd of July, Poya day suddenly I thought to have a visit in few archaeological sites in Gampaha district which are not yet to be covered by my selfy. Hence I talked to Achintha and he agreed to meet at 3.00 pm at Yakkala junction. So, I had a route plan and we met at Yakkala and one by one visited the below places. There was a little shower at 5.00 pm when we were at Pettagamgala Kanda and able to stay few minutes over there and continue our pilgrimage tour after the rain.

This was an unforgettable trip had by the three of us. This took 3 days and covered 4 provinces as we have started our journey from Kadiyanlena falls and end up with Duwili Falls at Neluwa. This is one of our favorite trips as we were able to cover many waterfalls and places. Especially apart from this tour I couldn’t able to roam around Rakwana or Deniyaya areas.

Nuwaraeliya is my favorite city in Sri Lanka and I visited there more than 20 times in my life. Out of them, 18 visits are due to my adventure travel purposes. Gregory park is one of the interesting destinations at Nuwaraeliya where we spent few hours resting during our journies. I spent about 8 nights at hotels and our friend madusanka’s home and had 3 camping nights at Nuwaraeliya city premises. Currently, I have covered almost all the attractions in the Nuwaraeliya city area.

The Hanthana Mountain Range lies in central Sri Lanka, southwest of the city of Kandy. It was declared as an environmental protection area in February 2010 under the National Environment Act. The maximum height of the range is 3800 ft. The mountain range consists of seven peaks. The highest one being the Uura Kanda. The range is a favourite destination among mountain hikers in Sri Lanka. The University of Peradeniya is situated adjacent to the Hanthana mountain range.

ලූල්කඳුර යනු මීට වසර සිය ගණනකට පෙර ලංකාවේ ප්‍රථම වාණිජ තේ වගාව පටන්ගත් ඉසව්වේ. ඊට මුල් වූයේ ශ්‍රීමත් ජේම්ස් ටේලර් මහතාය. ඔහු ඉංග්‍රීසි ආණ්ඩුවේ විවිධ රැකියාවකට පැමිණ පසුව වගාවන් සම්බන්ධව හදාරමින් ඊට නැඹුරුව ලංකාවේ තේ වගාව ආරම්භ කිරීමට පුරෝගාමී විය. ඔහු ලූල්කඳුර තෝරාගෙන එය තේ වතු යායක් ලෙසට සංවර්ධනය කරන ලදී. පසුව ඔහු ප්‍රථම වරට තේ වගාව කළ කොටසද පසුව සමස්ත වතුයායම තේ සඳහා නිර්මාණය කිරීමට ඔහුට හැකි විය. වර්තමානයේ පවා එදා ප්‍රථම වරට තේ වගා කළ ඉසව්ව පැහැදිලිව දැකගත හැකිය.

අවස්තා තුනකදී දින 8ක් කැප කරමින් සමුහයේ කිහිපදෙනෙක් සහ අප මේ වැඩ කටයුත්ත සිදු කරන ලද්දේ බොහෝ වෙහෙස මහන්සියක් මැද ස්වේඡ්චාවෙන් වන අතර අප මුහුණ දුන් අභියෝග මහන්සිය මෙහි සඳහන් කිරීමට නොහැකි තරම්ය. සමස්තයක් වශයෙන් සමූහයේ 25 දෙනෙකු පමණ දින 8ක් තුල තම ශ්‍රමය උපරිමයෙන් නොඅඩුව මෙම වැඩසටහනට ලබා දුන් අතර මෙම අවස්ථාවේ මම ඔබ සියලුදෙනාට ස්තුතිය පුද කර සිටිමි. මෙම දින තුල ඔවුන් හට කිසිදු අඩුපාඩුවක් නැතිව කලට වෙලාවට සියලුම ආහාරපාන ලබා දුන් අතර ඒ සියල්ල අපිට උයාපිහා දුන් තිලක් අයියාද අමතක කල නොහැක.

2021 is an amazing year that I was able to pilgrimage 3 times of Sripada. It was due to the renovation of the Andiyamalathanna Toilet complex. However each time I witnessed different nature, weather, and surroundings. Also, I was lucky to see the Colombo in the morning and in the night at Andiyamalathanna Ambalama. Actually, we identified plenty of mountains and areas and noted everything as to share in our Facebook Group.

Horton Plains is my favourite destination in Sri Lanka. I have visited here in 2002 with my family and after that, I came here with Akila in 2011 and had unforgettable experiences as I have fallen from the bike at the top of the area which about 2100m above. After that I have visited here to climb several mountains with Sobasiri crew and another visit with my wife as she has not visited here at that time.

Had another visit to see some waterfalls on the way to Ratnapura. It was a good day as there was some level of water to see the beauty of some falls. Dodam Falls, Bopath Falls, Sudagala Falls and Rajanewa are good for bathing and little famous in the areas hence you can easily find these waterfalls and have a safe journey.

අද ගමනාන්තය ඔබ කවුරුත් හොඳින් දන්නා ඉසව්වකටයි. ඒ “සිරිපා රක්ෂිතයට” යි. උතුම් වූ සිරිපතුල පිහිටවූ සමනල කන්ද පිහිටි අඩවියයි. නමුත් අද අප තරණය කරන්නේ සමනල කන්ද නොවේ. සමනල ගිර නගින බොහෝ අය දන්නා සේම දැක තිබෙන හරි අපූරු කන්දක් තරණය කිරීමටයි. ලංකාවේ ඉතාමත්ම සුළු පිරිසක් පමණක් ගොස් තිබෙන අතිශය දුෂ්කර හා භයානක කඳු තරණයකටය. ඒ “කුණු දිය පව්ව” මුදුනට නැගීමටයි. තවදුරටත් කිවහොත් සිරිපා කඳු පාමුල පිහිටි පලාබද්දල, එරත්න, මලවන, ඉඳුරුව, මාපලාන වැනි ගම්වල ජනතාව පවා ගොස් නැති දුෂ්කරතම කඳු තරණයට අද අපි සූදානම් වෙමු.

සමනල කන්ද රසික එකමුතුව is the only Facebook group in Sri Lanka dedicated to one destination as Holy Peak, Sripadaya. We have created this group in January 2019 for targeting conservation in peak wilderness and make awareness on the pilgrimage. We have launched the first Project in December 2019 as preparation for the 2019/20 Siripa Season. And we have contributed to a project launched by Derana TV and we undertook the Erathna route on that project. And now we were able to do our second project for the 2020/21 Siripa season.

2021 is a most challenging year as the whole world is fighting with Covid-19 and there were restrictions and a procedure in order to pilgrimage Sripada on this season. We had our first pilgrimage on 30th and 31st January 2021 without any letter but under special approvals by the divisional secretariat of Ratnapura as we are conducting a renovation program at Andiyamalathanna toilet complex.