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.

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 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.

We started our journey from Katubedda at about 11.00pm in the night. The crew was seven. We reached Colombo Fort at 12.00 am by bus. Then we took the Kandy bus and reached Kandy by 4.40am. By 7.30am we were at Bambarella village. On the way we passed a lot of beautiful waterfalls and nice sceneries. Rahas ella, Hulu ganga falls, A fall near Hathale tea estate and Two falls near Hagalla estate are some of them. Unfortunately bus was moving fast and I couldn’t able get least one clear photograph of them. I think Hulu ganga create more than hundred waterfalls in Bambarella, Panwila, Wattegama area.

Originally inhabited by the aboriginals commonly known as Yukkas. A monastery is believed have been built here first but subsequently known to have been used by a order of recluse monks who practiced a austere life style. No mention of this order of monks has been found since 12th century at Ritigala or else where and probably the monastery also has been abandoned since then. Ritigala was rediscovered by the then government surveyor James Mantell in 1872. Ritigala had been used as a base for battle by Pandukabhaya the founder of Anuradhapura city.

We started our journey from Colombo Fort at 5 am and took the Podi Menike train to Pattipola. We reached Pattipola around 2 pm. After having our lunch and finding accommodation, we started hiking towards Thotupola kanda. But the bad weather and lack of time forces us to abandon it and we returned to Pattipola around 7 pm.

The trip was planned mainly to get away from all the stresses of our usual schedules. We wanted to visit Ritigala as most of us had not been there and Galkadawala was selected as it came highly recommended by one my friends. It was also perfect for the activities we had in mind – visit Ritigala, see the Gathering at Minneriya, photography and to relax. There was no TV, no telephone and that was just perfect for us (except for those who couldn’t bear to be away from their mobiles 🙂 )

We started form Hikkaduwa at about 5.30 in the morning. The crew was two in my motor bike. We turned into Udugama Road from Galle and Stopped at Nakiyadeniya to have the breakfast.
The weather was quite nice and cool after a huge rain last night. After traveling about 30km we were able to reach Udugama Town. Then we traveled about 2km along Neluwa road we reached to the entrance of Kanneliya reserve.

August 2010 was a super holiday for me. The very first day of the holiday started with a camping trip to Kumana. It was followed by a visit to the Jaffna Peninsula and a stay at Dehi Gaha Ela in Dambulla. This camping trip to Nilgala was going to be the last before school re-opens. We reached the Nilgala NP by late afternoon and straight away went to ‘Mahadrowwa‘ camping site. It was a nice place by the side of Gal Oya. We unloaded all what we had taken and pitched our tents. Oh! Yes, we had a bath in the river too. It was a nice and safe place to bathe.