Ok, back to Runakanda. This is a part of Sinharaja actually but is now being proposed as a separate Forest Reserve. I hope this will get legalized soon as we’re fast losing our forest areas. Even Runakanda like many wet zone rain forests have been ravaged by the Walla Patta Hunters. According to villagers many outsider had come in gangs and stayed inside the forest living in makeshift shelters or caves chopping down Walla Patta trees and making loads of money. The FD and Police are in high alert even though the damage has already been done thus the reason why you shouldn’t venture into these areas on your own.

We heard that the FD is now distributing Walla Patta plants for commercial planting where they help with the chemicals to produce that specific bit of residue after 5 years. At the age of 8, the tree is good to cut down and harvest. Hopefully these will put a stop to the destruction of our virgin forests.

It was few months back when I saw a lovely documentary on Derana TV which was done by Chatura Alwis. The documentary featured a mountain called Dhanigala and its temple. Though I had been to the temple in 2013 I couldn’t explore the region much and this documentary made me recall a forgotten expedition.

Bana Samanala and Darmarajagala are two fascinating peaks seen at Sri Pada Maluwa. This is our attempt to conquer these peaks in off season of Sri Pada.

Pada Yathra is an annual walk of devotees from Jaffna to Katharagama to worship God Kataragama. Majority of devotees walk from Okanda through Kumana and Yala National Parks. This is my experience of a volunteer medical camp to help devotees at Yala NP.

Just a brief word on HP, especially its buildings inside as most of you might not be aware of her past. Apart from the Farr Inn and the Anderson Lodge which were built by the English Planters during colonial era, all the other structures are results of the mega potato farm that saw HP lose most of her forest making it this grassy plain. Whether it was a good thing or a bad thing, well I’ll leave your capable thinking to decide. So these buildings had been used as storage for potatoes and fertilizers, staff quarters and other purposes. If you visit the Moon Plains where they still have a government-owned seed potato farm, you can get an idea what it must’ve been at HP before being named as a wildlife park.

So we planned alternative options to visit on the way and I was long overdue for a visit to Moon Plains and so was Hasi. We then planned to be there by 6.30am in order to get the best out of the morning rays. Hasi then came up with the idea of visiting Single Tree Hill aka One Tree Hill, the 10th highest mountain in SL with a height of 2100m. So that sealed the first day and we decided to reach HP afterwards. On the 25th Jun, we left home around 3am and having made excellent ground arrived at Nuwara Eliya by 6.10am.

After tackling Handurukanda in the morning we wanted to explore something new. The best thing is I selected this location with the help of Google earth and it did pay off as predicted. After having lunch at Ridigama we took the B264 route which was been carpeted and reached Ankumbura.

Off season Sri Pada visit permits to view number of cascades in it’s full phase. This is my attempt to cover waterfalls at Hatton-Sri Pada trail and around Hatton.

Then this is not just an ordinary trip report which I used to write with details of places visited and other related information. It has more educational value, especially for school children. Victoria was one of the mega structures in those days. But most of us not much aware about the interesting story behind this mega project.

While our journey from Kandy to Nuwaraeliya via Ragala road, we turned right to the Mandaramnuwara road as a villager said that this route might be easy for us since we are at heavy rain in the evening.

I started my trip on 4th July night. I got the Kataragama bus & it leaves at 10.00 p.m. I reached to Kataragama around 4.00 a.m. First I went to Keri Vehera & Kataragama Devalaya. After that I came to Tissamaramaya Temple.

On July 9th morning we started our journey around 5.00 a.m. We stopped our relative’s houses in Thulhiriya & Inamaluwa for breakfast & tea. We took our lunch roadside place after passing Hingurakgoda. We reached to temple around 2.30 p.m. After taking little rest we attend to Evening “Gilanpasa Poojawa”.

Hawagala/Hagala is mountain of 1400m height situated closer to Colombo-Badulla road at Belihuloya area. This is my attempt to climb the mountain within a day.