Came to Nuwara Eliya town and went to Galways forest which is on Welimada road few kilometers from Victoria park. Though we went in at around 11 this man made forest in the middle of the town is a bird’s paradise. Due to high canopy as the sunlight does not show much even at that time it was full with some uncommon birds such as Velvet fronted Nuthatch, Grey cannery flycatcher, Bar tailed Flycatcher,Yello Bulbul , Great Tit etc.

We Started around 6 in the morning and took the Kurunegala Dambulla cut and had breakfast we had prepared on the way. Reached Anuradhapura around 10 am and went and fulfilled the vow first. Afterwards spent time till 12 pm going around the sacred city and visited atamasthana and other sites of interest. It was very refreshing to see these historical marvels again. We took pride in seeing Ruwanweliseya, Thuparamaya, Lovamahapaya, Abayagiriya, Jethawanaya, Samadhi Pilimaya Moonstone etc.

We started from Colombo at about 9 in the morning (we were got late due to some unavoidable reasons) and it was around 3 in the evening when we left from Kundaslae. Though it was just a ride of around 30km, it took almost 2 hours for us to reach Loolecondera from Kundasale because of the bad road condition and the weather. The luck was on our side as the masses of land were cleared just in the morning that day, if it wasn’t so we really would have been in serious trouble as there were no turning backs at some points of the route

We started at sharp 3 in the morning as our tour iternery was packed with places to visit. And took the Colombo- Puttalam road which was quite clear at that time and reached Puttalam at 4.45 and had breakfast at a known place ( One of my friend’s old family friends). It was a very tasty meal and afterwards left for Wilpattu and went inside around 7am.

The route was from Galle to Lankagama via Wanduramba, Udugama and Neluwa. The road conditions up to Neluwa was good but after that the road was extremely narrow and in many areas was in pretty abd shape. A special note is that the bridge over the Gin ganga is very narrow. If your vehicle is wide, you should use the route via Kosmulla from Neluwa. This route joins the shorter route just after the bridge. All in all it took about 2-2.5 hours to get to Lankagama from Galle

Ridi Viharaya is a nice and ancient place. You will not be allowed take the photographs even without flash. But sadly you will see high voltage flash lights directed to some walls with ancient paintings.(Now those paintings are difficult see and don’t seem to have any protection)

The story is that the God Kataragama had met his future wife Walli amma on a rainy day near a tamarind tree at this place which is also called Siyambalawa devalaya (මහ සියඹලාව දේවාලය).We were asked to be refrained from consuming all kinds of meat and alcohol for one week before the date and we bought fruits and other stuff which are needed for the pujawa (පූජාව) the day before.Mohan been a veteran organized a couple of cooks with all the dry rations needed.

We planned this trip to visit Yala and Bundala National Parks. On our way back home we also visited Hummanaya Blow Hole. We started our journey at about 9.30 pm by taking a Kataragama bus from Colombo. Chamika, Miniruwan, Aravinda and Supun joined with me. We got off the bus from Tissa at about 4.30 am. Lokayya (safari jeep) came to pick us from there to the rest house. After a short breakfast we headed towards the Yala entrance. We entered the park at about 6.00 am. Four or five other jeeps also entered the park with us

There is approximately 6.5km to the forest camp from the A17 turn off. The condition of the road was worst in the first three kilometers where the ascend was also steep. Once climbed up, the track became somewhat easier than before. All together we spent just under two hours to reach the Forest camp from Suriyakanda town.

The bus terminated at Pamunupura junction. Then we have to turn left and continue the journey by foot. The sight of Yahangala too away our tiredness all the time. It brought ice cool to our eyes. We stopped briefly at a point where a small water stream crosses the road and fall over cliff on the other side of the road. After 15 mins we restarted the journey. It was a heavy climb thereafter and after 200m we reached the Grama niladari office of the village. It was closed and we got some more rest there. The concreted road ended there and a foot path began.

After Omanthai you find army detachments and sentry points all along road up to Jaffna but you feel very safe. At couple of places you have to get out from the vehicle and show ID etc for record purpose but does not take much time.In Kilinochchi you get a very good place run by the army for refreshments and a few kilo meters after the turn off the road was gravel and dusty.We reached Elephant pass around 6.15 and it was getting dark.

This was my second visit to Wilpattu, the first being equally unsuccessful due to bad weather. The past week too it had rained almost everyday, but luckily this time, the skies opened up from the first day of our safari. This raised our hopes up quite high, but now, almost at the end of the second day, we had only seen fresh pugmarks, but no real Leopards…an air of frustration was starting to build up… Just as we passed the Borupanwila Junction, our driver suddenly uttered two words that made our hearts skip a few beats… ”කොටියා, කොටියා” (“leopard, leopard”!)