Handapan Ella plains is a plateau rich in bio diversity situated at eatern end of Sinharaja rain forest. The famous Handapan Ella starts from this plain.

In April month everybody busy due to Sinhala New Year. We planned to visit our relatives house in Mawanella. We planned to go by train.

The journey was started from the Kandy bus stand where we all gathered and took a bus to Matale (Warakamura road Matale |Route No. 593 | Rs.45 – normal). Then we took an Etipola bus up to Asgiriyawaththa junction (Rs. 20) from where the road to Madiwela begins.

Kokagala is a rock of 640m height situated closer to Padiyathalawa town. This is my experience of hiking Kokagala mountain.

Matale line streches from Peradeniya junction to Matale with the distance of 28km. This is our experince of rail walk at Matale line from Ukuwela to Waththegama.

Somawathiya temple (Somawathi Chethiya) is one of the popular places among Buddhist devotees. The right sacred tooth relic of Lord Buddha was kept at Somawathi stupa. It is said there are seven acessory stupa around Somawathi temple. This is our attempt to visit one of them.

Peacock Hills/ Moneragala is situated in Kotmale area which has a historical vallue. This is my visit to area to explore hidden places related to Princes Gemunu during his life at Kotmale.

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.

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.