After completing the three most traveled trails (Hatton-Nallathanni, Rathnapura-Palabaddhala and Kuruwita-Erathna) to SriPada my focus shifted towards the lesser known ones. The Uda-Maliboda trail from Deraniyagala was on the top of that list. I was looking out for more details on this trail and that is when the topic came in to discussion on the forum in the threads – Trail to Sri Pada from Uda Maliboda, Deraniyagala and Trail to sri pada to udamaliboda – Thanks to the discussions there I got all the information required and was wating to find some time to do the walk.

Before 6.00 am we left Gampaha. Hemantha, coming from Ehetuwewa, a small town at the northern boundary of the Kurunegala Distict, had asked to join with us at Ibbagamuwa junction. However we had to wait more than 1 hour for Hemantha. So we had time enough to have a visit & rest at the famous Bathalegoda tank. On our way we met the young wild elephant who used to rob foods form vehicles passing through, at the Habarana jungle.

We were due to travel on the Kurunagala – Puttlam road with some time to spare. So I looked up a couple of books for some diversions and came up with two interesting sounding places – Tonigala Inscription and Paramakanda Viharaya – in සිරි ලක අැසු දුටු තැන්. We never made it to Tonigala (one of the largest inscriptions in SL) as we were so taken up with what we found in Paramakanda. Turn off a few km past Anamaduwa by the sign board for Paramakanda Purana Viharaya. Driving through very flat land you suddenly see this huge rock outcrop ahead.

To reach falls, we travelled about 4kms along Elpitiya-Kahaduwa road and came to Pituwala village. Before the village we had to turn left from the main road. At that junction there was a yellow color name board of “Diwankara lena Hermitage”. If you come by bus you have to get in to Elpitiya- Kahaduwa bus and get down at the this junction. Road conditions are very good. Still the bus service is not good. There was only one bus for two hours.

Few of my friends decided to go on a trip to Badulla by train, in December 2008. We had to travel by the night mail train because we were not enough lucky to reserve tickets for an early one. We got into the train at Veyangoda station at about 9.15 pm on 19/12/2008.
It was 6.00 am the following day when we reached Pattipola which was the most elevated railway station from the sea level, in Sri Lanka.

Last day of our trip we planned to visit Kalpitiya and Bathlangunduwa. We were so tired and got up late and started the journey around 8.30AM. It took lot of time as the Puttalam – Anuradhapura (A12) is under construction. On Our Way to Puttalam we stopped at “Thabbowa Wewa” and relaxed a bit. It is near karuwalagaswewa and it was a nice location to have breakfast.

I was bit worried because I couldn’t do a trip to knuckles but luck was on my side our guys decided to go on a trip & asked me a place to go  ! After doing the reservations from Baththaramulla we left on an early morning from Colombo to reach Mathale at around 10a.m where we bought all the stuff we needed & lunch packets. We then continued our journey towards Rattota in search of Bambarakiri Falls (fed by water streams of knuckles mountain range).

After hours of traveling we were at another grate irrigation wonder of our ancients. That was the grate tank at Kantale, which was built by Kind Mahasen the grate and renovated by the Kings Agbo II and Grate Parakramabahu. We turned right at Kantale to visit Seruwavila. While passing few kilometers in that road, we realized the difficulty of driving a vehicle with low ground clearance, in such a road being under constructed. Our vehicle was fully utilized & loaded. This was our annual family journey of the year 2010.

I & four of my friends went to Sri Pad via Udamaliboda trail on 13th of last December. Sri Pada season was started on 1st of December and we wonted go there before it gets crowded. On 12th we travelled to Anghettipola where one of my friends live which is 6 Km away from Daraniyagale. We stayed there whole day and also visited to Saman devalaya at Daraniyagala which is a tradition followed by the Sri Pada pilgrims. Next day we took a bus to Udamaliboda around 6.30 p.m. from Moda palama which is 1 km away from the place we stayed towards Daraniyagala.

One day trip to Aranayake, exposing to the nature & Heritage. Asupini ella (30m in height ) and Selawa temple were the main travel locations. Having nearly an hour of driving we stopped at Ambasevana restaurant just before Kegalle for the breakfast. We were at Mawanella in the next 40 minutes. Up to few kilometers passing Mawanella on the Aranayake road, we met the first barrier since the road was under construction. We were beaten by dust because our jeep was an open canopy one.

We started our trip from Colombo at about 5 a.m. And we came to Kandy at about 8 a.m. We had our breakfast from a little restaurant but to be honest it was a horrible meal. After that we got in to a bus which goes on the rout ” Kandy – Udu Dumbara”. Also you can go to Hunnasgiriya by a “Mahiyangana” bus. we were in Hunnasgiriya when it was 12.30 p.m. We had our lunch there. It was awesome. They have two vans which go to Meemure everyday. only two vans. They come to Hunnasgiriya in the morning and leave at about 1.30. So we got in to one of those vans.

This was a trail that I was looking forward to do since I have done the other two main routes previously (Palabathgala & Hatton). All started when we met on 21st of march where I got to know many members of Lakdasun out of them Amal who is a member came up to me and asked me “are you planning to do the Uda Maliboda trail?” so that was the initiative for this journey! :-).