This whole idea of a “night climb” was in my mind for a while and was wondering where to try it out first. After evaluating the trails I have done already finally it was decided that I should try it on Bambarakanda first. The intention was purely based on excitement and the urge to try something different without following the same course as usual.

General attractions of Jaffna Penninsula are already covered adequately by forum members. So I don’t intend to repeat the same things other than exceptions. In fact, I was invited to join the trip as all others, except my wife, were first timers and in need of a guide. We started from Maharagama around 8.30 pm on the first day and reached Jaffna by 6.00 am on the second day. After checking in to our Rest, we immediately proceeded to Nagadeepa to avoid the expected mad rush.

I was waiting to do this trip for a long time and fixed 1st September with my friend although we new meemure was quite dry at that time. Thanks for Lakdasun and Nadegura for your nice trip reports.Those were very useuful. Although Public transport was available we decided to go on my bike as we get the chance to stop where we want and see the beauty of surrounding. We left Colombo ( Battaramulla ) at 5.30 a.m. reached Kandy around 8.30. On the way stopped at kadugannawa for breakfast.

On a peaceful day I arrived at Ampara and took the Maha Oya road towards Piyangala junction and got down near the temple. There were a fleet of steps which took me towards a well-built “Kutiya” with an inscription. At that time there were about 100 visitors howling around forgetting that this was a monastery where monks meditated.

The primary purpose of this trip was to visit two different kinds of hydropower projects in Sri Lanka, to see the sites, equipment, mechanisms, etc. and learn about them. Enjoyed some other attractions on the way too. We got this opportunity as one of our friends is an engineer attached to Samanalawewa Hydroelectric power plant.

“It was the rainy season after the Buddha preached his first discourse to the five ascetics of Isipatana and due to the rains his preaching tours were cut down and he followed the ancient practice to spend the rainy season “Vas” in one place of residence carrying out his work on the Dhamma.

On a gloomy day I took a bus towards Bibile and from there onwards I took another bus towards Alawaththagoda on Lunugala Rd. After getting down from Alawaththagoda and inquiring about Alawaththagoda falls few people directed me further towards Arawakumbura for 1.5km’s after passing a huge bridge I came across a second bridge and continued upstream until I reached a beautiful waterfall called Alawaththagoda Naya Kadura Ella.

Jaffna was a place from my childhood – a place that had happy memories of unrestricted travel within the peninsula and meeting loads of friendly people. Language was never a barrier as my limited Tamil with lots of gestures managed to get what I wanted! But that was in early 1970s.

Since the monsoons begun my journeys around Uva-Wellassa has been hampered. So I finally decided to gamble with the weather and loiter around a bit. There was a long list of archaeologically important places around Buttala and Wellawaya which I have been planning to visit. And since it’s raining and less chances of mountain climbing or forest trekking the set up was ideal for some temple visits but I had to face some unique problems in doing so.

Once reaching Anuradhapura town by road and travel up to Jaffna junction_( Yapane Handiya) its KM199 from that point to Jaffna. At Ranbewa it’s connected to the A9 road extending from Kandy to Jaffna. The road came to prominence during the war
Once reaching Vavuniya the gate way pictured below is the entrance to the North the predominantly Tamil area.

So after work on a Friday we took the bus to Kandy from Pettah and reached the city of Kandy late night around 23:00 hrs. However the Tuk-tuk drivers who were there at the bus station were quite supportive and they dropped us at our guesthouse. The reason why we decided to take a night out at a guesthouse in Kandy is to save the day time of Saturday without having to travel all the way from Colombo to Knuckles on Saturday which will consume atleast half of the day.

ll this started as my friend Yasa a keen wildlife enthusiast and the CEO of a private restaurant chain were planning to open their newest outlet in Anuradhapura and from last October, every weekend both of us were in and out to Anuradhapura to find a suitable location with the help of their Project Manager who was stationed in A’pura and all the time we used to go to Wilpattu on return journey for just a half a day run.