This was an adventure I always wanted to do, from the moment I saw the documentary in youtube back in 2012. However, due to the lack of experience in outdoor activities, I had to drop the idea. Then in February, I got to know that Thinuwan had been there. I suddenly got an adrenaline rush and determined to explore the underground lake. By this time, I’ve already done several hikes, and was confident about my fitness level.

Matale-Illukkumbura-Pallegama road (B 274) gives access to number of waterfalls and tourist destinations like Riverstone, Pitawala Pathana etc. During this three days journey we covered following waterfalls.

This is an isolated village completely surrounded by numerous mountains making it located in the bottom of a deep ravine. Badulla-Passara road seems to be running around this and a few other isolated villages. Namunukula-borne Loggal Oya flows between the border of Urumeethenna, the last village with main-line-supplied electricity, and Kohonawala before joining the mighty Mahaweli at Mahiyanganaya, making it further isolated.

The story behind the start of this village has many different variations. According to the folklore, they origins run far deep thousands of years backwards where the indigenous people of SL, the Veddhas, roamed this island at will. According to one old farmer, the leader of that Veddhas in the village was an elite archer. Once he won a contest of shooting an arrow through a golden ring thus getting the name “Ranpath Mudiyanselage” bestowed upon his clan. Surprisingly all the people in Kohonawala has that as their surname to-date. Everybody is called R.M. and their given name.

By February of 2012 I had climbed Adams peak 6tims using all 6trails. Since my initial plan was to complete all 6trails and once this objective was achieved I decided to retire from climbing this peak. But this decision to retire only lasted a few days because as soon as I downloaded my GPS data of the Hapugastenne trail to my computer I found out that there are 2more possible trails that could be done

We planned to do this hike inspired by Ashan’s report. With a short notice we decided to go on Saturday and do the hike on Sunday morning and get back home the same day. We were anxious on the hike as Ashan was describing this as a strenuous and adventurous hike. As usual we agreed to go with no local guides so that we can experience adventure by missing the route.

It was on Tue 18 Feb when Hari called out of blue moon and asked if I could join them for a waterfall hike on 22-23 Feb. It is one of my favorite ones but due to not being able to take leave, I had to give up that idea. Gala Balana Kanda had always lurked in my mind and I wondered “What about climbing that on 22?”. I just didn’t wanna do it alone and then came Hasitha into the pic. He’s been calling me numerous times showing his interest to join with us for a trip and this looked like the best opening for a new partnership.

So I called him and suggested my plan, he hadn’t been to Berandi Kovil, Sithawaka Palace and Tomb of King Rajasinghe. It was perfect coz I knew we’d have enough time to cover them yet again as they are all very close to the main roads and won’t take an hour to do all three. I was anyway so sad about not being able to join Hari and the gang for the hike.

Following day we all got up early in the morning and had a cool dip in Kumbukkan oya and then packed our stuff to go. We started the journey as early as possible so that it would definitely help to avoid the burning heat. For the day three, our target was Navaladi hot water wells. Very first group crossed the river at Madamethota and thereafter no one was allowed crossing from there due to high water levels.

සිංහල ජනතාව අතර “කතරගම දෙවියන්” යන නමින් ද හින්දු ජනතාව අතර “මුරුගන්”, “ස්කන්ධ” යන නමින් ප්රචලිත කතරගම දෙවියන් පිළිබඳ ජනප්රවාද රාශියක් තිබේ. කතරගම දෙවියන්ගේ උපත පිළිබඳව විවිධ මතිමතාන්තර තිබේ. ඉන් එක් මතයක් වන්නේ ඊශ්වර හෙවත් ශිවගේත් පාර්වතියගේත් පුතකු ලෙස ස්කන්ධ කුමරු උපත ලද බවයි.

We started the journey from Petta CTB stand around 2PM on 21st Friday, 2014. There was a Rathnapura bus and we took it to go to Kuruwita. It was around 4.30 when we got down from kuruwita. Our aim was to go up to Erathna and stay there. However after getting down at Kuruwita, we were lucky to catch the last bus that goes up to Adewikanda which is the last point that public transport is available during Sri Pada season.

This was my ninth visit to sacred foot print and I wanted to do it in combination of two uncommon routes. My plan was to climbing up by Dehenakanda-Mukkuwaththa road and getting down from Udamaliboda-Deraniyagala road. As I have been at these two routes before I could guide my other two companions.

I’ve been on a rail hike rampage from the last September and done so far 5 stages totaling about 114km. I can’t even imagine doing that much along the rail tracks coz it’s really testing your stamina. Having done that much regardless, I wanted to finish off the remaining distances ASAP while the weather is holding nicely, even though a bit too drier for the farmers who’ve not received their quota of rains during Dec/Jan season this time. It’s so much amazing how someone’s misery turns out to be somebody else’s joy.

This was the first trip of New Year. We reached Pattipola railway station around 4.30am and Ashan came to accompany us to Karunadasa guest house which is situated in walking distance from the railway station. Following our bed tea we started the journey to Hortain plains National Park by a three-wheeler. Weather was excellent and Piduruthalagala mountain range, Ambewela area, Namunukula, Hakgala mountain were visible one our way.