Last month I heard about a missing news of Rev Thero Ellawala Medhananda and then I search information about this matter. Then I contacted a person in Thorawa and told him that I will come there as from Sunday Lankadeepa journalist. Without telling anything he was arranged every things for us. Then the chief theor of that temple Rev Sangananda and 04 of well experienced villagers has participated to our journey and they took the lead at all.

I started my journey the previous day morning, around 3am and after a mixed bag of a day, ended up here at Monaragala sleeping off the weariness of the journey. Well, that’s all about the previous day for now. You can read more about it and the next day in the next report. For now, let’s concentrate on the present and see where I’m gonna take you this time. Waterfalls – one of the sweetest words in English. My heart starts beating faster and leaps with joy every time I hear that word. “You look like the cat that got the milk”, my friends say when they see me. It’s something beyond a passion for me.

It was first week of Jan 2015 when I did my last waterfall hunt and since then there was nothing much when it comes to waterfalls. I had to be content with other attractions while the rains played havoc with all of us. The patterns of the rains have shot to hell making it extremely unreliable and unpredictable. Is it the El Nino or the Global Warming to be blamed? I’ve no idea but I can feel we are heading towards the hell if anything like that exists. If you don’t know what a hell really is, just listen to the Red Indian Leader Seattle for a second.

After a tiring day around Mullaitivu it was time for a relaxing evening. So we were headed on a rugged road from Iyakachchi towards Kaddaikadu. On the way at Kuweni junction we came across some ruins of fort Beschutter which is one out of the tree forts which were built around Elephants pass area.

Kataragama Pada Yatra is an amazing experience for nature lovers. This is my updates of Pada Yatra of last year.

We started our trip on January 14.We went Fort railway station to take the “Yaldevi” train to Jaffna. It leaves around 6.15 a.m & it reached to Jaffna station at around 5.00 p.m. When we reached Jaffna our main target is find the place to stay. We found the Guest near to the station. Rooms are ok with basic facilities. On next day ( 15th January ) early morning we went bus stand to take the bus to KKD jetty.

Ok there was a huge gap in my traveling history and I needed to cover it up ASAP. Yes Mullaitivu needed to be explored but in a unique way. Both of us decided before hand not to focus on any remains that glorify the past of Terrorism other than few road side monuments. So this was more of a road trip and exploring beautiful and giant reservoirs in this virgin forest district.

This was my second attempt to walk along Mahaweli River and we started from Mahiyangana.

Medirigiriya (මැදිරිගිරිය) is located closer to Polonnaruwa and it has few tourist attractions. When you visit at Polonnaruwa you can pay a visit at Medirigiriya as well.

Yakdessagala is a mountain situated at Kurunegala district closer to Kurunegala town. It is said Kuweni (කුවේණි) cursed king Wijaya (විජය) from Yakdessagala and leaped from here. As Kuweni belonged to Yaksha (යක්ෂ), this peak is called Yakdessagala.

Previously I did hike from Kalupahana to Ohiya on foot and I wanted to do this on my jeep but I never planned to attempt this in 2015. All started when my friend Dharshana called me and said “machan must go somewhere because I haven’t been anywhere in 8 months”. He had been stuck with his PG degree so was desperate and this was the main reason why we did this plus Amila also joined us on the last moment.

The day I saw this expedition on Lakdasun (by Dhammika), I really wanted to do this. But, after reading trip report, I was scared. After doing some research and watching the documentary from ITN (Wenasa), I decided to take the risk, but I don’t want to go alone. I wanted at-least 5 mates, I was sure that Kasun Janaka will join. I have several trips with him. Another mate was Kasun Priyashantha.

So, we start our journey without having our breakfast. First up all we should walk from the top of the tea estate behind the railway station. It is about 250m from ths retail shop. Then we have to downward from the area to the forest. The forest (Hela) is fulfill with trees and rocks. We have to go down by catching the branches. Sometimes you might get fallen due to the ground instability.