Yahangala/bed rock is the mountain with unique shape of a bed situated at eastern edge of Knuckles massif. This rock related to Rawana legend. King Rawana’s body was kept here for last respect following he became unconsciousness by arrow flew by Rama’s bow.

So me, with 3 of my friends – Ashan, Chinthaka and Dinuka – packed our bags and departed to Nava maama’s place in Meemure on 20th April with cheerful minds. Much to our dismay, a heavy shower started in the evening of 20th, shattering all our dreams of making it to the summit. Nava maama casted a totally negative outlook of tomorrow’s proceedings, as it could be observed that streams of water sliding down the Western face of Lakegala, from where we are supposed to climb. Nevertheless we insisted on going as far as we could, and Nava maama had no other option but to agree J Next day we started the journey from Meemure with the guide introduced by him, Chanaka, and reached the base of the rocky surface after nearly a 5 hour struggle. It was clear to us that any attempt to proceed further would be suicidal. Such a venture would only result in consolidation of the already established opinion that Lakegala is a deadly peak. I am not going to further elaborate on our first attempt to climb Lakegala, since our second and the successful attempt also covers the same details up to this point. Only difference here was that the climb required extra energy due to forest patch being infested with leeches and rocky surface being extra slippery.

In childhood I heard that song “Haputal Api Yanawa”. Ever since I want to go to Haputale. I should admit Haputale is very scenic place although people do not visit Haputale as much as some other over rated places. It is a small town with plenty of places to accommodate. You can reach Haputale by bus or train if you use public transport.

Kota Ganga Fall is a cascade of six+ waterfalls flows from Thangappuwa to Kota Ganga village in Knuckles area. I have trekked from Corbet’s gap to Thangappuwa and enjoyed the beauty of full spectrum of Kota Ganga Falls.

Lakegala might be the most popular mountain from Knuckles peaks. This has two peaks but everyone knows about the classic peak at Meemure village side. This is my experince to visit at both peaks of Lakegala.

After a snail-like journey, we reached Maskeliya and bought a couple of essential things like instant noodles. We were planning to take a tuk-tuk from here but our luck held coz there was a Nallathanniya bus leaving at 10am. So having breathed a sigh of relief we got into the bus and settled. The sun was back and my hopes soared like an eagle. However as we got closer to Nallathanniya aka Dalhousie (remember it’s Dalhousie not Delhouse or Delhousie), those hopes came down and down like a deflated balloon.

It was very gloomy and there were a couple of passing showers as well. “This is going to be one heck of a hike” I told Atha and we both regretted not having brought the umbrellas. Well we shouldn’t have worried coz the usage of umbrella becomes next to zero after Geththampana due to the open area and strong winds. We had our long overdue coffee from the shop just before the bridge. Already there was a group of people getting ready to climb for a Pooja and we started our hike around 11am, after 8.5hr journey, well literally.

The day I heard about Lakegala, I started collecting information about this incredible rocky mountain. I was dreaming about this for very long time. When I did the ‘Nil Diya Pokuna’ cave expedition, I decided my next big thing is Lakegala. Me and my friends went to Lakegala during April 2016. Weather was perfect, but the night we stayed, Meemure had a heavy shower. Nava mama told that not do the hike. I was heartbroken . But I made up my mind that something bad would have happened if we have hiked. From that day I was my clock started ticking……

Every time when I told my friends that I want to do the Lakegala, they said that it’s very hard and too risky. And to think twice before you attempt. But My mind was already set to do this hike this year. After my first attempt I tried several times, but planning screwed me up.

Peacock Hills/ Moneragala is situated in Kotmale area which has a historical vallue. This is my visit to area to explore hidden places related to Princes Gemunu during his life at Kotmale.

Hagala/ Havagala is a famous mountain situated at Sabaragamuwa province near to the Sabaragamuwa University. This mountain is the final lesson of their Rag but this is some kind of a good experience to them to have an adventure in this beautiful area.

We started our journey to Alagalla from the Colombo Fort railway station and got on the “Podi Menike” train which left Colombo Fort at 5:55 and we were able to reach the Ihalakotte station by 7:55.

Ok, back to Runakanda. This is a part of Sinharaja actually but is now being proposed as a separate Forest Reserve. I hope this will get legalized soon as we’re fast losing our forest areas. Even Runakanda like many wet zone rain forests have been ravaged by the Walla Patta Hunters. According to villagers many outsider had come in gangs and stayed inside the forest living in makeshift shelters or caves chopping down Walla Patta trees and making loads of money. The FD and Police are in high alert even though the damage has already been done thus the reason why you shouldn’t venture into these areas on your own.

We heard that the FD is now distributing Walla Patta plants for commercial planting where they help with the chemicals to produce that specific bit of residue after 5 years. At the age of 8, the tree is good to cut down and harvest. Hopefully these will put a stop to the destruction of our virgin forests.

It was few months back when I saw a lovely documentary on Derana TV which was done by Chatura Alwis. The documentary featured a mountain called Dhanigala and its temple. Though I had been to the temple in 2013 I couldn’t explore the region much and this documentary made me recall a forgotten expedition.