Ok all started when someone teased me up with an image of a mountain top and he mentioned that this was shown on a TV program. I was tempted so I went through that video and decided that I need to visit this place. I was running through Google maps plus 1:50000 maps and I suddenly remembered that I saw this plain in 2009 while I was at Ihala Pelampitiya. I was told by a local at that time that this was Amanawala region though I was interested in climbing at that time, the interest faded away from me with years passing by. I was waiting till the monsoons to give a little break and soon as the weather settled during X-mas holidays I decided to give it a try.

Wellawaya was not only a place of work for me it was also a paradise location for me to explore around. I have been to many places around this region but yet there were few more remaining sites that I needed to visit. This is a brief report on those..

I did the sensible thing on Ashan’s advice and hired a tuk-tuk. The driver was a friendly person called Ranga and we drove up to the last house where you have to start walking along an irrigation canal for about 400m. The path is now well paved and easy to reach the falls. We met one Mini Hydro Power Plant and Ranga informed that it is now redundant after the main power supply came to the area and he went onto say that the village used to have three such power plants. However all of them have been made redundant since the arrival of national grid. Hurrah!!! I felt like dancing.

We could also see the rocky hill where Kurullangala is. The memories of our back-breaking journey in the recent past sent a shiver down my back. Ranga said that there’s even a path from the top of the Wisari Ella to the Rakkiththakanda Cave Temple where we went last time before the hike. Project sites of Uma Oya could be seen in the distance and the water in the streams has turned into an unusual white color after the ammonia mixed with it as a result of tunnels dug out to take water for the Uma Oya Project. That was quite visible even to the naked eye.

Last month I heard about a missing news of Rev Thero Ellawala Medhananda and then I search information about this matter. Then I contacted a person in Thorawa and told him that I will come there as from Sunday Lankadeepa journalist. Without telling anything he was arranged every things for us. Then the chief theor of that temple Rev Sangananda and 04 of well experienced villagers has participated to our journey and they took the lead at all.

On Aug 8 2014 three of us started the journey from Kandy at 14:30, it was a rainy day and we were about to miss the bus to Ratnapura but managed to catch it. We reached Ratnapura around 19:30, two of our crew were on their way to Ratnapura from Colombo and they reached around 21:30. There was a cab service we hired previously and they reached to the town around 22:00 and we all set to go.

Riding bicycles on those hilly roads were somewhat difficult, but it was a life time experience for us. Climatic condition in Nuwara Eliya during December and January is cold and dry. Therefore, it is better to arrange your journey during December.

This was my second attempt to walk along Mahaweli River and we started from Mahiyangana.

It was totally random but we wanted to visit Kala wewa since it was named and opened to the public very recently. When we got there it was already drizzling and the lake was filled up to the brim. After getting in contact with the DWC officers and experienced “Ali Ananda” we went to get a ticket. We were surprised because we got to know that we were the first to visit the park since its opening. Feeling honoured we took the road towards Kala wewa reservoir. It was a muddy virgin road which was very slippery. This adventure was all about mud baths. When we reached the lake we noted that we had to abandon the idea of riding around the lake because the 20km path was covered with water.

Yakdessagala is a mountain situated at Kurunegala district closer to Kurunegala town. It is said Kuweni (කුවේණි) cursed king Wijaya (විජය) from Yakdessagala and leaped from here. As Kuweni belonged to Yaksha (යක්ෂ), this peak is called Yakdessagala.

Finally I managed to convince myself and the crew that 5 and 6 of Sep are the best option remaining for us. I simply couldn’t afford to keep it postponing any further and decided to take our chances with the constantly changing weather conditions. I kept looking up the AccuWeather, Weather Channel and FallingRain for weather updates. Unfortunately our own Met Department is a symbolic white elephant and not as reliable or dependable as we would like it to be so we’ve no choice but to rely on alternatives such as the above. The rain patterns have shot to hell especially during the last couple of years probably due to the global warming and our irresponsible actions towards the earth. This has made it extremely difficult for farmers, fishermen and those who depend on the regular patterns of the climate.

Even the seasoned farmers, villagers or fishermen find it difficult to predict the weather conditions as a result. Usually you can trust those villagers’ expertise better than the state of the art equipment of the US Met Department but not anymore so we resorted to these web-based weather forecasts. It didn’t look good, not at all as it kept forecasting thunderstorms and heavy rains throughout. I was hoping against the hope for a clear window to make it safely to the summit. Anyhow, we were fully committed and there was no turning back. In the back of my mind there was this feeling of security that if your intentions are good and your behavior is acceptable, you’re going to be ok, especially at the Sri Pada. It’s said in the Buddhism that those who live by the Dhamma will be protected by the Dhamma itself. So we had faith we’d face no problems and if there was any, those powers that protect the area will take care of us.

I’m sure you might have come across theories by many pundits claiming the usefulness of Ulex in many of their theories. Most of these pundits (as Ana rightly put armchair critics) haven’t even been to HP to see the real danger posed by the Ulex. It was as if fighting the terrorists from AC rooms in Colombo. The biggest theory is that Rhino Horned Lizards take shelter in these plants and nest in them. Well how did they survive before these were introduced? HP is not the only place where they live so how do they survive where there is no Ulex? Why the wildlife department is so anxious to get rid of them if they were that useful? So we decided to leave all the theories behind and take some action instead. As Sash rightly put in the forum under the Video Journey, “It’s better to light a single candle than blaming the dark” which is exactly what we had in mind.

It was during one of those casual chit-chats that this idea of doing something about Ulex came up. By then I had climbed Kirigalpoththa 3 times (KGP) within 18 months and had seen the fast and furious spread of Ulex covering the path at many places. So Ana as usual spotted the benefit this would give to the HP and pursued it further exploring ideas. Finally after a few dozen emails and hours of phone conversations we managed to find the best possible way.

Previously I did hike from Kalupahana to Ohiya on foot and I wanted to do this on my jeep but I never planned to attempt this in 2015. All started when my friend Dharshana called me and said “machan must go somewhere because I haven’t been anywhere in 8 months”. He had been stuck with his PG degree so was desperate and this was the main reason why we did this plus Amila also joined us on the last moment.