Our journey started from around 4.30 in the morning and we proceeded to Rathnapura where had the breakfast. After the breakfast we went to the Rathnapura Maha Saman Dewalaya. We spent a little time there and hit a road again. We went along A4 highway until we came to the Kalupahana junction and took a left turn towards the Bamabarakanda. After proceeding about 4.5 km we had the 1st sight of the Bambarakanda fall at a distance.

A 3 day visit to southwestern part of Sinharaja, called morningside due to its weather is always feels like morning
Harsha and myself (iro)(left Colombo around 6.00 am by a CTB bus to Ambilipitiya (through low level road – Try to use bus through low level since it is 10 Kms shorter than high level). We reached Rathnapura at about 8.20 am and met Kavinda (other member of the group). Then we had our breakfast and we bought some rice. kavinda already bought other stuff for cooking.

This was also one of our dream hikes that we had to postpone several times because of the rain. But finally we had some fine weather and we decided to do it. But it was the starting day of a long weekend and the queues for the buses were miles long. We got into a Badulla bus after a one and a half hour wait in the queue. It was 2 am in the morning. After a four hour ride we reached Belihul Oya around 6 in the morning. Although we couldn’t take a good sleep previous night we were eager to start the hike. We had our breakfast there and took two three wheelers to reach the trail head.

Knuckles mountain range has been a paradise for me since the first time I visited there via Deanston in 2009. The breathtaking surroundings, strong cool winds and challenging hikes had been tempting me to visit there again and as a result I decided to visit Knuckles again in the following year from Illukkumbura side. The story of our unforgettable journey is as follows

Just after passing Kurunegala we turned left to reach Arankele Monastery. The road was not that smooth, but it was ok. There were places where the road was quite damaged due to heavy rains on the previous night. If not for a van or off-road vehicle, it would have been impossible to tackle those obstacles.

We started our journey from Matara at 3.00pm in the evening and arrived at Wellawaya by 7.00pm. We spent the night at Wellawaya and planned to visit Diyaluma falls the next day. At 8.00am we caught a Wellawaya- Haputhale bus (Through Beragala) and got down near ice peella (අයිස් පීල්ල)- Nikapitiya road

e were planning to do this trail for some time but we had to postpone it several times because of the continuous rain. Finally we thought of doing this on 1st of January as it’s a nice way to start the New Year. We took the Podi Menike night mail train from Colombo Fort on 31st night and reached Ohiya on the following morning. We started our hike from Ohiya at 6.30 am. And soon we witnessed some breathtaking views when the sun light came though the forests as beams. It’s really difficult to describe the beauty of these wonderful scenes.

Started our journey from kaduwela at around 6.30am only stopping for breakfast at kuruwita. It was time to get our cameras out for the first time at the first attraction for the day being surathalie ella. After having lunch at Welimada we proceeded towards Bomburu ella. The condition of the road from Welimada to Bomburu ella was not in a good state.. It took us about 1 hour to travel the approx. distance of 15km from welimada but it was definitely worthwhile since one of the most beautiful waterfalls that I have seen was awaiting us in its’ magnificent splendor…

We started form the suburbs of Colombo at about 6.00 in the morning. The crew was 5. We reached kandy at about 10.00 a.m. and visited “DALADA MALIGAVA” the temple of tooth. After that we took Gampola road and I turned my vehicle to “Kothmale Road” to reach the Kothmale dam. It was very nice and scenic road.

Seven waterfalls (ඇලි හත) is a collection of seven waterfalls at the upstream of Seethawaka ganga (tributary is called Naya ganga). Even though the access route is from Deraniyagala, seven falls belongs to Nuwaraeliya district and also all seven falls are inside the peak wilderness sanctuary. This exciting adventure will take you out of busy homosapiens to calm and cool virgin green forest with pure water streams. This story begins by year 1992, when I was around 10 years old I could barely remember one of my uncles told a story about hiking “Eli hatha” which was an epic adventurous tour with full of fear, courage and excitement

We started our journey from Colombo Fort at 8 pm on a Friday eve. The crew was four. We booked the tickets for Badulla night mail train in advance. Even though I tried to get some sleep on the train it was really difficult for me. After eight and a half hours, the train arrived to Pattipola station around 4.30 am. We had to wait 1.5 hours till the sun rises to start our journey.

We entered the road which goes to the tea estate. And the sun was directly over our heads, spreading its burning rays all over the area. It was really hard to find a shelter to have a rest in the beginning of the hike. We had a little problem to chose which way to go after coming to a junction. So we used our map to find the way. Of course Ashan’s Wangedigala trip report helped us as well. So we turned to the gravel road and start walking again. It was even hard to imaging how difficult it was to go up a hill with a heavy weight.