Few months ago myself and Mithila got together and thought of doing the last two remaining trails of Sripada which were Dehena kanda/Hapugastenna trail and Morray/Rajamale estate foot path. We intentionally postponed this journey to march hoping that the path would be cleared off by then. This was a long awaited dream for me and this year it came true. This time our group was a huge one comprising 7 Lakdasun members and others been Theshantha’s family members. I knew this was going to be a unique experience that i will never ever forget and indeed it was.

We were trying to explore Doowili falls since few years. Our previous attempts from Walpolamulla(due to poor preparation and injury), Babarella (misleading Guide called Mr. Ranjith) failed due to various reasons. But we agreed among ourselves to try for one last time.
We started form Ragama about 4.00 in the morning. The crew was 4 and used car as our mode of transportation..

As my 2nd journey of my 2012 vacation I decided to take a trip to Matale to visit few cascading beauties around the area. As many of our members has done it is no means a hike or some sought of. But just a road trip where we went on search few places where you could find the waterfalls around the area.

The Monsoons seems to be coming to an end and most of the waterfalls were at full flow so the temptation was too much that I could handle so finally decided to give it a shot though I was not feeling very well. As usual within few minutes after the idea popped out I gave a call to Lahiru who simply loves waterfalls and he was in to it within no time. So as planned we met on the next morning at Avissawella and took off earlier than expected.

We started our journey from Nuwera eliya to Nanuoya station in the early morning. There was a train from Nanuoya to Ambewela station at 9.20am. It took 30-45 minutes to travel from Nanuoya to Ambewela.( 8Km) Elgine water fall can be usually seen when you are travelling in this railway route.

We all met at Avissawella at sharp 11.00 as discussed earlier. We took a bus to Deraniyagala and got in to the Uda Maliboda bus which left Deraniyagala at 12.30 p.m. After reaching the Udamaliboda tea factory we hired two Tri wheelers to the base of First fall. After spending some time there we visited the second fall after a tiring walk through a footpath. But the journey was rewarding. We had a safe bath in the base pool and had our lunch there.

We started around 5.30AM from Colombo. We were 15 in the team 4 girls and 11 boys. Had to pick up every one and when we left Colombo it was around 6.15AM. We took the Southern Express highway. We exit from Welipanna exit point and traveled along Matugama Pellawatte Road about 75 Km. to Neluwa. 20 Km from Neluwa to Lankagama the place is just opposite Bharmaha Waterfall.

I took the 5.30am bus from Nugegoda to Kandy and reached there by 9.30am (frustratingly slow going) and met Sanjeewa at the station. Then I went to see those 3 musketeers (actually 3 innocent and playful bunnies that I had mentioned in my previous report Nuwara Eliya & Welimada – New Dimensions). To my joy, they were playing with each other. I wanted to give them something to eat but Sanjeewa said that we could do it in the afternoon coz I was planning on returning on 3.00 pm training.

Finally the monsoons seem to be over and it was all what I needed to stretch my muscles a bit. Following my last visit to Ihala Galagama I jotted down the name of beautiful mountain range called Havagala which is linked to the Ravana folklore “The arrow released in war games by King Ravana is said to have pierced seven mountains and penetrated two more mountain peaks.

This was arranged as a family trip as I wanted to take my parents and my brother and his wife to a relaxing, less adventures place close to nature. They had been complaining that “Umba hamadama thaniyama trip yanawa..Apiwath enkkan yanawako” So I picked Kanneliya . Our plan was to visit much easier (with minimum duration) trials as Cave, Giant creeper and Anagimala falls and stay the night there and return home next day. In fact I returned same night as I had an exam next day.

It has long been one of my dreams to travel along the A17 but every time we tried to organize this for one reason or other it didn’t take place. This time it was a spur of the moment thought that triggered this off and less than 24 hours later we were on the A17. 🙂 To make things more adventurous we decided to take the journey using a 3 wheeler. Suraj with his tuk tuk has been our trusted accomplice on previous trips and we roped him in this time as well.

Hence beginning of January we thought to travel to Polgahawela and Dedigama for a one day trip to visit few ancient temples and sites.
Starting at about 9.30am on the 7th of January 2013 we drove via Kandy road and turned off at Ambepussa to the Kurunegala Road up to Alawwa. At Walakumbura near the now famous train crossing with accidents you find the turn off road to Waduwawa.