““Once upon a time, there was this fella who happened to come across this remarkable word and it stuck very deep in his mind. Everyone who’d either been there or heard about spoke very highly of her and this fella kept dreaming about it all the time. He didn’t have the means or the resources to visit her then and dream was the only option he was left with which he was very good at. On top of everything, Meemure wasn’t ready to welcome him just yet.

We reached Ampara around 1.00 pm. We had to pick our two friends from Dayata Kirula exhibition stall. Therefore, we spent 1 or 2 hours visiting the exhibition. Next, 8 of us went to the friend’s place where we were spending the night. It was extremely very difficult to book a hotel or a government circuit bungalow as it was the Dayata Kirula exhibition period.

රාත්රිටය පිලියන්දල ගත කලෙමු. පසු දින උදයේ ලබුනෝරුව බලා පිටත් විය. එදින දිවා ආහාරය ඉබ්බන්කටුව ජලාශය අසලදී ගත් අප ලබුනෝරුවට ළඟවනවිට සවස් වී තිබුනි. රිටිගල කඳු පාමුල පිහිටි ලබුනෝරුව ආරණ්ය සේනාසනය ඉතා නිස්කලංක ස්ථානයක් වන අතර ඊට මද දුරක් ඈතින් පිහිටා ඇති මූරියන්කඩවල වැව රිටිගල කන්දත් සමග දර්ශනීය දසුනක් මවාපායි

This was my 3rd visit to Meemure and this was after 6 years of the 2nd visit. When I had my first visit in 2004, it was the time that Meemure was getting popular with ‘සූරිය අරණ’ film. In those days it was a village which was hardly developed. That means there was only a single vehicle to the entire village and we could see people carrying goods by ‘තවලම’.

Few months ago myself and Mithila got together and thought of doing the last two remaining trails of Sripada which were Dehena kanda/Hapugastenna trail and Morray/Rajamale estate foot path. We intentionally postponed this journey to march hoping that the path would be cleared off by then. This was a long awaited dream for me and this year it came true. This time our group was a huge one comprising 7 Lakdasun members and others been Theshantha’s family members. I knew this was going to be a unique experience that i will never ever forget and indeed it was.

I got to know about Manakanda (381.3m) from an article written in the book called Wanasena wanapeth (වැනසෙන වනපෙත්).Then one of my friends lives in Maradankadawala (මරදන්කඩවල) joined with me for this journey.
I reached Maradankadawala about 11am by Colombo-Anuradhapura bus. (A9 Road).

o I decided to do a bit more comprehensive Jaffna tour and a trip to the Delft Island which is the biggest of island of Sri Lanka.
So I checked the bus services available and Thinakaran Express of Lake House came highly recommended and it really was great. I booked the tickets for that and for the return journey, the train from Vavuniya at 3.10pm.

Bibila is a town located at an altitude of 240 meters bordering the mountains of Badulla district. It is one of the richest towns in terms of nature and heritage of Monaragala district. First of all let me start from a waterfall called Nayakadura ella which is located 50 meters upstream from the second bridge one meets after Alawaththagoda on A5.

Ok this time it was an area I have not traveled around much and this stretch which extends from Iginiyagala to Bibila is also known as one of the most scenic rides by many. My intentions were mainly on hunting historically important locations. So on a random day I headed towards Rathmalgahaella with one of my staff member from the area.

We set out of Colombo at about 5.00amin the morning and traveled via Ratnapura, Balangoda A4 road and at the 151 Km post the road to Uggal Aluthnuwara is on the right side of the road marked by a Thorana still incomplete. Nine KMs from Balangoda towards Badulla. Passing the thorana travel about 450meters and turn right and then proceed about 150 meters and come to the site of the magnificent dewalaya.

We all met at Avissawella at sharp 11.00 as discussed earlier. We took a bus to Deraniyagala and got in to the Uda Maliboda bus which left Deraniyagala at 12.30 p.m. After reaching the Udamaliboda tea factory we hired two Tri wheelers to the base of First fall. After spending some time there we visited the second fall after a tiring walk through a footpath. But the journey was rewarding. We had a safe bath in the base pool and had our lunch there.

We started our journey from 4th mile post of Trinco and our first place was Welgam Wehera temple. According to the map we have to first go to Anuradhapura junction and then travel in Trinco- Anuradhapura road (A12) towards Anuradhapura to reach this temple. But we bypassed the Anuradhapura junction and followed a short cut to come to A12 road.