Hello everyone, hope you guys are doing great and had enjoyed our conservation effort at Horton Plains before. Well, we (rather Ana) simply couldn’t rest letting Ulex take control of our beautiful country, especially our beloved Horton Plains. So we went earlier (about 6 weeks before this) with a larger group of 9 people and worked for two days and cleared a substantial area with the help of couple of HP workers.

During that journey itself, Ana must’ve made a vow to come back to destroy more Ulex as we got yet another invitation from him to go back once again to clear as much of an area as possible. Well, all we had to do was say yes which we did with no hesitation. So our familiar bungalow was booked once again and we were counting days to go and fight this menace once again. Ana had brought the broken equipment from the last journey and had got them repaired, this time with more robust handles.

Finally I managed to convince myself and the crew that 5 and 6 of Sep are the best option remaining for us. I simply couldn’t afford to keep it postponing any further and decided to take our chances with the constantly changing weather conditions. I kept looking up the AccuWeather, Weather Channel and FallingRain for weather updates. Unfortunately our own Met Department is a symbolic white elephant and not as reliable or dependable as we would like it to be so we’ve no choice but to rely on alternatives such as the above. The rain patterns have shot to hell especially during the last couple of years probably due to the global warming and our irresponsible actions towards the earth. This has made it extremely difficult for farmers, fishermen and those who depend on the regular patterns of the climate.

Even the seasoned farmers, villagers or fishermen find it difficult to predict the weather conditions as a result. Usually you can trust those villagers’ expertise better than the state of the art equipment of the US Met Department but not anymore so we resorted to these web-based weather forecasts. It didn’t look good, not at all as it kept forecasting thunderstorms and heavy rains throughout. I was hoping against the hope for a clear window to make it safely to the summit. Anyhow, we were fully committed and there was no turning back. In the back of my mind there was this feeling of security that if your intentions are good and your behavior is acceptable, you’re going to be ok, especially at the Sri Pada. It’s said in the Buddhism that those who live by the Dhamma will be protected by the Dhamma itself. So we had faith we’d face no problems and if there was any, those powers that protect the area will take care of us.

I’m sure you might have come across theories by many pundits claiming the usefulness of Ulex in many of their theories. Most of these pundits (as Ana rightly put armchair critics) haven’t even been to HP to see the real danger posed by the Ulex. It was as if fighting the terrorists from AC rooms in Colombo. The biggest theory is that Rhino Horned Lizards take shelter in these plants and nest in them. Well how did they survive before these were introduced? HP is not the only place where they live so how do they survive where there is no Ulex? Why the wildlife department is so anxious to get rid of them if they were that useful? So we decided to leave all the theories behind and take some action instead. As Sash rightly put in the forum under the Video Journey, “It’s better to light a single candle than blaming the dark” which is exactly what we had in mind.

It was during one of those casual chit-chats that this idea of doing something about Ulex came up. By then I had climbed Kirigalpoththa 3 times (KGP) within 18 months and had seen the fast and furious spread of Ulex covering the path at many places. So Ana as usual spotted the benefit this would give to the HP and pursued it further exploring ideas. Finally after a few dozen emails and hours of phone conversations we managed to find the best possible way.

Previously I did hike from Kalupahana to Ohiya on foot and I wanted to do this on my jeep but I never planned to attempt this in 2015. All started when my friend Dharshana called me and said “machan must go somewhere because I haven’t been anywhere in 8 months”. He had been stuck with his PG degree so was desperate and this was the main reason why we did this plus Amila also joined us on the last moment.

The day I saw this expedition on Lakdasun (by Dhammika), I really wanted to do this. But, after reading trip report, I was scared. After doing some research and watching the documentary from ITN (Wenasa), I decided to take the risk, but I don’t want to go alone. I wanted at-least 5 mates, I was sure that Kasun Janaka will join. I have several trips with him. Another mate was Kasun Priyashantha.

So, we start our journey without having our breakfast. First up all we should walk from the top of the tea estate behind the railway station. It is about 250m from ths retail shop. Then we have to downward from the area to the forest. The forest (Hela) is fulfill with trees and rocks. We have to go down by catching the branches. Sometimes you might get fallen due to the ground instability.

Mahaweli River exploration is one of my dream trips. Mahaweli River flows from Hortain plains and ends at Trincomale. If someone wants to go along the river (by boat or foot) it is possible only from Mahiyangana (මහියoගණය) to Trincomale. From Central hills to Mahiyangana, the river is guarded by major reservoirs.
During dry season (especially August and September) it has low water level.
My friend Siraj suggested me to walk along the River from Manampitiya as he has noticed the river with low water level when he visited to Thummodara (තුම්මෝදර).

After hectic 3 months of studies and few “ordinary relaxing trips with family” I finally had little precious time to do some explorations. But as most us well aware that next difficult thing in planning a hike is finding partners. As I was free only on week days I decided to hike all alone. Then I needed to find a suitable place to hike as a lone trekker. I remembered Adara Kanda and contacted Ashan ayya, and got to know that the trail is well cleared and can do by myself.

The long weekend at the end of July was long awaited as it’s the only long weekend for 2015 until Christmas. We planned a train trip to up-country with cousins, an annual event during August school holidays. However for the 31st the train was fully booked so we had to reserve the train for the 30th – which gave us a bonus day to enjoy the cool climes.

Becoming an archaeologist had always been my dream and together with my like-minded friend Minol Peiris we contacted Dr. Nimal Perera of the Department of Archaeology to get our hands dirty on an archaeological dig. Dr. Perera encouraged us and said that he is currently heading the excavations of the Demala Maha Seya in Polonnaruwa and invited us to join.

“Who’s been to the Dalada Maligawa or Tooth Temple?”

I know it’s one of the silliest of questions I could’ve asked you but I had to ask it to enter my fairy tale. I’m sure most of the Sri Lankans regardless of their religion have visited this magical place on earth where the Left Canine Tooth Relic of Lord Buddha that was retrieved from the sandalwood funeral pyre of Kushinagar is kept. This is also visited by many foreigners and as the statistics reveal it is the second place visited mostly after the Elephant Orphanage at Pinnawala. At an estimate about 80-90% of all the tourists pay a visit to Dalada Maligawa.

“Ok now how many of you have been fortunate enough to see the Tooth Relic Dagoba?”

Two years back I worked at Inginiyagala hospital and one day I came across a retired DWC officer who is well known because of the newspaper articles he wrote about Gal oya national park. Somehow we became friends and one day he mentioned about a special cave close to Mulgama where Vedda paintings could be found.