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.

Pada Yathra is an annual walk of devotees from Jaffna to Katharagama to worship God Kataragama. Majority of devotees walk from Okanda through Kumana and Yala National Parks. This is my experience of a volunteer medical camp to help devotees at Yala NP.

Just a brief word on HP, especially its buildings inside as most of you might not be aware of her past. Apart from the Farr Inn and the Anderson Lodge which were built by the English Planters during colonial era, all the other structures are results of the mega potato farm that saw HP lose most of her forest making it this grassy plain. Whether it was a good thing or a bad thing, well I’ll leave your capable thinking to decide. So these buildings had been used as storage for potatoes and fertilizers, staff quarters and other purposes. If you visit the Moon Plains where they still have a government-owned seed potato farm, you can get an idea what it must’ve been at HP before being named as a wildlife park.

So we planned alternative options to visit on the way and I was long overdue for a visit to Moon Plains and so was Hasi. We then planned to be there by 6.30am in order to get the best out of the morning rays. Hasi then came up with the idea of visiting Single Tree Hill aka One Tree Hill, the 10th highest mountain in SL with a height of 2100m. So that sealed the first day and we decided to reach HP afterwards. On the 25th Jun, we left home around 3am and having made excellent ground arrived at Nuwara Eliya by 6.10am.

We were planning to use a car and a van for the trip, but when I contacted Ashan, he discouraged the car. So we exchanged the car to a cab.
The van was from a cab service and naturally came late. The cab went early and reached Fishing Hut by mid day enabling my sons and grandsons to have a dip in Battulu Oya before lunch.

Year and Month 11-12 Jun, 2016 Number of Days 2 Crew Hasi, His Wife, Gayan, His Wife and Me Accommodation Heenwewa Bungalow Transport By Car & Safari Jeep. Activities Safari, Photography, Sightseeing, Wildlife, etc… Weather Excellent. Route Colombo->Kottawa->Matara along Highway->Tissa->Yala and return on the same route. Tips, Notes and Special remark Remember first and foremost […]

I hope you liked the new version of report which I’ve introduced which sort of told you the story of our wildlife, especially the plight of them in Wilpattu thanks to a Government Minister who’d taken the law into his hands destroying many acres of precious lands belonging to the buffer zone of Wilpattu by giving it to his supporters. It’s just pathetic the way things happen even though the Ministry of Environment is under the President himself. We also saw how they started building Mini Hydro Power Plants at Handagiriya destroying many more cascades very recently. It’s just so saddening to see the people who’ve been elected to safeguard these things help destroy them for monetary benefits. I hope they will soon see the erroneous ways they’ve been handling our natural resources and get back on track to protect them. However the million dollar question is, “Will it be too late?”.

So, just like that journey, I’m going to plunge straight into business and leave the fairy tale stuff aside. I’m sure the story of the wildlife in Kumana, the farthest away from Colombo, is much more interesting than my vivid imagination. However, just a bit of foreplay wouldn’t be too much to bear I suppose. Well, the newest of our crazes has become the wildlife, probably due to the less appealing states of my beloved waterfalls. Thankfully Hasi too shares the same taste and ever since Wilpattu, we’ve started to manic chase of our wildlife.

As soon as you hear the name Sri Pada, there’s this calm and soothing sensation which goes through your system as if a nice cool flow of water through a parched throat. That mountain is so special even her namesake alone is enough to make us feel reinvigorated. I don’t think there exists any such mountain in the whole wide world that has been worshipped and visited as much as this despite her location in a tiny out of the way island in the Indian Ocean with nothing below it until the frozen Antarctic Glaciers. This is very special and it further proves by it being chosen to leave the footprint of one of the most respected and enlightened philosopher that walked on this earth some 2600 years ago, Gautama Buddha.

Since then, this has been worshipped by millions of devotees every year between Dec (Unduwap Poya) and May (Vesak Poya). However the situation has become a bit alarming due to the unprecedented crowds that gather to visit and worship the sacred footprint every year. If you were following the media (and supposing they were reporting the truth), there were reports of some 800,000 people visiting on long weekends and somewhere in April that figure rose to some 1.5 million. There were so many who were planning to go from Hatton but due to the large number of people ultimately ended up climbing from Kuruwita. Just imagine the plight of those people who were only prepared for an easy ride of 4-5km yet were forced to do 12+km. Most of them had been in tears by the time they had reached Galwangediya.

Year and Month May, 2016 Number of Days 3 Days Crew 6 Accommodation Wildlife Department Bungalow – Heenwewa, Yala NP Transport Hired Jeep  / Jeep Activities Safari / Photography / Wild Life Weather Excellent Route Kottawa -> Southern Expressway -> Matara -> Thissamaharama -> Palatupana -> Kottawa Tips, Notes and Special remark It’s better to […]

Dolukanda (600m) is an isolated mountain situated at Kurunegala district. This is kind of a famous place for one day visit. Our objective of the trip was to find out camping opportunities on top of Dolukanda.

I’ve been more than lucky enough to visit Knuckles from most of the above mentioned paths. However only this time I managed to visit it from Naula-Elahera-Pallegama end coz other times it’d been either Hunnasgiriya or Matale-Rattota access routes. Just be warned about the Naula-Elahera road as it’s not in good condition mainly due to the Moragahakanda Project and the many Sand Lorries which come from Manampitiya and Bakamuna areas. The road is still under construction so it’s best if you avoid it for some time. However if you have a high clearance vehicle, this can still be done but with a great difficulty and more time.

We stay 2 day’s in Mathale & next day morning we went to our next destination – Mawanella. On the way we visited Dalada Maligawa , Kadugannawa Railway Museum , Dowson Tower & Kadugannawa Mawela Viharaya.

Year and Month 23-24 Jan 2016 Number of Days 2 Crew Hasitha, Gayan and Me + Wildlife Tracker and Our Jeep Driver Senevi Accommodation Manawila Wildlife Bungalow Transport By Car and Jeep Activities Wildlife, Photography, Relaxing, etc… Weather Excellent but some showers in the afternoon on the first day. Route Colombo->Puttalam->Saliyawewa->Wilpattu National Park and back […]