Soon we entered a tunnel and it seemed to take forever to get to the other side. It was the world famous Singhamale Tunnel. There were a plenty of workers who got off at a tiny station called Galkanda Watta between Hatton and Kotagala just passing the Singhamale Tunnel, the longest in SL. The view afterwards was simply amazing and it made Ana and me get out of our seats and come to the door pointing our cameras at the surrounding. The early morning rays of the sun kept peering through trees and mountains making patters on the dewy leaves. The mist hung in midair as if hung with an invisible thread. We felt like going through heaven.

It all started after seen an article on Lakdasun shared by Sheham about a worlds end in Seetha eliya. On that article it seemed like the mayor wanted to give the place bit of publicity and attract many visitors too. I wanted to visit it as soon as possible before the place lost its natural beauty thanks to our irresponsible public. Lahiru gave his confirmation few days prior and Amila was on the pending side until the very last moment. On a clear Saturday we got together at Colombo at around 10am(which was a very unusual time for us) and took a bus towards Nuwara eliya. At around 3.30pm we reached our destination where we immediately had lunch and packed some for dinner too. After collecting some more resources we took a bus towards Magasthota and got off at the end of Gregory lake from there we hired a trishaw which took us towards the potato farm where there was a locked gate.

Our initial plan was to visit at Knuckles peaks from Bambaralla and this was a suddenly planned trip due to misty covering of Knuckles peaks. Although we expected to have energetic waterfalls due to monsoon rain it didn’t happen.

We recently concluded our camping trip to the campsite 3 in Horton Plains and spent 3 nights and four days. We have camped at sites 1 and 2 before and when we wanted to book site 3, we didn’t really know if these were better than the others, so decided to include a small comparison also with the report so that you can choose the sites as you prefer.

Hike for Humanity project is an innovative and inspirational project interlinking the concept of hiking and humanity. That is to help underprivileged school students on the annual hike of Old Cadets Association (OCA). To begin with the project the #HikeForHumanity Concept was familiarized on the social media as well as in Zahira College Mawanella.

ur First stop was the MalwattaMahaViharaya opposite the DaladaMaligawa. It is one of the major Buddhist monasteries of two nikayas (orders) of ‘Theravada’ Buddhism in Sri Lanka. Malwatte Maha Viharaya and the Asgiri Maha Viharaya are the responsible caretakers of the sacred tooth relic in Kandy.

Sri Pada Season is begun. Buddhist pilgrims and pilgrims of other religions come in millions to worship the sacred foot print. People who want to climb the summit within a shorter period without much difficulty choose the Hatton Nallathani Route. Because of that Hatton route get crowded most of the time. People who wanted to climb in less crowded trail which is much closer to nature; choose comparably difficult Eratna or Ratnapura trails .

We woke up around 5am after a deep sleep and straight away went out looking for the rising sun through the mountains. The pointed shaped rock is not in fact Lakegala, but called Thunnisgala. No wonder people say that there are 7 people alike in the world and it seems it goes to the nature too, especially for mountains and waterfalls. The cloud cover was a worrying factor and sun had no chance of penetrating this thick layer. Ranjith and Wasantha arrived with coffee and it warmed our bodies. We decided to go as early as possible coz wanted to see as many things as possible. The breakfast was extra-large Rotti with Luny Miris and Chicken Curry. We ate and was on our way merrily. This area is a cluster of few villages; they are Pitawala, Atanwala, Rathkinda & Mahala Kotuwa. It’s however very hard to distinguish one from the other as there are no marked boundaries.

It’s very unusual of me to visit the peak wilderness twice within one year but 2013 was a special one. Suddenly out of nowhere the idea popped out and I called my better half and agreed her to join me this time and as usual few lakdasun members answered my calls. I was so happy because Kasun and Sri were joining us, so we won’t feel lonely with their company. I have been through both Rathnapura and Hatton trails but I have not ascended from Rathnapura and after almost 5 years the trail was said to be totally different than the one I knew previously.

I’ve seen mist before but lemme tell you that I’ve never seen something like this. The world around us was nothing but grey white and the odd black shadows of all kinds of trees were barely visible. We were practically crawling at a snail’s speed and it was no better than feeling your way in the dark. However we were intrigued by what we saw.

Eventually Tony had to get a torch and lower the shutter and aim at the edge of the road so that we wouldn’t fall into a drain. However lowering the glass made our hair stand on its ends and froze our exposed skin.

After passing Yatiyanthota we stopped at Ingiriyawatte to see the hanging bridge. According to villagers this is the longest hanging bridge of the country with a length of 360 feet. There was another hanging bridge between Kalugala junction and Bodiragala junction.

Kukuluwa Temple is situated on top of Nirieli Kanda නිරිඇලි කන්ද (1500feet) in Rathnapura District at Ayagama (අයගම) area. There are three pathways to reach this temple; two of them are foot pathways. Even along other road also needs a good four wheel vehicle to reach the temple. Climbing to this temple is a nice experience and it reminds me the Kuruwita trail of Sri Pada. There for I decided to share my experience with others.