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.

Most of the Sri Lankan’s are connected to the names derived from “Sinha” The race Sinhalies, Areas like Bulathsinhala etc . Surnames such as Jayasinha, Ranasinghe 🙂 etc and of course we have a forest called by that name. “SINHARAJA” origin of this sinha term is not from the carnivorous animal “Lion “or lion centered fictions concluding half humans. Those were myths put in to our minds forcefully. It’s truly because of the four superior races who lived in sri lanka commonly known as SIV HELA who gave birth to one nation .Those were called Yakkaha, Naga, Deva & Gandharwa.

Going Camping alone is a one of the best experience you can get. This idea came to my mind on the beginning of this year. So I planned to go Balathoduwa & Gommoli kanda via Adara kanda. Then I asked from Ashan, Niroshan and Amran is it ok to go there alone. They all said it is bad idea go alone. So I changed plan and decide stop at 1st view point of adara kanda. Because I just wanted have Solo camping experience.

We started our journey very early in the morning from Maharagama at about 02:00 and made our way to the Pettah bus stand. We caught the Monaragala bus from Pettah which got us to Kandy by about 06:15. We had to walk from the Kandy main bus stand to the one near the clock tower to catch a bus to Waththegama. The bus ride to Waththegama took abot 40 minutes.

The Loolkandura estate was the first tea plantation estate in Sri Lanka (Ceylon) started in 1867 by Englishman James Taylor, it is situated in Kandy District.

Andahelena waterfall is situated in Southern province near Elpitiya city. There is a temple on this road and your vehicles can be parked over there. The hike is about 1km along the forest patch.

When we traveled to Alagalla, we should turn left to Poththapitiya road where the turning point is at before the Kadugannawa RS. This road is little bit worst. From Poththapitiya town there will be a Boo tree at left side with adjoin road.

Kudawa Sinharaja entrance is the most attractive center of Sinharaja rain forest. Sinhagala trail is popular trail compared to Mulawella trail, kind of an easy one. This is my experience of Sinharaja rain forest from Kudawa entrance.

As you all know there is a road from Ratnapura to Balangoda called “Wewelwatte Road”. This route is a paradise of waterfalls. From the beginning to the end you can see over 10 main waterfalls and over 20 seasonal small waterfalls on a rainy day. This route is about 40km to Balangoda.

The constant rains made it pretty awkward for us but it wasn’t going to hold us back. So finally as usual we set off on our journey in the dawn of 16 Oct. The topic of the day was based on the wildlife in Borneo such as Bearded Pigs, Orang-Utans, etc. We stopped at our usual place at the Devon Viewing Point. As usual she was in full flow making my heart leap in joy. She also made my hopes soar high in anticipation of seeing my beloved St. Claire in full flow. “Dear god, please let her be in full flow even if you have to blast the darn sluice gates of the wretched Upper Kotmale”, I prayed while we took our breakfast baskets of Seeni Sambol and Egg Sandwiches. I’m sure you would wanna see some pictures of the surrounding and it is my pleasure to oblige.

All this year I have been following streams and hunting cascades and there was one major pending to do adventure! As always I needed a motivation and Nalinda and the gang provided me with it. They did this trail 3 weeks back so I was tempted to follow their footsteps. For years I have noted many cascades above Bomburu falls and wondered how was I going to plan this trip but after getting few tips from my friends I decided to go ahead.

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.