Bunch of people at our office decided to climb Sripada off season back in 2007. I’ve involved in many hikes before, but I knew 12KM + is not an easy one. We arrived at Erathna day prior to our hike and stood at one of our colleague’s relatives place.

December, my favorite time of the year. So as usual, I wanted to go see my beloved N’eliya no matter what the weather is like. All my friends warned me against heavy rain and landslides for no avail. As my friend Lasantha’s hometown is Welimada, I decided to go there with my friend Sanjeewa who will soon be leaving for US.

Another annual vacation, and as usual didn’t wanna miss out on visiting few cascading beauties in our paradise island. I had to wait for week as there were no significant rain fall around the hill country since I arrived. As soon as I heard there were few showers in Ramboda area called up couple of my close friends and packed up our bags and off we went.

As we had a long year end vacation we planned to go Horton Plains via Devil’s staircase-ohiya route. But due to bad weather condition we had to cancel that trip. But badly wanted a similar trip. While thinking about trip ideas I remembered the mountain in front of our home at Pundaluoya. So here we go.

This was a long waited leisure trip for us to get away from the tight schedules and relax in the cool climates enjoying beauty of the up country. Our selection this time was one sensational hotel, the Heritance Tea Factory to enjoy a comfortable stay with lovely meals within the beautiful landscapes and creations in the surrounding.

So finally I decided to tackle the rains, it was not a pleasant experience but my desire and the outcome made it pleasant at the end. On day one when I arrived at Welimada it was around 1pm and it was drizzling at that moment and I had to face a major obstacle which was a bus strike at that moment, somehow got in to a CTB and went towards lunuwatta.

After experiencing continuous rain for more than a month it was time for another waterfall hunt. The moment arrived when the rains ceased and on the 2nd of December my cousin joined me on the chase. We left delgoda at about 4am, by about 6am we were passing Peradeniya heading towards Nawalpitiya.

We started our Journey early in the morning, had our Breakfast on the way. Since the weather was good we did not have any problems in the way. You have to turn to left just passing the Mohini Ella (15 Km sign is there near the Turn) to enter in to Murray estate, You have to travel about 8 kms to reach the Rajamale which is the border of the Siripa forest reserve.

It was in July while we were at Birds’ Paradise, Kudawa touring Sinharaja, Nimal the owner of the place told us about this wonderful place. He really is a nature lover and after realizing our enthusiasm about the nature, he encouraged us to visit this place and then and there we decided to visit in December.

Raxagala is the second highest peak of Dolosbage range and having different names. Locals called it Kinihira (කිනිහිර), Paththini amma kanda (පත්තිනි අම්මා කන්ද), Wangedi molgas gala (වන්ගෙඩි මොල්ගස් ගල )1: 50000Map shows it as Stentry box east. The idea of climbing this unusual shaped mountain came into my mind when I climbed Kabaragala-higest peak of Dolosbage range.When I searched it, I found a nice article in Sri lankan travellers. It gave me a good guidance.

Raigama, according to some historians, was the seventh capital of ancient Lanka, after Anuradhapura (4th century BC – 10th century AD), Polonnaruwa (10th century – mid-13th century), Dambadeniya (1232–72), Yapahuwa (1272–93), Kurunegala (1293–1341) and Gampola (1341–47). It is said to have been the capital for 68 years, until Parakramabahu VI moved to the comforts of Sri Jayawardenepura-Kotte in 1415 (Wikipedia.)

On top of the Manigala we could see Doovili Ella far away towards the Kalupahana range. That day we all decided to visit this somehow. Eventually we could visit all other water falls in the poem and hiked Manigala peak 3 times after that, but we couldn’t go to Doovili Ella, because it is difficult to reach that. There were only a very few who have done this hike and it was difficult for us to gather some information as well