I had been travelling all around the country this year chasing adventure and thrill, in an effort to make most of the free time I have ahead of what may be some challenging years ahead.

After tackling Bopaththalawa in the morning we decided to head towards the elusive Dell Mountain. I saw this mountain for the first time when I was hiking Great western 6 years back and ever since that I have been staring at it on my successful attempts to Adams peak.

We were planning to use a car and a van for the trip, but when I contacted Ashan, he discouraged the car. So we exchanged the car to a cab.
The van was from a cab service and naturally came late. The cab went early and reached Fishing Hut by mid day enabling my sons and grandsons to have a dip in Battulu Oya before lunch.

Hot air ballooning is not very much familiar in Sri Lanka as it costs high. But this activity is very popular among tourists. Because there are many foreigners directly come to have this facility since it is low cost as per their budget.

I wanted to do something new so decided to go through Google maps and thought of heading towards Bogawanthalawa on a Saturday morning with Chamara. First day we had a failed attempt on Kotagala mountain which we only managed 60%. So after a tiring attempt we decided to call it a day and we lodged at Bogawanthalawa.

As soon as you hear the name Sri Pada, there’s this calm and soothing sensation which goes through your system as if a nice cool flow of water through a parched throat. That mountain is so special even her namesake alone is enough to make us feel reinvigorated. I don’t think there exists any such mountain in the whole wide world that has been worshipped and visited as much as this despite her location in a tiny out of the way island in the Indian Ocean with nothing below it until the frozen Antarctic Glaciers. This is very special and it further proves by it being chosen to leave the footprint of one of the most respected and enlightened philosopher that walked on this earth some 2600 years ago, Gautama Buddha.

Since then, this has been worshipped by millions of devotees every year between Dec (Unduwap Poya) and May (Vesak Poya). However the situation has become a bit alarming due to the unprecedented crowds that gather to visit and worship the sacred footprint every year. If you were following the media (and supposing they were reporting the truth), there were reports of some 800,000 people visiting on long weekends and somewhere in April that figure rose to some 1.5 million. There were so many who were planning to go from Hatton but due to the large number of people ultimately ended up climbing from Kuruwita. Just imagine the plight of those people who were only prepared for an easy ride of 4-5km yet were forced to do 12+km. Most of them had been in tears by the time they had reached Galwangediya.

There had been some discussions with Ashan, me and Nishan to do a Mega journey starting from Bambarella and reach KMP at Kalupahana then climb Thunhisgala and descend to Pallegama by exploring Duwili eli. Although I had been to Duwili Eli once from Etanwala, Thunhisgala was a dream for me. Ashan and Amila went for a two day hike to Thunhisgala but I couldn’t join them as I couldn’t take leave from my work place. So I missed their journey.

Kabragala is a mountain in the Dolaosbage mountain range. It has the highest summit point in the range. Hiking Kabaragala became one of my ‘must do’ hike after seeing the Nadegura Documentary and Ashan’s Report. We planned several times and couldn’t do the hike due to bad weather.

We started our journey very early in the morning from Maharagama at about 02:00 and made our way to the Pettah bus stand. We caught the Monaragala bus from Pettah which got us to Kandy by about 06:15. We had to walk from the Kandy main bus stand to the one near the clock tower to catch a bus to Waththegama. The bus ride to Waththegama took abot 40 minutes.

Sri Lanka is a country which has different type of tourism related activities in all around the island. Especially the beach is also different to the areas such as Hikkaduwa, Bentota, Arugambay, Trincomalee and Kalpitiya. There are different kind of water sports and activities for tourists.

Knuckles range is the all rounder in Nature sites. Why I am telling this because of its vast variation in climates, flora, fauna, geography etc…..Also there are hundreds of trails which can be categorized from easy to strenuous. Dangerous Lakagala, Tough Duwili Eli at Kalupahana, Strenuous Knuckles peaks, Moderate Manigala and easy Deanston are some examples….So you can satisfy any of your friends or loved ones at knuckles. Irrespective of their age, fitness level or other parameters ,Knuckles consist of one or more suitable trails for any of them. That’s why I called it as “THE ALL ROUNDER “

It has been some time since I headed towards Ampara and this year my plan was to try and visit many more unheard places around Digamadulla. Previously I had done some exploring in this region (Uhana, Inginiyagala, Lahugala) but there were few places around Damana which I missed. I did this trip on two consecutive days all alone and with the aid of Ellawala Medananda theros book.