One of my friends is gonna get married in September so he wanted to go on a relaxing journey before his arms and legs are tied. As I’d not been to Udawalawe before, this turned out to be the perfect opportunity. Apparently the scary things bring along good and happy returns with them. So we planned the journey during the Vesak as we all could get away without an issue. However, this time there wasn’t any of my Lakdasun buddies to accompany me. It was just the four of us, my close friends outside Lakdasun. So we all got ready to spend a night at one of national park known to harbor more than 300 jumbos. Our biggest concern, if we’d get a better bungalow.

There are four known bungalows at Udawalawe. They are Seenuggala, Thimbiriya Mankada, Gonawiddagala and Weheragolla. When I visited the Wildlife Department website to make the booking online (this is a great thing introduced by them. It saves so much trouble and painstaking process many undergo until not so long ago), none of those bungalows was available. Gonawiddagala and Thimbiriya Mankada were highly recommended but I had no luck. There was however a fifth option, Pokunuthenna, and it’s not listed in the information page for the bungalows which has photos and accommodation details. I was in two minds whether to cancel our jumbo watching and do something else coz every wildlife bungalow at all the national parks was booked.

I still remember the day I visited Senanayake Reservoir for the 1st time in my life. It was a family trip to Ampara in 2001 & we reached Senanayake Reservoir in the evening around 5pm. Sun was going down. I was totally lost among the sceneries around me and looking at the top of Inginiyalaga Mountain I thought “If I go to the top how the sceneries will be”. Since that day, the idea was in a corner of my mind but due to the distance from Colombo and other various reasons I had to give up several times.

This was a special journey because this was my first ever wild life safari to Yala. Though I have been to Yala on foot during the Pada yathra walk, I always wanted to do a safari too. I was invited by Sheham who was a good friend I met because of Lakdasun and I happily joined him on this venture.

Year and Month 2014 January 16th Number of Days First day of three days trip to Jaffna Crew 02-Nirosh and My self Accommodation Nature Park Holiday Resort-Chundikulam T.P 0213216254 Transport Train, Bus and three-wheeler Activities Bird watching and relaxation Weather Excellent Route Colombo -> Palai (පලෙයි) -> Iyakachchi (අයියකච්චි) -> Chundikulam (චුන්ඩිකුලම්) Tips, Notes and […]

I left you all with a beautiful sunset over the Parakrama Samudra. The room was comfortable and AC kept humming away as if trying to put us to sleep. We slept like logs until 5am. Getting up at that time is not appealing to many but for us, it’s something we’re now used to thanks to Ana. We got up and hurriedly got dressed coz we wanted to go to the bund of Parakram Samudra just before sun came up. We really wanted to have the reservoir to ourselves and feel the serenity and calmness in the morning.

Coming out of the hotel in a hurry, we almost bumped into the Doberman of the hotel. Thankfully Mr. Thomas warned us just in time and we escaped without a scratch. Just imagine having to come across a huge and fierce doggy in the dark. We drove fast to the bund while the early morning rays were coming out of their hide out. Having parked our car, we walked along the bund and surprisingly, there were quite a number of people out and jogging reminding us of Colombo walking paths. It was in a way a good scene as people are getting really health conscious.

Time to solve a mystery and this time it was a success. Uma oya falls was another mysterious fall marked on Sri Lanka road map just like Galagama falls. Somehow with the help of Priyanjan I did locate it on Google earth and paying a visit was the next step. I have been loitering around Badulla for some time now and on two other occasions I did cover up few places around Badulla, Bandarawela & Wiyaluwa.

We got into 14th Saturday night mail from Colombo and reached Idalgashinna station at about 4.30am with chilling cold. After inquiring about climbing pathway we headed to the mountain around 6.30am. It was a brightened day and surrounding view was beautiful. First we climbed up through the tea estate and reached the end of the tea patch where Pinus trees start. There was no foot pathway within the Pinus forest. After about fifteen minutes we reached the second highest point where it provides good view towards Koslanda, Beragala, Haldummulla and Belihuloya.

Kanneliya-Dediyagala-Nakiyadeniya is a forest complex in southern Sri Lanka. This is the last large remaining rainforest in Sri Lanka other than Siharaja. This forest is one of prosperous fauna zone in south Asia. It’s spread over 101.4km area. This is situated about 35km towards Northern western from Galle town. This forest provides good security to many of rivers in southern Sri Lanka. And also this rain forest is a main water source which filled up “Nilwala” & “Gin”.

Early morning weather was good but upper peaks were slightly covered with mist. But surrounding was misty on our way up and we reached the camp site around 3.00pm. For hard luck we couldn’t have any of the pictures I showed in above report. We pitched our tent and prepared our dinner. It was extreme windy on top of second peak and it was a sleepless night.

We started the journey on May 3rd around 4 AM. At around 11 AM we were able to reach Hunnasgiriya. On the way at Mawanella we had our breakfast. It took more than half an hour to reach last 8 Km since the road is in bad condition. But we are able to tackle it with high ground clearance car. We showed our pass to officer in Deanston and directly heading to campsite which is about 2 KM away with our backpacks, tents and gas-cooker.

Year and Month 2014 March 08th Number of Days One Day Trip Crew 03-Nadeera, Siraj and Myself Accommodation N/A Transport Car and Boat Activities Relaxation and Archeology Weather Excellent Route Polonnaruwa -> Dambulla -> Madatugama (මඩාටුගම) in Dambulla-Anuradhapura road (A9) ->  Jathika Namal Uyana (ජාතික නාමල් උයන) -> Back to Dambulla -> Ibbankatuwa Lake (ඉබ්බන්කටුව […]

Though I have been to Kumana twice and visited many interesting locations I did miss out on Bambaragasthalawa site. So with my wife I took off towards Kumana on a late afternoon. Our first stop was at Panama Lake. We took the road which led towards Wedagama Lake. At the border of Panama lake there was a road to the left and that ended at Panama RMV which is in ruins. The monk who was residing there was not available at that moment so we walked around a bit and returned to the lake which is famous for its bird and Croc life.