Pada Yathra is an annual walk of devotees from Jaffna to Katharagama to worship God Kataragama. Majority of devotees walk from Okanda through Kumana and Yala National Parks. This is my experience of a volunteer medical camp to help devotees at Yala NP.

We leave from Anuradhapura around 8.00 a.m & our next destination was Polonnaruwa. On the way we visited Ritigala & Una Gala Wehera. After visiting these places we reached Polonnaruwa at around 5.00 p.m. Our first mission is finding a place to stay. After visiting few places we found a good place to stay.

ගල්පොත්තැන්න ග්රාම නිලධාරී වසමට අයත් නන්පේරියල් ප්රදේශයට ආසන්නතම නගරය බෙලිහුල් ඔය වේලනන්පේරියල් වතු යායේ කොටස් හතරක ගම්මාන හතරක ජනයා ජීවත්වන අතර ඔවුන්ගෙන් කොටස් 3ක් පමණ සිටින්නේ හතරවටින් කඳු වලින් වටවූ මහා පාතාලයකය. ඊට අමතරව පිහිටි නැග්රැක් ගම්මානය ඇත්තේ එම ගම්මානවලටත් වඩා අඩි දහස්ගණනකින් උසැති ලෝකාන්ත බෑවුමේ ඉහළ කෙළවරකය.

Our son in Grade 1 & he getting long vacation in August. That means we were free from normal routine work. Then we decided to arrange a trip. We thought arrange a long trip. It will easy for us to visit many places & visit all relatives’ houses in one trip. On 30th June morning we went to Anuradhapura. But on that moment also we don’t have any fix plan. But one thing , I knew that this will be more than 10 days trip.

Hello everyone! Hope you’re all well and getting geared up for the up-coming festive season. Well, all the glamour of the festive season would’ve been over by the time you read this article. However, after our previous hike based at Kande Ela, there was a transitional period, very much like the “Nonagathaya” aka inauspicious time during April New Year. I was going mad with nowhere to go and was ready to walk up a wall when finally Hasi came into my rescue and we managed to do a small Waterfall Hunt in Colombo.

If it wasn’t for that, I’d’ve had to be admitted to a sanatorium. Even after that, there was a long wait before our scheduled journey to the Koslanda, Bandarawela and Demodara. The constant rains made me think of those gorgeous cascades falling majestically having been fed by the increased volume of water but I was stuck at home with no means to go see them. However, we planned to visit a few of them during our journey, most notably the Upper Diyaluma Falls or according to Dr. Eberhard Kautzsch who wrote the book “A Guide to the Waterfalls of Sri Lanka”, this could even be the Kudalu Ella.

We started our trip on 29 January 4.00 a.m & we reached to Rakwana town around 7.00 a.m. From there we took Deniyaya road to reach Aranya. We passed famous 10 bends ( Wangu Dahaya ) & surrounding view was superb. We reached Aranya at 8.00 a.m & first we had our breakfast there.

We got the news about poor family in Sandunpura – Dehiattakandiya. We plan to visit there to see that family. We took Mahiyangana bus from Pettah. It leaves 12.00 p.m & reached to Mahiyanganaya at 5.15 a.m.

We started our trip on 5th March on 5.30 a.m. We reached Pinnawala at 8.00 a.m. First we went to see newly open “Ape Gama”( The model of old village ) We spent nearly 1 ½ hrs there & went to Deliwala “Kotawehera”. The temple situated in Rambukkana – Dombemada main road. After worship the viharaya we went to Kele Dambulla Temple. It situated 4 – 5 km’s away from Deliwala “Kotawehera”. It also nice place & we have to climb more than 350 steps to Len Viharaya. After that we went to relatives house in Kadigamuwa.

We looked rural Temple who needs our help. We got news about Temple in Kelenikawewa in Galenbindunuwewa. We got bus from Pettah – Dutuwewa on 10th March. It leaves Colombo at 11.30 p.m & reached to Galenbindunuwewa at 4.30 a.m.
We met the thero & went to Kelenikawewa Temple.

I and my friend decided to visit Jaffna and Worship Nagadeepa temple on Full moon day 22nd February. We left home somewhere around 4.00 clock in the morning on 21st. Our plan is to travel Jaffna by Train. But It was found that the intercity AC train from Colombo fort at 5.35 am is fully booked and no seats available, Therefore we decided to take the next train Yal Devi that leaves Colombo Fort at 6.30am and reaches Jaffna about 3.15 pm. it is worth saving time in a this nature of trip and advisable to book the intercity AC train reaches Jaffna about 12.30pm

Six years ago, on 14.10.2010, when I (newbie) requested assistance from Trip Planning Help center to plan a trip to Jaffna a prominent member advised me, “Bring back at least one postal address of a total stranger that you will surely meet somewhere up there. Write to him / her and develop a strong and trustful friendship. Encourage all the others who are with you also to do it. Please…….. If all the people who rushed to ‘see’ Jaffna since the A-9 opened did that, we would by now have made a lot of trust worthy friends. Think about it”

Katchatheevu is the farthest island belongs to Sri Lanka. The church of St.Anthony is situated at Katchatheevu island. This is about annual festival of St.Anthony church.