Since he was planning to leave Colombo bit early, he asked me and one of our friend to stay overnight at his place.We started our journey from Palawatta, Battaramulla at about 4.30 in the morning on Friday the 5th The crew was three on his KIA Sorento (me, Yasa and our good old pal Upali) and his brother (Lakshman) joined us at the Kottawa Express-way entrance on his Toyota Hilux 4WD with 2 of our friends (Prasanna & Romesh) and uncle Yasa mama. Both vehicles were packed with rations and goods for two night stay.

It has been few days after we met at Cargills, I received a call from Sujeewa with an invitation for a trip to Wilpattu National Park on the following weekend which I could not resist. There was an uncertainty in my mind about the trip due to the weather condition when I receive second confirmation call from him just two days before the event.

The coming weekend was Vesak holidays and there would be plenty of free food everywhere waiting for me to have a taste. So I decided to hang around Maha oya and experience the village style of celebrating Vesak though my main objective was visiting few archaeology sites. I got together with my batch mate Chanaka and arrived at Maha oya leisurely at around 9am and after having some breakfast we wanted to visit one of the Mega irrigation projects which was underway.

This year was not helpful at all for mountain climbers and whenever I planned one the weather conditions turned from bad to worst and it has been a gamble with the weather all the way long. So on a day with a relative good weather forecast I decided to climb a prominent peak at Passara which was on my “to do list” for a while. To appreciate a clear view one needs to climb as early as possible, so on the previous day I arrived at Mahadowa and took shelter at my staff members home which was few Km’s away.

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.