School holidays! Its trip time once again. We were getting back home to Bandarawela from Colombo….. a trip that we had done many, many, many times before. But, this time my father and mother suggested that we visit all the interesting places along the route so that I could write a Trip Report on the journey

We started form the suburbs of Colombo at about 6.00 in the morning. The crew was 5. We reached kandy at about 10.00 a.m. and visited “DALADA MALIGAVA” the temple of tooth. After that we took Gampola road and I turned my vehicle to “Kothmale Road” to reach the Kothmale dam. It was very nice and scenic road.

We had planned to visit Katharagama & Yala areas as it was the least visited areas for us. As Nuwara Eliya is good for relaxing, we thought of staying ther for two nights before proceeding to Yala via Sella Kataragama

After passing about 100M from Kande Ela Lake there was a sign board saying Kande Ela Educational & Information Center. I saw some vehicles parked inside the premises so thought of going inside and check out this place. (I have seen this place several times but had no time to check out) A persona at the gate told that there is a 1.5Km trek inside the forest with lot of educational stuff. So we purchased 2 tickets (29/- each) and entered the trek.

Passing some manioc chena(s), the two vehicles turned into a by road lead to Amithirigala, which started from Kirindiwela – Hanwella main road, just before the AGA office at Weeke. Having traveling less than a kilometer from Weeke, both were stopped for a while at the base of Medagama viharaya, a temple where one of the first 8th daughter-plants of sacred Bo tree (Jaya sri maha bodhi) at Anuradhapura were planted. Traditionally each vehicle passing this temple used to stop; pray and put some coins in the till box on the name of the rural god “Ranwala Dewiyo”.

Seven waterfalls (ඇලි හත) is a collection of seven waterfalls at the upstream of Seethawaka ganga (tributary is called Naya ganga). Even though the access route is from Deraniyagala, seven falls belongs to Nuwaraeliya district and also all seven falls are inside the peak wilderness sanctuary. This exciting adventure will take you out of busy homosapiens to calm and cool virgin green forest with pure water streams. This story begins by year 1992, when I was around 10 years old I could barely remember one of my uncles told a story about hiking “Eli hatha” which was an epic adventurous tour with full of fear, courage and excitement

A set of monks at Mahamewnawa monastery (Welimada & Buttala) had decided to visit Sripada peak in off-season so as to get worshiped the noble left foot print of Lord Buddha freely, because during the functional season this noble place is busy with thousands of pilgrims from all over the world.
This idea was spread over 16 of us with in one day.

But then, I got unexpectedly lucky! We went to visit friends in the Hemmathagama area with the intention of climbing Rahalgala. It poured with rain and that plan was washed away. In the idle time, our friend’s mother gave us a book she (Kamala Somaweera) had just published – මාලගිරා සංදේශය (Malagira Sandeshaya), thankfully written in 21st century literary Sinhala! We have not quite managed all the places the Malagirava travelled to, but since we hardly ever visit every place named in a guide book, I decided to do a ‘work-in-progress’ trip report.

We were beaten by sun rays showed no mercy. But in the next moment we were covered & protected by an umbrella woven with crowns of trees. Rubber was introduced to Sri Lanka by English in 1876. From the day it introduced as a crop, Rubber plant has been served the country for not only earning of coins, generating a culture of cultivation. Meanwhile rubber is known as the only crop which served the environment much the same like a forest. As like providing evidence for the same, the atmosphere of our surrounding became more & more fresh & comfortable in each kilometer.

We started our journey from Katubedda at about 11.00pm in the night. The crew was seven. We reached Colombo Fort at 12.00 am by bus. Then we took the Kandy bus and reached Kandy by 4.40am. By 7.30am we were at Bambarella village. On the way we passed a lot of beautiful waterfalls and nice sceneries. Rahas ella, Hulu ganga falls, A fall near Hathale tea estate and Two falls near Hagalla estate are some of them. Unfortunately bus was moving fast and I couldn’t able get least one clear photograph of them. I think Hulu ganga create more than hundred waterfalls in Bambarella, Panwila, Wattegama area.

Kotmale valley has been one of the places that I have always wanted to visit due to its hidden nature, natural beauty and the history it contained. This was sort of a quick trip which was planned about 10 days prior to the execution but even with such short time lines we were able to get together a good plan thanks largely due to the help from Lakdasun members. It has been raining quite heavily along the South – Wetsern areas of the country but we were determined to make the trip as it would give life to many beautiful cascades that would otherwise be non existent during the dry months.

The source of this breath-taking, 116m-high fall is the Kirindi Ella (stream), which flows from its starting point 940m up the Kuttapitiya Mountain. The stream travels 13km before the cascading point in the Kaluwaramukalana Jungle. It then flows via the Denawaka River to the Kaluganga River, located in the Bambarakotuwa Jungle. Local villagers say that there is a picture of a tortoise etched into stone here.