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Holiday at ‘BACK OF BEYOND – DEHI GAHA ELA’ – Dambulla |
Although it was a 3 day trip arranged by ‘Lakdasun’, for me it was much more than that as we were invited to stay at ‘Back of Beyond – DEHI GAHA ELA’ in Dambulla, a couple of days more by Uncle Yohan.
I had seen photographs of this place and I knew it was going to be a fantastic holiday. I was so excited about it.
Trip to Sinharaja Via Pitadeniya to see the hidden waterfalls of Sinharaja in Deniyaya |
We started form the Galle at about 5.00 in the morning. The crew was eight in a hired high roof Dolphin van.
The first stop of us was a beautiful waterfall called Ethamala ella situated near by Morawaka town.
You have to turn right 1km before the town and have to travel along NilElla estate about 1.5km. Our next stop at Hathmale ella near by Pallegama city.
3 Day trip to Passikudah, Batticaloa |
First night we were planning to stay in Kandy at Deepals bungalow and since it was perahara season getting out of Colombo were deficit with lots of traffic heading towards Kandy and we ook a quick decision to proceed via Jaela/minuwangoda/Giriulla/Kurunagala/Katugasthota/Kandy, drive was superb with very little traffic (route slightly longer than Colombo kandy main road 20Km longer) Good road network, you wont feel the drive.
Pinnawala Elephant Orphanage – An ideal one day trip for kiddies vacation |
Thusitha asked me to park the vehicle at a suitable place for the brake-fast, having observing my eyes were locating the face (dial) of the wrist watch. We were going on a trip with Thusith’s family; since it was the August vacation for kids. In the next moment we were under a tree near the construction site of proposed Zoo at Pinnawala. At that point; we had almost reached the first travel location of the journey, the elephant orphanage at Pinnawala.
My first visit to the Jaffna Peninsula |
My mother was going to Jaffna for work. As it was my school holidays my father and I also decided to joined her. It was going to be my very first visit to the Jaffna Peninsula. My parents said that it was not going to be a site seeing visit but, only a visit for me to see what the Peninsula looks like.
Salgala monastery, Manella & Theli Falls (Galapitamada) |
We decided to go in search of a waterfall called “Theli falls” which is 3-4m in hight and which is formed by the Gurugoda oya. To reach to this waterfall one needs to travel on Nelundeniya- Galapitamada route and get down from “Thuntota” where you will have to travel about 4Km on a track which leads you in to an islolated rubber estate. At one point you will come across a huge rock on the left of the road(see the photograph), right after you pass the rock you will find the path towards the Waterfall! Since this was the dry season Gurugoda oya was sought of dried off.
A Three Day Trip to Kumana National Park |
My parents told me that we were going to spend three nights camping in Kumana. I had never been there before but had seen a lot of pictures of Kumana taken by my father who had been there several times during the past few months.
This was also going to be my first camping trip in a National Park.
Fascinating Alagalla (1148m) & Dekinda Falls(30m) |
Alagalla hike was a hike I was looking forward to do since last year but always the weather condition was the limiting factor. I left early morning from Yakkala and arrived at Mawanella. Guess what! as I got off the bus straight away I saw the gigantic mountain covered with a veil of mist which is a peculiar sight. I decided to do the hike from the Ihala Kotte station because that was the route that I was aware about but the easiest way would be taking a Kandy-Poththepitiya bus from Pilimathalawa.
In and around Deniyaya (Hathmale falls, Pitadeniya, Pathanoya falls and scenic Buluthota hills) |
This was one of those trips where you pick a random week end and head some where you have never been to, with pretty much no planing in advance!
This time it was me and Prabath. We decided that Deniyaya would be a nice area to explore, so two of us boarded my old but faithful jeep at 2 a.m. on a Saturday and started driving towards Deniyaya via Rathnapura, Rakwana and Suriyakanda.
Horton Plains to Hatton via Diyagama (Dayagama) and Agarapathana |
The plan of this trip was quite straight forward. Take the night mail on a Saturday night, reach Ohiya early morning, Relax the rest of the day at Ginihiriya wildlife bungalow, walk along the Dayagama trek on the following day and catch the intercity express from Thalawakele (3.00p.m.) back to Colombo. Still there was one important thing which we overlooked. We did not book the train for the return journey assuming that we will be able to buy tickets from Thalawakele. In the back of our minds we thought that even if we miss the train we could catch a bus back to colombo.
