If you take the back roads rather than the coastal road, the environment is quite different. We were rather surprised to find such a lot of lovely wawes. When we passed Lenabatuwa wawe (between Akkurassa and Kamburupitiya) it was too late for photos but it seems a very very lovely place. There is a little guest house just on the side of the wawe which looked like a potential base. There was a board for the Lenabatuwa Bio Diversity Park and someone told us that walking in the forest is quite interesting. It certainly looked lovely.

We were heading Lulkandura / Loolecondera Estate, the first commercial tea plantation of Sri Lanka, which was located in a distance of 35km from Peradeniya. Just after the University premises, the climb was began. The road was bit narrow but had been maintained well. It was nice scenery of hilltops at Gampola area visible in our right hand side, especially the Govijana Seya of Ambuluwawa. The road was run through natural rain forests, pathana and pines lands.

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

We started after dinner, from Maharagama around 10.00 pm and reached Udawalawa Dam by 2.00 am. The barrier was closed. However after checking our credentials, they allowed us to pass through with a warning about the bad road condition. Closing the Dam at 10.00 pm seems to be a formality now.The road condition from Udawalawa to Thanamalwila was really bad. It was under construction and it took nearly 2 hours to pass that stretch. Our 5th member was to join us at Okkampitiya. We reached Buttala by early morning and reached his home for breakfast.

Belilena Cave, which is about 8 km from Kitulgala high up in the Inoya Estate, is one of the larger prehistoric caves on the island, where the 12,000-year-old skeletal remains of ’Balangoda Man’ (Homo Sapiens Balangodensis) were found. The prehistoric settlements of the area date back to a very early period, as shown by recent cave excavations as well as those carried out at other sites. The earliest settlement dates back to around 32,000 years ago. Skeletal remains, microliths, bone implements, cherts and food remnants have been found in local caves.

We had planned to visit Mannar via Pomparippu, Wilpattu and Silavaturai as we were passionate to pass through the jungle, though we were not convinced about the road condition. We wished advice from the police station, army base and the bus stand at Puttalam, if the road is in good condition. We were discouraged from their answers as we had a 2WD van and which also a hired vehicle. Hence we decided to visit Mannar via Medawachchiya. On the way we visited Madhu Church.

We planned this trip to visited Victoria, Randenigala, Loggal Oya and Sorabora Wewa dams, Mahiyanganaya, Nagadeepa, Muthiyangana, Bogoda and Buduruwagala temples, and Dunhinda, Rawana Ella, Diyaluma, Bambarakanda and Kirindi Ella waterfalls. We started form Kandana at about 4.30 in the morning. The crew was three in a car. I was driving the car. We took about 25lts of water with all other belongings

With the reopening of the Kumana national park early this year it had been on our priority list for quite some time and finally we managed to make that dream come true. The camp sites were booked more than three months in advance as there is no other accommodation south of Arugam Bay. Wildlife department is trying to rebuild the destroyed circuit bungalows and hopefully we will get to use them before long.

The hired van (Dolphin) started with me from Kalutara and travelled via Panadura, Kottawa and Malambe to pick some of my batch mates. Our friend in Batti also joined with us going home for the vacation. We arrived at Polonnaruwa via Kurunegala and Habarana. We did not intend to visit many places around Polonnaruwa as everybody in the crew had experienced Polonnaruwa before. Then we directly proceeded to Batti without having a bath in Passikudah as we were not early enough to so.

We started from Colombo around 9PM on Thursday. We bought all the provisions needed from Cargills, Maharagama. We didn’t have a gas cooker or a cylinder as my friend who own those had given them to one of his friends. We tried to buy one for our selves but that too did not work out as all the 2.5Kg tanks were sold out at Laughs. So we decide to cook using firewood. After collecting everyone, it was around 12 PM when we left Colombo, and we managed to pass Lahugala by around 5.30 AM. Rising sun had made some wonderful scenery.

But then, I got unexpectedly lucky! We went to visit friends in the Hemmathagama area with the intention of climbing Rahalgala. It poured with rain and that plan was washed away. In the idle time, our friend’s mother gave us a book she (Kamala Somaweera) had just published – මාලගිරා සංදේශය (Malagira Sandeshaya), thankfully written in 21st century literary Sinhala! We have not quite managed all the places the Malagirava travelled to, but since we hardly ever visit every place named in a guide book, I decided to do a ‘work-in-progress’ trip report.