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.

I knew about these caves from Niroshan’s trip report and I thought to explore these caves. The actual name of this cave complex is “Rotupihilla Limestone Caves”. There are five main caves and those are situated in different places.

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.

I wanted to do something new so decided to go through Google maps and thought of heading towards Bogawanthalawa on a Saturday morning with Chamara. First day we had a failed attempt on Kotagala mountain which we only managed 60%. So after a tiring attempt we decided to call it a day and we lodged at Bogawanthalawa.

As soon as you hear the name Sri Pada, there’s this calm and soothing sensation which goes through your system as if a nice cool flow of water through a parched throat. That mountain is so special even her namesake alone is enough to make us feel reinvigorated. I don’t think there exists any such mountain in the whole wide world that has been worshipped and visited as much as this despite her location in a tiny out of the way island in the Indian Ocean with nothing below it until the frozen Antarctic Glaciers. This is very special and it further proves by it being chosen to leave the footprint of one of the most respected and enlightened philosopher that walked on this earth some 2600 years ago, Gautama Buddha.

Since then, this has been worshipped by millions of devotees every year between Dec (Unduwap Poya) and May (Vesak Poya). However the situation has become a bit alarming due to the unprecedented crowds that gather to visit and worship the sacred footprint every year. If you were following the media (and supposing they were reporting the truth), there were reports of some 800,000 people visiting on long weekends and somewhere in April that figure rose to some 1.5 million. There were so many who were planning to go from Hatton but due to the large number of people ultimately ended up climbing from Kuruwita. Just imagine the plight of those people who were only prepared for an easy ride of 4-5km yet were forced to do 12+km. Most of them had been in tears by the time they had reached Galwangediya.

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.

Non pariel estate is having 6 divisions. Uggalduwa is the bottom of the world’s end and all the dead bodies can be collect from there. But it is a rough and full day jouney from Uggalduwa to that place. Otherwise continue your journey to Nagrak bunglow, which is located at the top of this mountain range. And there you will find the boarder of Horton Plains and Non Pariel.

There had been some discussions with Ashan, me and Nishan to do a Mega journey starting from Bambarella and reach KMP at Kalupahana then climb Thunhisgala and descend to Pallegama by exploring Duwili eli. Although I had been to Duwili Eli once from Etanwala, Thunhisgala was a dream for me. Ashan and Amila went for a two day hike to Thunhisgala but I couldn’t join them as I couldn’t take leave from my work place. So I missed their journey.

It was a 3 day holiday and I really wanted to go somewhere. So I decided to hike few Rocky Mountains around Kurunegala. After many years I got a chance to get Anupama involved and Chamara also joined in. we left early to reach Mallawapitiya at around 7.30am where we had breakfast. From Mallawapitiya we took the Indulgodakanda road and on our way we saw a jackal caught in a trap near a road side forest patch.

Dolukanda (600m) is an isolated mountain situated at Kurunegala district. This is kind of a famous place for one day visit. Our objective of the trip was to find out camping opportunities on top of Dolukanda.

I’ve been more than lucky enough to visit Knuckles from most of the above mentioned paths. However only this time I managed to visit it from Naula-Elahera-Pallegama end coz other times it’d been either Hunnasgiriya or Matale-Rattota access routes. Just be warned about the Naula-Elahera road as it’s not in good condition mainly due to the Moragahakanda Project and the many Sand Lorries which come from Manampitiya and Bakamuna areas. The road is still under construction so it’s best if you avoid it for some time. However if you have a high clearance vehicle, this can still be done but with a great difficulty and more time.