December, my favorite time of the year. So as usual, I wanted to go see my beloved N’eliya no matter what the weather is like. All my friends warned me against heavy rain and landslides for no avail. As my friend Lasantha’s hometown is Welimada, I decided to go there with my friend Sanjeewa who will soon be leaving for US.

Since I landed at Iginiyagala I have noted one abnormal dome shape rock close to Pallan oya and one day while I was wondering around the dam of Senanayake reservoir I asked a school boy about this rock and he said to me “ඕක උඩ නටබුන් තියෙනව සද්ධාතිස්ස රජ දවසෙ කරවපු” which lit a bulb in my brain matter and the next thing he said is that he has a friend who knows in and out about this rock.

So finally I decided to tackle the rains, it was not a pleasant experience but my desire and the outcome made it pleasant at the end. On day one when I arrived at Welimada it was around 1pm and it was drizzling at that moment and I had to face a major obstacle which was a bus strike at that moment, somehow got in to a CTB and went towards lunuwatta.

My No 1 is Sacred Sri Pada (done 5 times so far) other is Knuckles Range (2 times so far) and I’ve made my mind to visit these places at least twice a year. When I visited Knuckles(Meemure) last September I felt like giant mountains telling me “Hey Young man Come and see us again “

I have heard and seen some stunning images of a waterfall in a rural village in Uva long ago and I was tempted to visit this waterfall which is the 3rd highest in Uva and winning the 7th place considering all other waterfalls in Sri Lanka. So again it was a gamble with overcast conditions. First day I decided to spend the night at a friend’s place close to Madulsima.

This whole idea of a “night climb” was in my mind for a while and was wondering where to try it out first. After evaluating the trails I have done already finally it was decided that I should try it on Bambarakanda first. The intention was purely based on excitement and the urge to try something different without following the same course as usual.

We started our Journey early in the morning, had our Breakfast on the way. Since the weather was good we did not have any problems in the way. You have to turn to left just passing the Mohini Ella (15 Km sign is there near the Turn) to enter in to Murray estate, You have to travel about 8 kms to reach the Rajamale which is the border of the Siripa forest reserve.

It was in July while we were at Birds’ Paradise, Kudawa touring Sinharaja, Nimal the owner of the place told us about this wonderful place. He really is a nature lover and after realizing our enthusiasm about the nature, he encouraged us to visit this place and then and there we decided to visit in December.

Raxagala is the second highest peak of Dolosbage range and having different names. Locals called it Kinihira (කිනිහිර), Paththini amma kanda (පත්තිනි අම්මා කන්ද), Wangedi molgas gala (වන්ගෙඩි මොල්ගස් ගල )1: 50000Map shows it as Stentry box east. The idea of climbing this unusual shaped mountain came into my mind when I climbed Kabaragala-higest peak of Dolosbage range.When I searched it, I found a nice article in Sri lankan travellers. It gave me a good guidance.

“It was the rainy season after the Buddha preached his first discourse to the five ascetics of Isipatana and due to the rains his preaching tours were cut down and he followed the ancient practice to spend the rainy season “Vas” in one place of residence carrying out his work on the Dhamma.

On top of the Manigala we could see Doovili Ella far away towards the Kalupahana range. That day we all decided to visit this somehow. Eventually we could visit all other water falls in the poem and hiked Manigala peak 3 times after that, but we couldn’t go to Doovili Ella, because it is difficult to reach that. There were only a very few who have done this hike and it was difficult for us to gather some information as well

So after work on a Friday we took the bus to Kandy from Pettah and reached the city of Kandy late night around 23:00 hrs. However the Tuk-tuk drivers who were there at the bus station were quite supportive and they dropped us at our guesthouse. The reason why we decided to take a night out at a guesthouse in Kandy is to save the day time of Saturday without having to travel all the way from Colombo to Knuckles on Saturday which will consume atleast half of the day.