It was end of the monsoons and everywhere seemed to be flooded. I did have few free days in hand but couldn’t think of a better thing to do other than a rail hike. Since I dint get a chance to do a long distance hike after last year’s 90km “Pada Yathra” I thought of walking 70km along the railway backwards from Badulla. Usually many hikers do not do the Badulla – Haputale stretch because nothing much to see but you won’t believe, there are plenty to see around.

It was one of the dream trip for Dhanushka and myself to Go around Srilanka on our motorcycles. We thought why not call it “Around Srilanka in 80 hours” and to circumnavigate around Srilanka in less than 80 hours. We decided to leave on 18th February 2012, Dhanushka rode 35 km from Colombo to Negombo and we both left around 11am. The plan was to ride to Jaffna and stop over for the night.

The journey was stared on a evening of a busy Friday (15TH February 2013), from Colombo around 10:30pm. We reached the Kandy city by 1:00am and had a snack and started travelling towards Matale road and then to the Daha ata Wanguwa- Hasalaka. We reached Wasgamuwa Park at 5.45am and began a morning safari. As we planned our jeep came loaded with our breakfast which we in the river bank of Mahaweli River inside the park.

It was yet again a day with a not so appealing forecast but I just couldn’t stay back in my quarters so this time got together with few of my staff members who were on leave and decided to do a trishaw ride around Iginiyagala. We came to Namal oya junction and waited until Danushka arrived because he was our guide for the first two locations.

පිළියන්දලින් රාත්රී 11 ට පමන පිටත්වූ අප උදෑසන 9 පමණ වන විට පොතුවිල් මුහුදු මහා විහාරයට ලඟා වුනෙමු. කුමන පිවිසුමට ලඟාවන විට දහවල් 12 පමණ විය. එතැනින් දිවා ආහාරය ගත් අප අපේ පළමු දින නවාතැන වූ කුඹුක්කන් ඔය හෙරලිගස් ආර බලා පිටත් වුනෙමු. කුමන පිවිසුමෙන් ඇතුල්වූ අප බාගුර පිටිය, කුමන විල්ලුව, මඩමතොට පසු කරමින් 23 පමණ දුර ගෙවා හෙරලිගස් ආරට ලඟා වුනෙමු.

This was a long awaited trip to Embilipitiya for my personal matters. Then I decided to visit at some places on the way to Embilipitiya and following whole day was used to visit at places at Kollonna. Later I went in another separate day to visit at some places at Godakawela.

I got to know about Manakanda (381.3m) from an article written in the book called Wanasena wanapeth (වැනසෙන වනපෙත්).Then one of my friends lives in Maradankadawala (මරදන්කඩවල) joined with me for this journey.
I reached Maradankadawala about 11am by Colombo-Anuradhapura bus. (A9 Road).

ruled by regional kings such as Mahanaga and Kawantissa. Archeological monuments scattered around which belongs to Anuradhapura era silently express its ancient glory. Buddhist heritage of Magama is centered around the four main stupas namely Tissamaharama chaitya, Sandagiri vehera, Yatala chaitya and Menik vehera.

You can reach Nagalakanda from Pollonnaruwa archeology site. Once you pass the Minneriya town it is situated in about 200m towards the Colombo on right hand side. If you are coming from Colombo, it is in left hand side just before Minneriya town. Better to ask from villagers. But it is easy to find.

Having following the Television series of the “Maha Sancharakaya” of Mr. Jackson Anthony we both decided to visit some of these historical sites on a visit to Kataragama on the long weekend of 23th to 25rg February 2013. The Ruhunu Kingdom was a provincial principality, came to focus only when King Detu Gamunu defeating King Elara and unifying the country in the early period of the Anuradhapura Kingdom.

o I decided to do a bit more comprehensive Jaffna tour and a trip to the Delft Island which is the biggest of island of Sri Lanka.
So I checked the bus services available and Thinakaran Express of Lake House came highly recommended and it really was great. I booked the tickets for that and for the return journey, the train from Vavuniya at 3.10pm.

Bibila is a town located at an altitude of 240 meters bordering the mountains of Badulla district. It is one of the richest towns in terms of nature and heritage of Monaragala district. First of all let me start from a waterfall called Nayakadura ella which is located 50 meters upstream from the second bridge one meets after Alawaththagoda on A5.