This was a sudden decision taken before two days and we left Gampaha around 5.00am and came to Southern highway via Kottawa. From Pinnaduwa outlet we came to Udugama and reached Kanneliya Mount Resort around 08.30 am. After a quick breakfast we walked towards the park entrance, which is only 300 meters away. Vishan, our guide was waiting for us.

So here I’m again with the continuation of my fairy tale from breath-taking Meemure and hope you’ve read it and enjoyed it as much as I did (Jaunting off to the Most Beautiful Village on Earth – Meemure). I left you guys at Hunnasgiriya after our morning snack of sponge cake, banana and what keeps me going Coffee… We had to wait at Hunnasgiriya for a Mahiyanganaya bus longer than I liked due to 25 April being a Poya day.

During this journey I needed to visit at places in Warakapola-Karawanaella, Galapitamada-Nelundeniya and Ruwanwella-Galigamuwa roads. Ancient Seethawaka kingdom was situated over this area. Although I had a tight schedule before the journey, the evening shower ruined some of my plans.

කඹුරුපිටියෙන් උදේ 7ට පමණ ගමන් ආරම්භ කර අනෙක් සාමාජිකයින් 5 දෙනා සමග අකුරැස්ස, උඩුගම හරහා නෙලුව බලා ගමන් ගත් අතර මංජු සහ ජයනෙත්ති පිලියන්දලින් ගමන් ආරම්භ කර දක්ෂිණ අධීවේගී මාර්ගයේ වැලිපැන්න පිවිසුමෙන් පැමිණ පැලවත්ත හරහා නෙලුවට පැමිණ අප හා එක්විය. නෙලුවෙන් අවශ්ය ආහාර ද්රාව්ය හා අනෙකුත් භාණ්ඩ මිලදී ගැනීමෙන් පසු අප පලමුවෙන්ම නෙලුව ලංකගම මාර්ගයේ නෙලුවේ සිට 7km ක් පමණ දුරින් පිහිටි කොස්මුල්ල දුවිලි ඇල්ල නැරඹීම සඳහා ගියෙමු.

““Once upon a time, there was this fella who happened to come across this remarkable word and it stuck very deep in his mind. Everyone who’d either been there or heard about spoke very highly of her and this fella kept dreaming about it all the time. He didn’t have the means or the resources to visit her then and dream was the only option he was left with which he was very good at. On top of everything, Meemure wasn’t ready to welcome him just yet.

There are plenty of scenic roads around Sri Lanka offering breathtaking views intersecting different landscapes. This was such a “photo journey” along three scenic roads offering unique views where Hambegamuwa – Welioya – Kaltota through Paddy centered low country dry/intermediate zone, Balangoda – Bogawantalawa – Norwood through Tea centered mid/up country, Dickoya – Delhouse through Tea centered up country reservoir banks.

Once upon a time, it would’ve been an amazing flow of guzzling water, flowing through lush greenery, birds would have flown over it, and many more creatures would’ve beheld it! At some point someone would have discovered it, would’ve told some others about it, those others would’ve told many more others about it, and eventually, this icon of nature would’ve trapped the eyes of thousands more! Did Mother Nature ever instinctively foresee her future?

Once upon a time, I came across this very unusual name “Kanneliya Forest Reserve” and since then, I couldn’t stop myself being told over and over again, “must go see, must go see”… Well, that mantra has reaped its benefits coz I managed to visit this beautiful lady on 24 & 25 March.

කැබලිත්ත සියඹලාව දේවාලය හාස්කම් වලින් පිරුණු ස්ථානයක් ලෙස බොහෝ දෙනාගේ පිළිගැනීමයි. පුරාවෘත්තයන්ට හා ජනප්රවවාදයට අනුව ඉන්දියාවේ සිට පැමිණි ස්කන්ධ කුමාර හෙවත්, කතරගම දෙවියන් ලංකාවේ නතර වීමට තීරණය කල බැවින්, එතුමන් පැම්ණි රන් ඔරුව ගල් කල බවත්, එම ස්ථානය රන් ඔරුගල නමින් හඳුන්වන බවත් සඳහන් වේ.

This was my 3rd visit to Meemure and this was after 6 years of the 2nd visit. When I had my first visit in 2004, it was the time that Meemure was getting popular with ‘සූරිය අරණ’ film. In those days it was a village which was hardly developed. That means there was only a single vehicle to the entire village and we could see people carrying goods by ‘තවලම’.

පිළියන්දලින් රාත්රී 11 ට පමන පිටත්වූ අප උදෑසන 9 පමණ වන විට පොතුවිල් මුහුදු මහා විහාරයට ලඟා වුනෙමු. කුමන පිවිසුමට ලඟාවන විට දහවල් 12 පමණ විය. එතැනින් දිවා ආහාරය ගත් අප අපේ පළමු දින නවාතැන වූ කුඹුක්කන් ඔය හෙරලිගස් ආර බලා පිටත් වුනෙමු. කුමන පිවිසුමෙන් ඇතුල්වූ අප බාගුර පිටිය, කුමන විල්ලුව, මඩමතොට පසු කරමින් 23 පමණ දුර ගෙවා හෙරලිගස් ආරට ලඟා වුනෙමු.

This was a long awaited trip to Embilipitiya for my personal matters. Then I decided to visit at some places on the way to Embilipitiya and following whole day was used to visit at places at Kollonna. Later I went in another separate day to visit at some places at Godakawela.