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Holiday at ‘BACK OF BEYOND – DEHI GAHA ELA’ – Dambulla |
Although it was a 3 day trip arranged by ‘Lakdasun’, for me it was much more than that as we were invited to stay at ‘Back of Beyond – DEHI GAHA ELA’ in Dambulla, a couple of days more by Uncle Yohan.
I had seen photographs of this place and I knew it was going to be a fantastic holiday. I was so excited about it.
My first visit to the Jaffna Peninsula |
My mother was going to Jaffna for work. As it was my school holidays my father and I also decided to joined her. It was going to be my very first visit to the Jaffna Peninsula. My parents said that it was not going to be a site seeing visit but, only a visit for me to see what the Peninsula looks like.
Horton Plains to Bambarakanda on foot – a never-to-miss experience for a Hiker |
We started at Peradeniya at 5.00 am and reached the trail head, which was about 9 km from the Visitor Centre at Horton Plains towards Ohiya, at 11.00 am. I know six hours to do a distance that was just a little over 100 km was totally unacceptable considering the facts our hired van was so… good, the driver was so… cool, road was so… private, and what was more, we all wanted to get to the trail head as early as possible.
Explore the beauty of Pulmoddai and Arisimalai Beaches |
I started the journey from Colombo at mid night and arrived at Trincomalee at 6.30am in the following morning. At 8.00am there was a bus to Pulmoddai and I got in to that bus. After three hours I got down at Pulmoddai town. On the way I saw three great bridges that were newly constructed (Irrakkandi, Kuchchaveli and Yaan oya). I was unable to photograph those because the bus was fully crowded.
Salgala monastery, Manella & Theli Falls (Galapitamada) |
We decided to go in search of a waterfall called “Theli falls” which is 3-4m in hight and which is formed by the Gurugoda oya. To reach to this waterfall one needs to travel on Nelundeniya- Galapitamada route and get down from “Thuntota” where you will have to travel about 4Km on a track which leads you in to an islolated rubber estate. At one point you will come across a huge rock on the left of the road(see the photograph), right after you pass the rock you will find the path towards the Waterfall! Since this was the dry season Gurugoda oya was sought of dried off.
A Three Day Trip to Kumana National Park |
My parents told me that we were going to spend three nights camping in Kumana. I had never been there before but had seen a lot of pictures of Kumana taken by my father who had been there several times during the past few months.
This was also going to be my first camping trip in a National Park.
Lankagama – An isolated village in the Southern boundary of Sinharaja Rain Forest. |
Lankagama is known as an isolated village in the Southern Province. It had no proper access road could not be reached without a tough 4×4 vehicle (until the first quarter of 2010). The village borders the Sinharaja rainforest & the Gin River. It is also the home for a complex of 5 ever young waterfalls within an area less than 1 Sqkm, known as “Hariyawa Dola” waterfall complex. By 9.00 am we were at Neluwa. The jeep ran & turned to a by road near the school at Happitiya village. There was an iron bridge over the Gin Ganga (river), established recently known as Mandugeta bridge
Fascinating Alagalla (1148m) & Dekinda Falls(30m) |
Alagalla hike was a hike I was looking forward to do since last year but always the weather condition was the limiting factor. I left early morning from Yakkala and arrived at Mawanella. Guess what! as I got off the bus straight away I saw the gigantic mountain covered with a veil of mist which is a peculiar sight. I decided to do the hike from the Ihala Kotte station because that was the route that I was aware about but the easiest way would be taking a Kandy-Poththepitiya bus from Pilimathalawa.
In search of “Soora Saradiel’s” hide out and Bo Ella |
I left Colombo and reached a small town just before Mawanella called Utuwankanda where you can find the road which leads you to Saradiels rock (Utuwan mawatha). After walking about 1Km I came across a small road branching off towards the Saradiels rock towards the left. I travelled uphill until I met some locals where I asked for directions, they said take the path which goes uphill so at one point I entered another path which branched out to the left trough a small rubber estate. The path was there until the last bit, it was a steep climb on the slippery muddy track.
Exploring the Southern boundary of Sinharaja Rain Forest – Duli Ella, Neluwa |
When a waterfall emits dust-like spray, people used to name it as a Duli ella. (Duli / Duwili mean “dust” in Sinhala). Other than the famous Duwili fall at Kalthota, there are several Duwil falls situated in various parts of the island. It’s a common experience that each an every waterfall has a unique beauty, though they are varies in height, width and capacity. Duli ella at Kosmulla, Neluwa is such a beauty, which allow travelers to explore her with a minimum effort.
