I and my friend decided to visit Jaffna and Worship Nagadeepa temple on Full moon day 22nd February. We left home somewhere around 4.00 clock in the morning on 21st. Our plan is to travel Jaffna by Train. But It was found that the intercity AC train from Colombo fort at 5.35 am is fully booked and no seats available, Therefore we decided to take the next train Yal Devi that leaves Colombo Fort at 6.30am and reaches Jaffna about 3.15 pm. it is worth saving time in a this nature of trip and advisable to book the intercity AC train reaches Jaffna about 12.30pm

Six years ago, on 14.10.2010, when I (newbie) requested assistance from Trip Planning Help center to plan a trip to Jaffna a prominent member advised me, “Bring back at least one postal address of a total stranger that you will surely meet somewhere up there. Write to him / her and develop a strong and trustful friendship. Encourage all the others who are with you also to do it. Please…….. If all the people who rushed to ‘see’ Jaffna since the A-9 opened did that, we would by now have made a lot of trust worthy friends. Think about it”

I have been to Bathalegala twice and on both occasions I did note the massive mountain close to it which is called Ura kanda / Ashraff kanda. It is well known by many because in year 2000 a helicopter carrying Minister Ashraff and 14 others crashed mysteriously causing their tragic demise. This 980m mountain is said to be tough to tackle and many who have attempted have done it from the rocky side, during the rainy season.

It’s been while after my last report. I did Wangedigala Hike on September 2014. It didn’t go well because of bad weather condition so I didn’t write a report. Then I planned to hike to HP via Kalupahana – ohiya on December. Again unpredictable weather condition stopped me. So I decided to go Ella.

After my last two visits to Thanamalwila and Hambanthota I decided to head further south towards Ambalantota.

Katchatheevu is the farthest island belongs to Sri Lanka. The church of St.Anthony is situated at Katchatheevu island. This is about annual festival of St.Anthony church.

This year appears to be different because it seems like I have found my long lost passion on waterfalls. After my first visit to Bambaragan oya and Ellagala, I decided to do another similar hike which was in my to-do list for many years. This time it was a cascade of waterfalls called Gerandi ella (not the one at Tawalamtenna). Two years back while browsing on FB I noted an album on these waterfalls posted by Dr Sudesh Chulani and since that day I did want to repeat the same feet he achieved.

In 2013 I did a grand tour around Thissamaharama and Kataragama and this year I thought of extending it further away towards Hambanthota. In this report I have focused on few places I haven’t visited already. As usual I left early morning and reached Bandagiriya to start off my day.

After my last visit to Wellawaya I thought of proceeding further south and my wife did join me on this venture. As usual we took of early from Monaragala and reached Thanamalvila. There were few places on the way to Thanamalvila which we thought of visiting while returning back.

Year and Month  2016 January 09th Number of Days One day Crew 02-Nirosh and my self Accommodation Not applicable Transport Motor bike and waterfall climbing Activities Photography and waterfall seeing Weather Excellent Route Colombo->Rathnapura->Balangoda->Kapugala->Sandagiriya (සදගිරිය)->Back in same route to Balangoda (බලoගොඩ) Tips, Notes and Special remark  Sandagiriya can be reached from Balangoda as well as […]

I had a booking of 3 nights at Anuradhapura for a different purpose but it was suddenly cancelled. Since all plans has been made to be out of Colombo, we decided to make a best of it and take a long vacation especially for kids.

Since most of the places visited are common, this report will be more of a photo journey with little text.

Almost one year back I did reach Nagrak to visit Galagama falls and while we were at Nagrak I did note a peak protruding out parallel to Gommolli range and Havagala range. This seemed to be an ideal place to leisurely hang around and this December while we were itching without doing any hikes we thought of giving it a try to stretch out our muscles. As usual early as possible we left and reached Belihul oya at around 7am.