Finally, I decided to write up this report specially thanking Ashan for reminding me and for his eagerness to see this. In my view, this is the time that our Mother Nature is facing a real challenge of surviving from the people who have no heart to give back for the things they gained from her.

After successfully completing the Chilaw to Mundalama stretch I wanted to do the rest and end the hike at Puttalam.

In 2015 I shifted to Chilaw from Monaragala and I was seeking for places to travel. When I was in Uva I was fond of hiking along the railways and ended up doing rail hikes covering Badulla to Nawalapitiya by foot. So I was wondering what this coastal line would provide me with.

Longest distance between two railway stations of Sri Lanka is 25.4km between Gal Oya junction and Agbo Pura. Trinco railway line goes through Kawdulla National park and Somawathiya forest reserve in this section. Rail walk along this section will give oppurtunitiy for visiting wild animals.

Wilpaththu NP (විල්පත්තු ජාතික වන උද‍යානය) is the largest (131, 693ha) and oldest national park in Sri Lanka. It is famous for visiting Leopards and wild bears. Special feature of Wilpaththu NP is having water filled natural lakes-Willus.

Initially there were 5 members (3 of my old school mates, me and my better half) for the trip. We wanted to be little adventures and the destination chosen was Yala Nationala Park.

It was December holidays again we decided to have a family trip and we opted to cover part of the East this time. On a Friday I made some calls to two friends at Ampara and Trinco and got 2 hotels booked. This was intended to be a road trip with time to rest in between.

Sri Lankan rail tracks run in different environmental locations of the country where you can have different experiences with rail walk. Rail hike along central part gives maximum beauty of the country and costal rail walk is totally different from it. We thought of doing a rail walk in dry zone mainly rail tracks runs through forests.

December 11, 12 and 13th were the days and it was a long weekend which was not to be wasted. Our decision was to go on camping in Udawalawe or in Wilpaththu but ultimately a decision was taken to go for Udawalawe.

In 2013 we camped at Hortain plains for the first time , since the day we left that place we were missing that place this is the second night we stayed up there .

Next day morning we start our journey & went to Nilaweli Beach.Next we went to Pigeon Island. After 10-15 minutes boat ride we reached to island.

Kalinga Island is located in the center of Mahaweli River at the boarder of the Wasgamuwa NP & it consists of 7 islands. The main island harbours ruins of a forgotten era. It’s said that princes of Kalinga sailed upstream along Mahaweli River to the interior of the country and this mini island was once believed to be their ship manufacturing yard.