It is fascinating what you could observe around your own residence sometimes! some people travel to places to see wild life but if you are observant enough there are plenty of things right at your doorstep. This is a collection of images taken around my second home while having a chat in our garden. The canal which lies at the boarder attracts many birds and its a great pleasure to walk along it when the water levels are low.

“Apparently there are 30 different kinds of Nelu and 24 of which are endemic to Sri Lanka”

We jumped out and headed towards the summit of Thotupola with an elevation about 200ft over 2km stretch. It was a sight to treasure for the rest of our lives. We were simply speechless and kept walking through dense forest patches till we reached a bit open area and the sight was simply outstanding. So many mountains were visible and Adam’s Peak was standing tall and majestic in the horizon with her distinct shape. Kirigalpoththa and the undocumented Agra-Bopath were standing next to each other.

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.

I was home alone and since I will have to go back to ship somewhere in November, came up with an instant idea to visit Wilpattu once more. Called the usual resting place, L.L.T safari rest inn 1 day before to check the availability.I was lucky. One room was available. Spoke to my friends but no one could come in a short notice + since it’s during the week days. So, thought of going by bus instead of driving alone.

Kingdom of Magama which is also guarded by lord Katharagama is one of the most visited areas by Sri Lankans and most of the time they only manage to visit few places which are commonly known. First of all Hasitha’s report was the guide I used to plan my journey and succeeded with what I attempted in! Im not going to mention anything related to the history of Magama kingdom in detail since Hasitha has done a good job in his report! As the title says this is a summery on Kataragama, please do enjoy the images!

Neelagiri hela been the only prominent rocky mountain around Lahugala was on my list for many months not because of it been a mountain but the archeological value it had. Last year when I visited Neelagiri Sthupa I was told that there’s plenty to see around Neelagiriya in addition to the huge extensive complex of Neelagiri seya. The forest which engulfs this area extends for miles with ancient buildings belonging to Neelagiri monastery. I got the opportunity to re visit the gigantic sthupa with few of my colleagues few days back and when we reached the sthupa I met Amila who was on duty. My first question was “do you know how to get to the ruins at Neelagiri hela?” and he promptly replied by saying If I wanted he could show me the way.

After a tiring day, the water felt great on our body but Wumi kept sniffing it feeling a bit doubtful. We stayed in about an hour and the sun was ready to go down. Shantha treated us with a cup of ripe Maa Dan (berries) and they were delicious. Having changed into some comfy shorts, we decided to take a short walk into the jungle and Sunimal advised not to venture deep into the jungle as elephants are very common there.

We booked the campsite early and arranged everything for 3 nights. Drive up to kumana was soo long and tiring. We left Gampaha around 11.30 in the night. Stopped several times and reached Arugambay around 8.30 am. Spent around 2 hours in the beach and went to Panama to meet our jeep guy, Sena. He is the only Sinhala guy operating in the area.

As a bunch of wildlife lovers, we’ve always been fascinated by the sheer wilderness Sri Lankan national parks offered. We planned a trip to Udawalawa National Park this summer and it was one of the memorable ones.

We started the journey around 10 from Colombo. Our target is to reach Kudiramale point before 4. We stopped at Halawata to fill our cooler boxes. We reached Wilpattu border around 3.30, but unfortunately that road was closed because of rain. It’s better if there’s a way to know that before we turn that way from Puttalam, but even Villages did not know that. So we had to turn back and go around the park to reach Mannar

After the preceding days failed attempt in reaching Milla oya falls I decided to give it another try on the very next day. I never wanted to give up knowing that this hidden beauty will not flow as she had been doing all these years in few more months after the newly built mini hydro project starts functioning. So I reached Millebedda early as I could to try and reach the waterfall from the top because visiting it from Walas ella side was a failure.

On our first day our plan was to visit Bambara kiri ella, Riverston peak , Pitawala pathana, Thelagamu oya and Sera ella. We met with heavy rain on the way of Riverston peak and we all got wet. We couldn’t reach Riverston summit because of it was not safe to visit summit while thundering. We couldn’t visit Sera ella and Thelagamu oya because we haven’t enough time.