An “Ambalama” can be described as one of an important public building in ancient Sri Lanka. There were series of “Ambalama(s)” located along the roads, being land marks & resting places for travelers for free. It was a convenience and comfort to people traveling far; going on pilgrimages or visiting relatives by foot or cart. Usually “Ambalam” were built in a chosen spots such as by the side of a paddy field or stream. Facility of portable water was provided with a “pin-thaliya” (a pot of water) or a well

The run in the open cab was a super experience as you could see in all directions up to a good distance and can see animals easily. Though it was very dry the surface of the roads were in bad shape and as a result the double cab got it’s side bars damaged.Though it was quite hot we managed to see quite a number of Elephants including a baby tusker and some birds as well.

From Palatota junction onwards, we had to walk at about 1.5km to reach the Richmond Park Estate. Our destination was the Richmond Castle, a fine country house in a 42-acre fruit garden estate built in 1896. It was said to be one of the biggest mansions in Sri Lanka.

It was around 9.30 when we reach Bambarakanda Rest. I should mention again that the owning lady of Bambarakanda Rest Mrs. Sera Mayakaduwa was truly a very helpful person. Since we didn’t have a guide she gave us all the information about the trails and even drew us a rough sketch of the area.

I visited there several months ago but I thought it is good to publish trip report at least now because I don’t see any trip report related to Sithulpawwa. Beacuse of the time past, I can’t remember much details about visited places at Sithulpawwa

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.