Since I got my appointment at General Hospital Chilaw, I was planning to visit this place and finally the day arrived (almost after 1 year). I left towards Hettipola and beyond to meet one of my friends. We packed up our stuff and decided to go in his Maruti rather than the bike because it was drizzling. The mountain can be seen to the Chilaw-Kurunegala main road Between Hettipola & Medagama junction

Brandy rock is a unique rock and similar to Bathalegala in shape, when seen from Alawatugoda while travelling (on left hand side) on A-9 route towards Mathale. The rock is close by to Mathale but it’s hidden by the Wiltshire/Etigala kanda which is bordering the Mathale town. This rock is a well-known hiking destination but unfortunately there’s very few online literature.

This rock is not a place to mock around and it’s not an easy hike at all, it’s also believed to be a holy place protected by the local god (ගලේ බණ්ඩාර දෙවියන්ගේ ගබඩාව). There have been many incidents where the god have punished travellers & locals who was wondering about with a bad intent (stung by wasp, elephant attacks, lost in the jungle, etc)

World’s End Lodge is situated in Lower Ohiya. The location is fantastic and the facilities are decent. This is my fourth visit to World’s End Lodge and I’ve found the facilities improving with each visit. This place is certainly not for someone looking for luxury accommodation but is a great place for anyone who enjoys nature.

Early morning on the 30th December we started heading south on the E01. It was my first time on E01 and I couldn’t have asked for anything better! Cutting across paddy fields, rubber plots and forest patches, E01 was virtually emerging from a sea of mist. Even though the scenary was heavenly, capturing it on camera at 100kmph was not easy. The dirty windshield did not help the cause either.

In good old days we used to come to hot water springs in the morning for a bath and a glass full of pure hot milk from a nearby polathu kade and the area was deserted other than that kade. Now it is a carnival and even the springs have lost their warmth to some extent!!!!! We wanted to visit the secrete tomb of the Muslim saint which is in the wilderness beyond the springs but the security people warned us off telling that the trail is now vanished and wild elephants are roaming around. Someone should do something about that.

On the 18th two of us left delgoda at about 4am and picked up the other two crew members from ambepussa and we were past gampola when the sun was rising above the mountains. It was a beautiful morning with a slight chill in the air and the scenery that unfolded before us when we drove past nawalapitiya on the talawakelle road was simply amazing.

Almost one week after the peacock hill adventure, it was time for another hike. Mount Kabaragala was an unknown mountain for me until one week back when I first saw it while I was on top of Monaragala. I had no idea about the geography and how to conquer it. Only few google images, survey departments map information and few photographs which I have taken few days back, were there for my aid. Kabaragala is unique in the sense it’s the tallest mountain peak of Dolosbage range and it has an almost flat terrain on top of it which makes you feel that you are walking in heaven.

Since this is the ideal time for hiking I thought of starting up by doing a scenic warm up hike. I left early from Colombo and arrived at Para deka (just before pussellawa) and took a trishaw towards Doragala junction. And continued uphill along the road, passing the tea factory until I reached the pines estate. From here onwards it was a 400m hike uphill on a well cleared path. Suddenly I was at the top at the base of one (out of four) communication tower

Walpolamulla is the most remote village exists in the Reversturn area and now it has been almost abandoned due to the threat of wild elephants. But still there are families coming there to cultivate the fields they owned yet there is one person lives there. Also there is a tracking trail which we think that is quite famous but we were not aware of it before.

Having read the book the Sinhala Buddhist Heritage in the east and the North of Sri Lanka by Reverend Ellawala Medahananada Thero we decided to visit some of the accessible Viharas of the Vauniya South and North east of the district. We set out on a three day trip but left on the 16th evening and spent the night at Anuradahapura Sarvodaya rest center so that we could leave to Vauniya in the early morning of 17th to save time and before sun get too hot

It has been almost a year since visiting Mannar and I was tempting to go there again, especially in the middle of the migration season. I have called Mr. Laurance, the owner of Four Tees Guest Inn, many times since the season begun, but couldn’t go there due to some concerns. This time I was very determined to go there and ask my friends to join me from about month a go.