This idea came up as our uncle wanting to go to Badulla to check a land for his son to buy and asked if we wanted to join. Since it was Independence-day time and a long vacation, my friend and I joined him for the journey. We left early for Fort station to catch the 5.55 am Podi Menike train to Badulla. However, when we came to the station, it was over-flowing with people and there were queues everywhere.

After the lunch we waited few more hours at the circuit bungalow hoping that the herd will get into the lake just opposite the circuit as told by the bungalow caretaker. But soon we realized we don’t have such luck. So we thought it is better to search the herd rather than waiting them to appear in front of us.

This year was the best period for me to do the well-known “Paada Yathra” because I currently reside in Moneragala. Actually even before I thought of walking with the pilgrims this year my friends did ask me to join them and the answer was YES SURE (with a big smile). This was something I wanted to do for some time but free time was the major problem. Thanks to the long discussions in lakdasun and talking hours with people who had experienced this walk first hand, we were ready to walk the distance with the pilgrims and experience something that is worth a million.

We started around 5.00 am on old new year day and arrived at Dambadeniya around 7.00 am. Our plan was to visit Dambadeniya Raja Maha Viharaya and the kingdom. But it was raining heavily and we gave up the idea andproceeded further and came to Panduwasnuwara around 8.30 am.

I’m crazy about N’Eliya and it’s a habit of mine to go there every year (from 2000). However, I couldn’t arrange anything coz all my friends were tied up with something or the other. By 26 December, I was feeling miserable and my legs were itching for some exercise. So I made up my mind to go on my own. I was initially planning to leave early morning, just walk around the town, park and Gregory Lake and come back in the evening.

I have been living around Moneragala for few months and it seems I’m surrounded by heritage and nature. There is a place called Mayuragiri Raja Maha viharaya 2Km’s close to my quarters which I thought I have visited in 2009 but after seen NG’s post I understood that I have visited the Mayuragiri hermitage but not the temple. So on a peaceful day I decided to walk towards this temple.

We had to leave the boat there and walk about 1km up to the Entrance of the Hill which holds the temple and the famous cave complex. The surrounding area was so picturesque and very remote even though it belongs to the Western Province. We reached the entrance to the mountain around 12.30 and immediately began our ascend.

Our first stop for the day was at the “Nilavara – Bottomless Well”. It is a big opening on ground filled with clean water. It is said that the depth of this well is unknown. There had been 2 formal attempts to find out its depth; one by a team from the Jaffna University and the other by a team from an US University, but both teams could not find the bottom of it.

I had a dream to experience the oldest successful human-carrying flight from a very long time. In 2007 I inquired from one of the few providers in Sri Lanka in order to achieve this. At that time per person cost was 15,000/= which was not affordable and thought it is not worthwhile spending that much for a one hour ride. So, I gave up the idea. However in 2011 August there was an offer in a website which is famous for daily offers, for per person cost of 7200/= (60% off from their usual price).

I’d always wanted to go see Yapahuwa as it is a very historical place and that famous Lion’s statue made me want to go there even more. So I hastily arranged the plans to visit Yapahuwa and on 07 May, my friend and I left Fort Station by 6.10 am train which goes to Batticaloa. (You can also take 5.45 pm train to Omanthai)

We were lucky to catch the bus leaving for Kalawana at 5.45 am and reached there by 7.45 and unfortunately the Sinharaja-Kudawa bus has already left and had to wait till 8.30 for the next one. When we went to one of the shops for some provisions he said it would rain the whole week and it made me wanna come back immediately.

We left delgoda at 5.30am and was experiencing rain for the next 1 ½ hours till we reached our first attraction of the day at Ampagala, Bulathkohupitiya being Suramba/Punahela ella. After waiting for about 10 minutes till the rain subsided we decided to get a closer look at the falls