Year and Month April, 2014 Number of Days 1 Crew 5 (between 24-27 years of age) Accommodation Nuwara Eliya Town Transport Van Activities Wildlife, Photography, Hiking, climbing Weather Excellent Route Kandy -> Nuwara Eliya -> Horton Plains and return on the same route. Tips, Notes and Special remark Planning in advance will save you lot […]

As Knuckles is a well known mountain range in Sri Lanka we felt guilty for not going hiking in this range. So after a few cancellation we decided to do this hike however. We got into a Colombo – Kandy bus from Mawanella around 06.45 am. We reached Kandy railway station around 7.20 am and wait for Matale train.

I had a dream experiencing a bird eye view from my childhood and finally I was able to achieve that in 2012. I was almost satisfied about that dream. However accidentally I heard about another thrilling ride called ‘Para-motoring’ last year which I never heard before.

Ritigala the giant of ancient capital Anuradhapura stands tall with an altitude of 766m and is the best view point of north central Sri Lanka. Ritigala is an important asset to us in terms of history, folklore and bio diversity. It is the birth place of Malwatu oya and during the North – East monsoons it receives heavy showers more than any other place in the region. Most of the time there is a veil of mist covering its summit.

We left Mawanella around 11.30 am on 13th April and reached Kadugannawa Station and waited for the Badulla train to go to Nawalapitiya Station. The train was too late and arrived at 12.40 pm. The train, fully packed with passengers began its destination. Unfortunately the train stopped due to technical failures after passing GeliOya. So we got down from the train and crossed the paddy field to get on to the road.

How can I start? As you may aware Sri Pada and Knuckles are my favourite places on earth. I used to visit them at least 2-3 times per year. If I talk about knuckles it’s a vast area covering more than 30 mountains, more than 20 isolated villages, so many waterfalls and caves large variety of flora& fauna etc. Importantly in this range you can find waterfalls cascading over caves. One example is Sera Ella in Puwakpitiya area.

This time we select the second youngest Knuckles mountain range. The way Theldeniya, Rangala, Thangappuwa across Kandy is used as entrance for that. Thangappuwa is a small colony who lived in estate laborers. 50 families are lived in this village. Plucking tea leaves, growing vegetables, plucking cardamom and in addition to that guiding for tourists are the ways of living in the people who lived there.

Around 4.30pm, the clouds arrived thick and fast and we heard the distance rumble of thunder making us run all the way back to Nava mama’s house. If I had any hope of doing Lakegala, this nearly made it the last nail of the coffin. Having come back and lying in one of the mattresses cursing the rain and thunder with all the bad words I could think wasn’t gonna help my cause but I kept at it. The sky split into many pieces with lightning and I decided to call it quits.

Around 8.00pm, everything settled down and thunder and rain vanished without a trace of them being just a short while ago and my hopes soared into the sky. I went and asked Nava mama, “Mama, shall we go no matter what happens? To hell with this rain and thundering.” He must’ve sensed my state and very reluctantly agreed. I came and broke the news to Dodam and asked if he’d wanna join the hike regardless of what happens and he jumped in. That settled everything in under 5mins and we were ready to go.

Colombo Fort, the beating heart and commercial Capital of Sri lanka; home to the biggest Businesses, Hotels, etc and so much lively activity that many of us do not know that Colombo has a dark dark history, filled with conspiracies, murder, plague, and death; Colombo Fort was home to the bloodiest and deadliest battlefield in the history of pre-independence Sri Lanka. This is an account of Sithavaka Rajasinghe’s 3rd and Final Siege of the Portuguese Fort of Colombo.

Sometime ago while traveling on Ampara – Siyambalanduwa road I saw a giant box shaped rock and got to know the name “Govindahela”. I was fascinated to climb it but had literally no information about it. Later found an article on Lakdasun forum written by a foreign lady who climbed the rock. But that article was not very encouraging as her experience turned out to be a very tough and difficult one. A couple of years later suddenly there came a report on the forum by – of course – Ahsan, who had climbed it, alone, with not much hassle and once again I started living in my dream.

The initial plan was to travel somewhere around Mathale and Reversten, with a bunch of officemates. But everyone seemed to be busy, visiting relatives for the new year. Knowing that it would be a crime to spend the holidays at home, I decided to visit Hiyare, Kottawa, and Kanneliya. This is my 1st ever solo travel experience

After reaching Uda-delwala, there is a gravel road to right as one pass the temple of Uda-delwala. This road can only be managed by a 4wd vehicle or by a three wheeler. Otherwise one has to walk 1 km to reach the starting point of the hike. We were lucky as one boy volunteered to guide us. Otherwise we might have spent hours looking for the waterfall as some places path was not clear.