The best time to visit these parks is during the drought season during July to September but usually yala is closed for visitors during the month of September so I thought of doing this trip on late August but then again when I checked with my contacts @ yala I came to know that this time the park will remain open so shifted my plans to September where the affects of the drought is much more severe so our chances of sighting leopards is @ high.

It was my third visit to Batticaloa & first visit after ending the endless war of this country. Its not a leisure tour for me but by chance, most of the time I get to participate in official trips to all around the country.
It was 12th February 2010, we left Kurunegala around 10.30 in the morning. The vehicle was a van & there were 8 members in our team. Our first stop was at Polonnaruwa for lunch & Polonnaruwa Rest House was selected for taking our lunch.

Let me start by explaining about “Wangedigala”, Im sure all of you must be wondering where the hell this is. This is a mountain range situated close to Kalupahana and facing the Badulla A4 road. it came in sight of my attention for the first time when I visited Bambarakanda falls, since then I wanted to climb it because it was a mountain range that you can walk along and enjoy the view. But actually we wanted to go further than Wangedigala. Balathoduwa and Gommolli(13th highest) was our target.

A week end trip to Kalpitiya was planned as a family vacation. The main attraction was the dolphins but some detours to see interesting sites on the way were also in the itinerary.
We started around 4.00 am on a Saturday – just 3 of us in our car. En route to Palavi along A3, we visited the Munnewaram Kovil in Chilaw. The Munnewaram Hindu Kovil has many little shrines within the main complex; dedicated to various Hindu deities. Photography is not allowed inside the kovil.

We started from Colombo at 6.00 a.m. in the morning. Had morning Tea at Hingula and stopped for lunch at Loggal-oya. We reached Bulupitiya Junction [22km from Bibile town] around 3.00 p.m.
Few of us decided to walk [10km to the camp site from Bulupitiya Junction] watching birds and butterflies as older people and few others decided to go by the tractor. We reached the camp site by 6.00 p.m. We saw few birds and heard the “Painted Francolin” as well. Few Jumbos were there too close to the camp site.

It was 5.30 in the morning when we left this time and we never expected it to be a tiring day! Our plan was to visit all known Waterfalls around Uda-Maliboda. On the way to Deraniyagala we had a stop at Maha Oya which flows by the road and searched for the beauty called Thalkossa and yes we saw them and other Barbs and Dandi also! When we reached Deraniyagala our attention was taken away by the bus halt there were so many Vans parked, those were the only available transport for the people around Deraniyagala but from Deraniyagala to Awissawella there are buses until 8pm. From Deraniyagala we took the Noori route and after-wards we arrived at a junction where we took the right turn towards Maliboda via Nakkavita.

The event was organized as the 6th event of Adventure Sri Lanka flickr travel and photography group. As planed we left Colombo around 2 in the morning after going through few unexpected things on transport (Unfortunately it continued). We were travelling in three vans with 21 members of Adventure Sri Lanka group soon joined by three other members by a car at Seeduwa around three in the morning. We all started going towards Kalpitiya. On the way we looked for a place to get a short breakfast and tea.

Bundala National Park is an internationally important wintering ground for migratory water birds in Sri Lanka. Bundala harbors 197 species of Birds, the highlight being the Greater Flamingo(WHICH IS NOT SEEN RECENTLY), which migrate in large flocks. Bundala was designated a wildlife sanctuary in 1969 and redesignated to a national park on 4 January 1993. In 1991 Bundala became the first wetland to be declared as a Ramsar site in Sri Lanka. In 2005 the national park was designated as a biosphere reserve by UNESCO, the fourth biosphere reserve in Sri Lanka.

We booked the Luxury AC bus in advance and it starts near Isipathana College and costs 4000 Rupees Return. (Believe me it’s worth every cent we paid)
We went there by 9.30PM although bus starts at 10PM they checked IDs and then we packed our bags in to bags compartment in the bus. Bus left around 11PM. The bus is super luxury with reclining seats and headrest. But the bus has seal type windows.

We wanted to leave Colombo as early as possible but it didn’t start too well. We could only leave Colombo by 9.00am, its bit of a strange time compared to what I am used to. But it’s the way when you are travelling with a little one. We managed to drive without any major stops until Lellopitiya where we had stopped for lunch. First major target attraction was Kirindi Ella falls. The turn off for Kirindi Ella is just about 200m before the Pelmedulla town on to your left.

This time we got it all wrong we got in to a Badulla bus from Colombo and without getting off at Balangoda we got down from Pambahinna and had to take a three-wheeler up to Mulgama which was about 18Km but never the less the journey through the Samanala Wewa forest part was a totally different experience, we also had a stop to enjoy the view of Samanala Wewa. On the way to Mulgama We noted a huge water-flow across the road which was leaking through the mountain, now this is the famous leak of Samanala project, as we heard this water leak runs through a mountain which borders the reservoir.

We left Malabe at 8.00 a.m. The destination for the first day was “Olu Ella inn” which is located 15.5km from Yatiyanthota town on the Yatiyanthota – Seeforth road. At around 9.30 in the morning we were stopped by the stunning scenery of the Kelani River at the Karawanella bridge on the A7.
After spending about half an hour on the bridge, enjoying the scenery we continued our drive along the A7 towards Yatiyanthota.