It has long been one of my dreams to travel along the A17 but every time we tried to organize this for one reason or other it didn’t take place. This time it was a spur of the moment thought that triggered this off and less than 24 hours later we were on the A17. 🙂 To make things more adventurous we decided to take the journey using a 3 wheeler. Suraj with his tuk tuk has been our trusted accomplice on previous trips and we roped him in this time as well.

Bunch of people at our office decided to climb Sripada off season back in 2007. I’ve involved in many hikes before, but I knew 12KM + is not an easy one. We arrived at Erathna day prior to our hike and stood at one of our colleague’s relatives place.

December, my favorite time of the year. So as usual, I wanted to go see my beloved N’eliya no matter what the weather is like. All my friends warned me against heavy rain and landslides for no avail. As my friend Lasantha’s hometown is Welimada, I decided to go there with my friend Sanjeewa who will soon be leaving for US.

Another annual vacation, and as usual didn’t wanna miss out on visiting few cascading beauties in our paradise island. I had to wait for week as there were no significant rain fall around the hill country since I arrived. As soon as I heard there were few showers in Ramboda area called up couple of my close friends and packed up our bags and off we went.

Since I landed at Iginiyagala I have noted one abnormal dome shape rock close to Pallan oya and one day while I was wondering around the dam of Senanayake reservoir I asked a school boy about this rock and he said to me “ඕක උඩ නටබුන් තියෙනව සද්ධාතිස්ස රජ දවසෙ කරවපු” which lit a bulb in my brain matter and the next thing he said is that he has a friend who knows in and out about this rock.

As we had a long year end vacation we planned to go Horton Plains via Devil’s staircase-ohiya route. But due to bad weather condition we had to cancel that trip. But badly wanted a similar trip. While thinking about trip ideas I remembered the mountain in front of our home at Pundaluoya. So here we go.

This was a long waited leisure trip for us to get away from the tight schedules and relax in the cool climates enjoying beauty of the up country. Our selection this time was one sensational hotel, the Heritance Tea Factory to enjoy a comfortable stay with lovely meals within the beautiful landscapes and creations in the surrounding.

So finally I decided to tackle the rains, it was not a pleasant experience but my desire and the outcome made it pleasant at the end. On day one when I arrived at Welimada it was around 1pm and it was drizzling at that moment and I had to face a major obstacle which was a bus strike at that moment, somehow got in to a CTB and went towards lunuwatta.

Year and Month December, 2012 Number of Days Two Day Trip Crew 8 (28 years of age) Accommodation Back of Beyond – Kahandamodara Transport A Jeep & a Car Activities Waterfalls, Sightseeing, Photography, Leisure Weather Mixed. Scattered rains, overcast and clear Route Day 1 : Kottawa -> Piliyandala -> Horana -> Rathnapura -> Pelmadulla -> […]

After experiencing continuous rain for more than a month it was time for another waterfall hunt. The moment arrived when the rains ceased and on the 2nd of December my cousin joined me on the chase. We left delgoda at about 4am, by about 6am we were passing Peradeniya heading towards Nawalpitiya.

My No 1 is Sacred Sri Pada (done 5 times so far) other is Knuckles Range (2 times so far) and I’ve made my mind to visit these places at least twice a year. When I visited Knuckles(Meemure) last September I felt like giant mountains telling me “Hey Young man Come and see us again “

I have heard and seen some stunning images of a waterfall in a rural village in Uva long ago and I was tempted to visit this waterfall which is the 3rd highest in Uva and winning the 7th place considering all other waterfalls in Sri Lanka. So again it was a gamble with overcast conditions. First day I decided to spend the night at a friend’s place close to Madulsima.