On July 9th morning we started our journey around 5.00 a.m. We stopped our relative’s houses in Thulhiriya & Inamaluwa for breakfast & tea. We took our lunch roadside place after passing Hingurakgoda. We reached to temple around 2.30 p.m. After taking little rest we attend to Evening “Gilanpasa Poojawa”.

Kawudagala/Small quoin is a rock situated at Polonnaruwa-Welikanda area. It has good archaeological value.

I didn’t able to go for camping or hike since my last camping trip in HP because of bad weather. Then the rain season stopped in Badulla area. So I planned to visit Namunukula and camp there. I waited for this hike for long time. On the 1st day morning my brother and I went haputhale station and took night mail train to badulla.

I planned this type of trip after seeing Thinuwan’s Night hike, he did it on 2012. So I decided to have this experience.
We left from Kottawa at 8.30pm by our motor bikes a came to the Kalupahana junction at 12.15pm. After that we went to the Bambarakanda fall and parked our bikes over there and started our NIGHT HIKE at 12.30pm.

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 […]

Ella Rock is more popular among foreigners than locals, I can safely say. Almost all the foreigners who visit Sri Lanka go to Ella (they pronounce it as Ela rather than Ella with double Ls). It’s said that Ella is among the three mostly visited places in Sri Lanka by the foreigners after Dalada Maligawa and Pinnawala. Climbing Ella Rock was (before our journey) said to be a relatively easier task and there was no guide needed. So we too decided to attempt it without a guide. I don’t usually like to do any hike without a guide as the pros always outweigh the cons of having a guide even though we have to pay him some money. I believe it is money well-spent as those people who guide us will learn to protect those environmental treasures instead of trying to make easy money by destroying them.

Now to find the correct trail to the Ella Rock. Please follow this and you’re not going to miss your way. Walk past Kital Ella Station (when coming from Ella) and continue for about 300m until you find a road to your left hand side. It’s not quite prominent when coming along the railway line so keep an eye out for it. It’s just a gravel (rather earth) road and take it and after a 50-100 meters it’ll cross the stream that feeds the Ravana Ella (not the Bambaragama Ella found on Ella-Wellawaya Road) with a concrete bridge. You can of course see the Ravana Ella when coming from Ella towards Kital Ella. Now just follow this road all the way to the summit. Fairly straight forward, isn’t it? It’s about 2-3km moderate hike to the Ella Rock.

Hot air ballooning is not very much familiar in Sri Lanka as it costs high. But this activity is very popular among tourists. Because there are many foreigners directly come to have this facility since it is low cost as per their budget.

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.

Objectives of this trip were to visit at famous view points of Haputhale and Koslanda and camping at Pilkington point of Punagala. I have been at Pilkington point and Millennium point 7 years ago but it was a gloomy day.

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 […]

Diyaluma (220m) is the second highest waterfall in Sri Lanka and its situated at Beragala-Wellawaya road. Turn right from the Beragala junction and proceed about 23km to the waterfall.

Little Adam’s peak is the having the shape of Giant “Maha gigi damba” of Holy Sri Pada. This mountain is a very beautiful and a small mountain in Ella which having a great tourist attraction.