The journey beyond this we could witness the scars of war, huge stretches of Area marked with red tape indicating uncleared land mines,army camps strategically Placed. Our next stop was Kilinochchi, we toured the town and suburbs to explore ,I leave to the readers to their imagination what it would have been like just 17 Months ago.It was getting dark we headed to Jaffna, was around 9.00 we reached Our guest house.

We started after dinner, from Maharagama around 10.00 pm and reached Udawalawa Dam by 2.00 am. The barrier was closed. However after checking our credentials, they allowed us to pass through with a warning about the bad road condition. Closing the Dam at 10.00 pm seems to be a formality now.The road condition from Udawalawa to Thanamalwila was really bad. It was under construction and it took nearly 2 hours to pass that stretch. Our 5th member was to join us at Okkampitiya. We reached Buttala by early morning and reached his home for breakfast.

We had planned to visit Mannar via Pomparippu, Wilpattu and Silavaturai as we were passionate to pass through the jungle, though we were not convinced about the road condition. We wished advice from the police station, army base and the bus stand at Puttalam, if the road is in good condition. We were discouraged from their answers as we had a 2WD van and which also a hired vehicle. Hence we decided to visit Mannar via Medawachchiya. On the way we visited Madhu Church.

The north-east monsoon was being highly uncooperative. With no consideration whatsoever of our holiday plans, it started battering our planned destinations – the ancient capitals of the North Central – with unusual volumes of rain, forcing us to cancel and rethink our family trip. Hoping for better weather and determined to go somewhere before the holidays ended, we decided to head down south. These are highlights of our three-day trip to yet another fascinating part of beautiful Sri Lanka.

We started our journey at about 5.30 A.M on 3 rd December from Colombo. Our crew consists of 10. (6 adults of between 45-55 and 4 children between 14-23.) Our first stop was at Kuruwita for our breakfast. After the breakfast we drove through Rathnapura, palmadulla and turned right to A 18 road and again turned off At Madampe and went through Rakwana, Sooriyakanda and Kolonna to see the Maduwanwela walawwa. During these days they have been commencing the restoration work of the old building.

We left early morning at 0500 hours from Colombo by car on 22nd October 2010. The first stop was at our favourite breakfast spot, Leyons, Hanwella close to the 40th Km post. We drove at a leisurely pace taking in the scenery of the surroundings and stopping to take photographs. We turned off at Pelmadulla and went through Embilipitiya. Past the town we stopped near the Chandrikawewa tank bund for a thirst quenching drink of king coconut water and then walked up the bund to enjoy the scenic view of the wewa.

With the reopening of the Kumana national park early this year it had been on our priority list for quite some time and finally we managed to make that dream come true. The camp sites were booked more than three months in advance as there is no other accommodation south of Arugam Bay. Wildlife department is trying to rebuild the destroyed circuit bungalows and hopefully we will get to use them before long.

The hired van (Dolphin) started with me from Kalutara and travelled via Panadura, Kottawa and Malambe to pick some of my batch mates. Our friend in Batti also joined with us going home for the vacation. We arrived at Polonnaruwa via Kurunegala and Habarana. We did not intend to visit many places around Polonnaruwa as everybody in the crew had experienced Polonnaruwa before. Then we directly proceeded to Batti without having a bath in Passikudah as we were not early enough to so.

We started from Colombo around 9PM on Thursday. We bought all the provisions needed from Cargills, Maharagama. We didn’t have a gas cooker or a cylinder as my friend who own those had given them to one of his friends. We tried to buy one for our selves but that too did not work out as all the 2.5Kg tanks were sold out at Laughs. So we decide to cook using firewood. After collecting everyone, it was around 12 PM when we left Colombo, and we managed to pass Lahugala by around 5.30 AM. Rising sun had made some wonderful scenery.

After much planning and anticipation we left Kandy at 8.00 am on 30th October 2010. We had our breakfast of bread, pol sambol and Srinath’s mom’s milk rice (yum yum) just past Palapathwela under a big roadside tree. We proceeded to Dumbulla while munching boiled bada iringu on the way. We bought all our provisions from the Dambulla Cargill’s Foodcity. Fully equipped, we left Dambulla and headed straight to Galkadawala. We reached the lodge by 11.30 am. We were greeted by Kariyawasam, the friendly caretaker. We were stunned by the serene environment and the simple beauty of the lodge.

The very idea of being able to visit Delft was so exiting since it has been relatively inaccessible for a long time. We were all excited in spite of being forewarned about having to forego the usual creature comforts that we were all accustmed to when on holiday. The varied sites all within this island also stirred our curiosity.
Eight of us, together with our van driver and a guide from Jaffna, visited Delft Island in September 2010.

Although it was a 3 day trip arranged by ‘Lakdasun’, for me it was much more than that as we were invited to stay at ‘Back of Beyond – DEHI GAHA ELA’ in Dambulla, a couple of days more by Uncle Yohan.
I had seen photographs of this place and I knew it was going to be a fantastic holiday. I was so excited about it.