It was a rainy Friday when I went to Gampola from Colombo to spend the weekend at my aunt’s place. I took the 5.50 am train from Colombo and reached Gampola at about 10.30 am. My mother was at my aunt’s place and as we were having a small chat, she wanted me to go to Haputale and deliver some documents to a relative. I was instantly willing to go because I have not been to Haputale for years. As soon as I was dreaming about going by train to Haputale, I remembered Ashan ayya’s trip report on his hike from Badulla to Ambewala 🙂 YES, I wanted to do at least a small bit of it.

I started looking for options for another journey and came across Kalthota Doovili Ella from Harinda and Prince. After our unsuccessful attempt at Asupini Ella, I was planning on visiting her again but intermittent rains kept me isolated only in my dreams. So Wuminda’s phone call was a disguised blessing and I immediately formed a group called “Balangoda” on Facebook and sent the requests to my former crew.

Nuwaragala the fortress on top of a rock in the deep forest of elephant country was once a dream, nevertheless just like many other dreams this one also came true. After getting guidance from Priyanjan who had been there last year, I got together with my friend Dumidu and decided to give it a try. Though it was raining elsewhere and drizzling on and off at Maha oya we went ahead with our plans.

We wanted to do a complete Jaffna tour within three days. Before plan this trip I read Sri’s Jaffna and Delft report (The Land of Horses-Delft & re-awakening Jaffna) which was the most recent updates of Jaffna in Lakdasun especially about Delft Island. Then I went through Kristy’s reports of Jaffna (Jaffna-Micro Attractions and which gives a good idea about rare places there. Zoysa’s Jaffna report (On the A9 Road to Jaffna 2010) also helped me to know about Vallipuram and VVT. I knew about Fort Hammenheil from Chandanie’s report (Fort Hammenheil-a prison in the middle of the ocean)

It was a period of mixed weather and I had been away from temples and Archeology sites for a while so decided to have a small tour around Padiyathalawa and Maha oya region on a weekend. Visiting archeology sites and temples is not an easy task since there are many issues lately that cause significant problems and it’s essential to win the trust of the head priests these days otherwise you would be labeled as a “Nidan hora” and be arrested by the 119 squad. Despite all the barriers I decided continue on my quest so on a Saturday I headed towards Padiyathalawa and took a bus towards Wahawa to start things off.

Some friends came to our home to spend a holiday with us. As they hadn’t gone in a local train we decided to do a short train trip. The easiest trip to do was to take the morning train to Pattipola and to catch a train back home.

Pollonnaruwa is rich of archeological sites. There are rare places than our popular visits. I got to know about some of these places by a book and it made my visit at these sites. I did this travelling intermittently when I found a free time as well as a friend(s) to travel with me. Therefore I can’t say exact number of days need to cover all these places.

Kataragama CTB bus left Pettah sharp at 12.00 mid night, keeping our hopes alive to be at the entrance as early as possible. It was bit of a burden to reserve the seats in the bus, however it helped us to have a comfortable journey. A sleepless night for me as I had the duty of picking up some guys on the way. We got down at Tissa by 6.30 next morning & the jeep was there with just a couple of minutes delay. After buying the breakfast from a nearby bakery, we managed to reach Palatupana entrance by 7.15 on Saturday morning.

Thangamale forest is a place where I go to very often specially because it is a nice walk and a calm & quiet place. Going there also gives me a chance to travel by train

It was another random weekend coming up and I needed to go somewhere as usual and suddenly out of nowhere the name Thoppigala popped out from one of those deep nerve plexus and incidentally the coming Sunday was 19th May which was the date where the president declared the end of the civil war 4 years back (that is 2009/05/19). It was the ideal occasion to hoist a flag on top of the famous Baron’s cap which was the last stronghold of the rebels in the East. More information on Thoppigala war will be brought up later in this report.

This was one of my dreams and even though I have been to Yala many more times I couldn’t achieve this until this time. This time we planned it well ahead and booked the bungalows for accommodation and got 2 jeeps arranged through our usual safari driver Ruwan Malli (one of Sugathe’s drivers).

According to Folklore During the war between Ravana and Rama, both Rama and Lakshman were hit by powerful arrows to fall unconscious and to bring them back to life Hanuman was instructed to fetch lifesaving herbs from Himalayas. Hanuman went to the Himalayas, rooted part of the hill and brought it as he was not able to identify the lifesaving herbs. Parts from the hill fell on five places in Sri Lanka, Rumasala, Dolukanda in Hiripitiya, Ritigala, Thalladi in Mannar and Kachchativu in the north.