Minneriya National Park is one of our main tourists attraction for Elephants watching. This is my attempt to watch Elephants with a boat ride at Minneriya Lake.

This was going to be my last journey while I was at Monaragala. Our main target was a hot spring in Maduru Oya Park but unfortunately we had to turn towards plan B. We took off towards Henanigala entrance and to reach it we took the road bordering Ulhitiya – Rathkinda reservoirs starting from Mahiyangana – Maha oya road. The monsoons had started early this year so we were bit worried about the road conditions but fortunately it was not a big issue.

Wellawaya was not only a place of work for me it was also a paradise location for me to explore around. I have been to many places around this region but yet there were few more remaining sites that I needed to visit. This is a brief report on those..

Balangoda is the edge of Rathnapura district and Balangoda-Bogawanthalawa road provides access to number of waterfalls.

I did the sensible thing on Ashan’s advice and hired a tuk-tuk. The driver was a friendly person called Ranga and we drove up to the last house where you have to start walking along an irrigation canal for about 400m. The path is now well paved and easy to reach the falls. We met one Mini Hydro Power Plant and Ranga informed that it is now redundant after the main power supply came to the area and he went onto say that the village used to have three such power plants. However all of them have been made redundant since the arrival of national grid. Hurrah!!! I felt like dancing.

We could also see the rocky hill where Kurullangala is. The memories of our back-breaking journey in the recent past sent a shiver down my back. Ranga said that there’s even a path from the top of the Wisari Ella to the Rakkiththakanda Cave Temple where we went last time before the hike. Project sites of Uma Oya could be seen in the distance and the water in the streams has turned into an unusual white color after the ammonia mixed with it as a result of tunnels dug out to take water for the Uma Oya Project. That was quite visible even to the naked eye.

Last month I heard about a missing news of Rev Thero Ellawala Medhananda and then I search information about this matter. Then I contacted a person in Thorawa and told him that I will come there as from Sunday Lankadeepa journalist. Without telling anything he was arranged every things for us. Then the chief theor of that temple Rev Sangananda and 04 of well experienced villagers has participated to our journey and they took the lead at all.

I started my journey the previous day morning, around 3am and after a mixed bag of a day, ended up here at Monaragala sleeping off the weariness of the journey. Well, that’s all about the previous day for now. You can read more about it and the next day in the next report. For now, let’s concentrate on the present and see where I’m gonna take you this time. Waterfalls – one of the sweetest words in English. My heart starts beating faster and leaps with joy every time I hear that word. “You look like the cat that got the milk”, my friends say when they see me. It’s something beyond a passion for me.

It was first week of Jan 2015 when I did my last waterfall hunt and since then there was nothing much when it comes to waterfalls. I had to be content with other attractions while the rains played havoc with all of us. The patterns of the rains have shot to hell making it extremely unreliable and unpredictable. Is it the El Nino or the Global Warming to be blamed? I’ve no idea but I can feel we are heading towards the hell if anything like that exists. If you don’t know what a hell really is, just listen to the Red Indian Leader Seattle for a second.

After a tiring day around Mullaitivu it was time for a relaxing evening. So we were headed on a rugged road from Iyakachchi towards Kaddaikadu. On the way at Kuweni junction we came across some ruins of fort Beschutter which is one out of the tree forts which were built around Elephants pass area.

Kataragama Pada Yatra is an amazing experience for nature lovers. This is my updates of Pada Yatra of last year.

We made an unplanned trip to Kataragama on the 17th and 18th October 2015 and on the return trip decided to visit some important temples on the way travelling on Galle road. We onward trip to Kataragama was on the National Highway up to Matara. As we have visited few historical temples in Hambantota and Matara (see previous trip reports on Hambamtota and Matara) we decided to visit temples beyond Matara starting from Kataluwa. But the evening thunder showers was dampening and hampering the sight-seeing.

On Aug 8 2014 three of us started the journey from Kandy at 14:30, it was a rainy day and we were about to miss the bus to Ratnapura but managed to catch it. We reached Ratnapura around 19:30, two of our crew were on their way to Ratnapura from Colombo and they reached around 21:30. There was a cab service we hired previously and they reached to the town around 22:00 and we all set to go.

I was travelling between Karawanella and Rajagriya few times in the past month and had few opportunities to visit places close to Karawanella. 1st day I went to Yatiyanthota and took the Seaforth road. Seaforth road winds around villages and rubber plantation areas and Wee oya providing unique views. Though this road is not carpeted, it can be easily navigated by a car.