It was around 6AM when we left Colombo with UdaWalawe national park being our destination. The crew consisted of me and my wife, along with three other close friends from our uni days. We loaded up the camping gear and other paraphernalia to the back of the pick up and I took the wheels for the first part of the journey.
The drive upto Pambahinna was rather uneventful with three stops for breakfast at Awissawella, fuel at Rathnapura and change of the spare tyre at Pelmadulla.

Started from Colombo fort at 6.00 a.m. but got into a Kandy bus around 8.30 a.m. as it was the start of the ‘Wesak weekend ’. From Kandy to Wattegama around 1 hour in the bus and the last bus from Wattegama to Bambarella at 7.15 p.m.
There are enough buses on normal days to Bambarella from Wattegama. Even from Kandy there are few. Total distance from Kandy to Bambarella – 38km.

Arrived at the Mirissa harbour by 6.20am since we were to leave by 7am. Was at sea for around 40 minutes when the guide spotted whales. Got to see 3 whales(for the entire trip….hmph) of which only 1 posed for the camera. Disappointed with the lack of show put on by the whales for us we were circling around at sea for another good 2-21/2 hrs hoping to see some more when we came across a school of dolphins that put on a terrific performance cheering the whole group up after a disappointing morning……Should say that the dolphins made up for it..

Our van moved slowly since the road was narrow and hilly. The condition of the road was un-expectably good. (It seemed to be repaired recently). The sky was covered with crowns of wet zoned trees. We had moved more than 3km. along a by road starting from Ginigathhena. In the next moment, we were free from the shades of trees and came to an open area surrounded by a tea plantation. Then we notice a silver string laying on black dress in a distance. That was the Aberdeen fall; the most beautiful place in the Kehelgamuwa River

I and three of my friends decided to attend the Somawathi religious function on 8th May. Along with that we decided to go to Aukana and the ancient city of Polonnaruwa. So we took off at 2.00 a.m. on 7th May from Kiribathgoda. We used a Maruti 800 as our transportation medium because of its fuel economy.

Around 5.00 a.m. we took a left turn from Mirisgoni Oya junction and headed to our first place of interest.

There was nearly 45 minutes drive from Ruwanwella to Bulathkohupitiya. Bulathkohupitiya was a small town at an elevation of 130 ft from MSL, located in between Kegalle & Karawanella. This colonial type town was margined by a stream known as Ritigaha-oya, a tributary of Kelani River. It was started from the ranges of Dolosbage, located within a distance of 20 km from Bulathkohupitiya. On the other hand, the elevation rose dramatically from 140ft to 3000ft within a distance nearly 14km.

Total distance of the boat tour was around 14 Km and it took 2 hrs. We started from Hamilton canal and the canal was full of water monitors. We were fortunate to see a young crocodile. We reached to Negombo lagoon within 20 minutes. Then we entered to Dandugam oya through boarder of the Muthurajawela marsh. There we saw lot of fishing boats (canoes) with fishing nets.

Last day of our trip we planned to visit Kalpitiya and Bathlangunduwa. We were so tired and got up late and started the journey around 8.30AM. It took lot of time as the Puttalam – Anuradhapura (A12) is under construction. On Our Way to Puttalam we stopped at “Thabbowa Wewa” and relaxed a bit. It is near karuwalagaswewa and it was a nice location to have breakfast.

It took us almost 2 hours to traverse the perimeter of the island, thats how big it really is. We were in all honesty taken by surprise at the size and various different types of trees and vegetation located within the small space. We noted in one place a heap of godapora fruit, half eaten possibly by wild boar or porcupines announcing the presence of animals in the vicinity. In the center of the island on top of the larger trees flocks of birds gather and chirp peacefully.

Next Day was a big day for us as any of us haven’t been to Wilpattu National Park. Early morning we got up and headed to the park. Mr Chaminda Dissanayake, the owner of Kahala Jeep Safari gave us a great help arranging the best guides and the safari.

We started our journey around 12.30 AM and continuously drove up to Puttalam it was 2.45AM when we arrived Puttalam. From Puttalam there were 2 roads to go to Talei Mannar. Short one goes through Willpattu but it need a 4×4 vehicle and the other one through Madawachiya and joins A14 road. We chose the long drive as the Road through Willpattu opens at 4.30AM and it is a Hazardous journey. We came to know later when we arrived at Mannar the road through Willpattu was flooded.

On the Ratnapura to Ambilipitiya road between Godakawela and Pallebedda junctions, there’s a road to the right side which leads to Kumburugamuwa. From the main road, you need to travel about 13km on a mountainous narrow road to reach Waulpane village. Unfortunately, I wasn’t tracking the road on GPS, but remembered to mark the location.
The cave is owned by bats (100s of them) and is very very dark. Cave ground has at least an inch thick bat droppings, may be a bit less on the path where people usually walk