Afterwards we proceeded to Hunnasgiriya Town, from where we took the road to Loolwatta. The Deanston Conservation Centre is located about 8km away on this road.

The place is accessible by bus. To reach Hunnasgiriya either the Colombo to Kandy, Kandy to Mahiyangana bus combination or the Colombo to Mahiyangana bus should be taken. After getting down at Hunnasgiriya 616 Hunnasgiriya – Loolwatta bus must be taken. However this bus only operates. It leaves the Teldeniya depot at 12.30pm each day (Information can be obtained by calling the teldeniya depot).

Our journey started from around 4.30 in the morning and we proceeded to Rathnapura where had the breakfast. After the breakfast we went to the Rathnapura Maha Saman Dewalaya. We spent a little time there and hit a road again. We went along A4 highway until we came to the Kalupahana junction and took a left turn towards the Bamabarakanda. After proceeding about 4.5 km we had the 1st sight of the Bambarakanda fall at a distance.

A 3 day visit to southwestern part of Sinharaja, called morningside due to its weather is always feels like morning
Harsha and myself (iro)(left Colombo around 6.00 am by a CTB bus to Ambilipitiya (through low level road – Try to use bus through low level since it is 10 Kms shorter than high level). We reached Rathnapura at about 8.20 am and met Kavinda (other member of the group). Then we had our breakfast and we bought some rice. kavinda already bought other stuff for cooking.

We continued on this towards Verugal, hardly any traffic, people or shops on this route. Good idea to have plenty of drinking water, juice, fresh fruits to quench your thirst because one can drink a lot. As it’s hot and humid in this part of no mans land. Sri Lanka has the natural beauty no matter, wherever you may travel and this Mutur – Verugal route is no exception. Continuing along the way enjoy the scenery, assortment of scrubland, marshes, forest patches, rocks, Palmyra groves, reservoir, streams and the lush green vegetation with herds of feeding cattle, displaying a unique beauty of its own. This road has been newly constructed and the old ferries have been replaced with new bridges, some stretches extending 5 to15 Km. had got badly affected due heavy rains in September, as the carpeting has not been laid, the top fill earth has washed away, leaving huge pot holes. That driving through these stretches avoiding the ruts and potholes needs patience and skill. After driving through a never ending nerve wrecking journey finally we reached Valachchenai for a well deserved lunch.

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 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

This was a planned trip since 2009. Just didn’t have time to do it . took a bus from Rathnapura and asked the conducter of the Wewellwatte bus to drop me near Dehena Falls. So Dehena falls was my first stop. I also found another road side waterfall just before Dehena falls called Hal Ella

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.

Passing some manioc chena(s), the two vehicles turned into a by road lead to Amithirigala, which started from Kirindiwela – Hanwella main road, just before the AGA office at Weeke. Having traveling less than a kilometer from Weeke, both were stopped for a while at the base of Medagama viharaya, a temple where one of the first 8th daughter-plants of sacred Bo tree (Jaya sri maha bodhi) at Anuradhapura were planted. Traditionally each vehicle passing this temple used to stop; pray and put some coins in the till box on the name of the rural god “Ranwala Dewiyo”.

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.

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.

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.