As you all know there is a road from Ratnapura to Balangoda called “Wewelwatte Road”. This route is a paradise of waterfalls. From the beginning to the end you can see over 10 main waterfalls and over 20 seasonal small waterfalls on a rainy day. This route is about 40km to Balangoda.

The constant rains made it pretty awkward for us but it wasn’t going to hold us back. So finally as usual we set off on our journey in the dawn of 16 Oct. The topic of the day was based on the wildlife in Borneo such as Bearded Pigs, Orang-Utans, etc. We stopped at our usual place at the Devon Viewing Point. As usual she was in full flow making my heart leap in joy. She also made my hopes soar high in anticipation of seeing my beloved St. Claire in full flow. “Dear god, please let her be in full flow even if you have to blast the darn sluice gates of the wretched Upper Kotmale”, I prayed while we took our breakfast baskets of Seeni Sambol and Egg Sandwiches. I’m sure you would wanna see some pictures of the surrounding and it is my pleasure to oblige.

All this year I have been following streams and hunting cascades and there was one major pending to do adventure! As always I needed a motivation and Nalinda and the gang provided me with it. They did this trail 3 weeks back so I was tempted to follow their footsteps. For years I have noted many cascades above Bomburu falls and wondered how was I going to plan this trip but after getting few tips from my friends I decided to go ahead.

We started our trip on 29 January 4.00 a.m & we reached to Rakwana town around 7.00 a.m. From there we took Deniyaya road to reach Aranya. We passed famous 10 bends ( Wangu Dahaya ) & surrounding view was superb. We reached Aranya at 8.00 a.m & first we had our breakfast there.

We started our trip on 7 January morning & we reached to Badulla around 12.30 p.m. Firstly we searched room for stay. First we visit to Dunhinda Fall & evening we went to Muthiyangana Raja Maha Viharaya.

We started the journey very early in the morning and caught the Colombo-Badulla bus at about 3:30 from Maharagama, the bus had left Colombo at 2:55 according to the bus schedule which was on display. We reached Ratnapura at about 5:20 and managed to catch the first bus of the day to Kalawana from the Ratnapura central bus stand which was scheduled to leave at 5:30.

Trinco is a destination we haven’t visited for nearly a decade and I always thought of Trinco as “dry and arid”. My recent visit to Trinco really opened my eyes – how green and vibrant Trinco is with its blue lagoons eating into the land at every corner making one wonder whether it’s the lagoon or the ocean!

We start to built a house for poor family in Athimale – Siyabalanduwa. Less than 2 months we completed the house. On January 29th we went to handover the house for family. We started our journey on 28th January at 11.15 p.m & we reached to Athimale at 6.00 a.m. First we visit to see the family’s Dream Home & handover the house for them. It is very memorable moment in our life.

We got the news about poor family in Sandunpura – Dehiattakandiya. We plan to visit there to see that family. We took Mahiyangana bus from Pettah. It leaves 12.00 p.m & reached to Mahiyanganaya at 5.15 a.m.

We reached Belihul Oya and I called Premadasa and got the directions to his place along the Belihul Oya-Landuyaya road. Yeah, you guessed right coz another beautiful waterfall known as Pahanthudawa Ella is also located on this road. Premadasa’s house is in Galpoththenna, Ibbanwala about 3km from Belihul Oya. However we missed him and drove all the way to Ihala Galagama School. It was a good thing coz we could see the Galagama Ella in the far distance and so far higher in the mountains bordering the Horton Plains. The elevation difference was around 1000m (yeah 1km) or probably more. Nagrak Bungalow is located well over 7200ft (almost as high as Sri Pada). Therefore Galagama Ella must be one of the falls located at the highest altitudes in Sri Lanka, of course in closer competition with Baker’s Falls aka Gonagala Ella.

This is a quick report with few tips to unseasoned travellers to Wilpattu National Park. 15th Friday was a holiday and some of our friends gathered as usual in the afternoon and the chat turned in to a trip planning session and was thinking of going to Wilpattu early next morning with the intention of being at the entrance by 6 AM. One of the guys wanted to leave on the same day and the discussion turned in to leaving in the evening on the same day.

As you all know this big disaster was impacted to our lives also, because we were shocked by seeing this kind of disaster to this innocent people. After few weeks we quickly went to Meeriyabedda to see this area. Actually our target was to go to the top of that mountain.