It has been a long journey since I joined Lakdasun in 2009 actually it added some spice in to my life and enforced my passion for traveling. Now it’s almost four years since I have transformed in to an ideal traveler. The knowledge the experience I gained from Lakdasun is immense and that per se was enough for me to do 100 write-ups voluntarily for the betterment of future travelers of our pearl island. I still remember the day Mithila asked me to write a trip report on Adams peak which was the second trip report on this forum and since then I have been writing continuously(except 2011 latter half) on Lakdasun

Sri Pada(ශ්රීd පාද) /Adam’s peak one of my favorites places in Sri Lanka. After having seven visits to Sri Pada I wanted to do it in a combination of trails during off season. I selected Kuruwita-Erathna trail for climbing up and Rajamale-Sandagalathanna (සදගල තැන්න) route for getting down.

Having stocked our larder with rice and curry and noodles, we reached at the Ambewela at moderate 8.45am and got the permission from the SM to park our car and leave it there. He was very willingly agreed and the Colombo-bound Podi Menike was arriving at the station and then sat waiting for the signal to run along.

Having stored water bottles, meal packs, portable cooker of Prasa and other essential items into our back packs, we left Ambewela towards Nanu Oya through the lush green patches of Ambewela farm.

The idea of seeking knuckles like a beautiful dream of a seeker is born in my heart before long time ago. The end of my interest is run out of this journey with beautiful memories. I give my special thank to “Lakdasun” because of the help for materialize my dream.

It was long ago I did a rail hike that was in February. So with the upcoming long weekend and been clueless, I decided to do a 3 day rail hike which I had to fast track to two days because Kasun invited me for another trip. Doing 65 Km’s for two days is more like a rail run but guess what I didn’t miss a thing. Walking speed was around 4.2Km’s/hour and I have never walked on a road even that fast. As most of you’ll know this stretch is not known for any special locations or scenery but I found out that there was lot to offer. My main focus was on flowers, may be wild or grown at stations as garden flowers, so please forgive me for adding many images of these beauties.

This year the monsoon seems to be getting late letting me venture around more and more taking the upper hand of it. There was an old post on a trail from Udu dumbara to Rathna falls which was hanging around my long list for many years. So I thought of giving it a shot. With few calls Sri, Danushka and Lahiru were in to it. It was supposed to be an easy hike which was 2.5Km’s.
On the previous day I reached Mahiyanganaya and loitered around in the evening enjoying some unseen water bodies called Dambarawa lake and Mapakada lake.

Within one month of my journey to Kehelpothdoruwegala I needed to revisit at Knuckles mountain range from Deanstone (ඩීන්ස්ටන්) area. We gathered at Hunnasgiriya town (Three from Colombo and two from Moneragala) started our journey from there. Loolwaththa (ලූල්වත්ත) CTB bus reached at Deanstone Conservation Center around 9am. After having brief visit at DCC we headed to Dothalugala (දෝතලුගල) trail.

We continued passing Hanguranketha in our quest to visit some little known waterfalls we got to know thanks to Niroshan. But our journey was badly affected first by our delayed start and then by the terrible road condition past Hanguranketha. The road is under construction and is in a terrible state.

So without even informing Mrs.Mayakaduwa I started my journey towards Bambarakanda. I left home around 4.30 and came to Kaduwela by a Three-wheeler and got in to a Badulla CTB Bus. Neither bus nor me in a hurry so we slowly reached Kalupahana(just before the 172nd Mile post) around 10.30am(It stopped for breakfast at Pelmadulla).Then I took a TukTuk and reached the Bambarakanda rest around 11.00 am.

We got off the train from Badulla in the morning after a long 12 hour journey. The list of “must do” in Uva province was getting longer ever since Ashan started roaming in Uva and his reports started flooding into the Lakdasun forum. We were hoping to cover a few of those places and 5 of us were on a hiking trip, hoping to do 3 trails in 3 days. Our accommodation was close to Passara so we quickly did shopping and got into a Passara bus.

We came through Southern Highway and turned from Baddegama out. Then we came to Neluwa through Nagoda, Udugama, Hiniduma and Thawalama. From Neluwa you have to drive another16 KM on an extremely narrow road, through Kosmulla.

Water is life .Value of it cannot be measured in rupees or dollars. Not only for our basic needs but also for our pleasure, Leisure it’s the most commonly used thing. And for me if there is no water source it’s not a trip. I’d like to swim in swiftly flowing rivers and am desperate to dip in natural pools filled with Crystal clear water. When I jump in to water I forget everything other than dipping and swimming.