Since we have been to Knuckles from Deenston, Meemure side and Riverston Illukkumbura side, this time we decided to explore knuckles from another side which is ‘Bambarella’ and hike ‘Knuckles’ mountain in knuckles range. And visit several uncommon waterfalls in the same area. It was a rainy season and we heard all those waterfalls are in full flow these days when we inquired from the people living in that area.

Early morning on the 30th December we started heading south on the E01. It was my first time on E01 and I couldn’t have asked for anything better! Cutting across paddy fields, rubber plots and forest patches, E01 was virtually emerging from a sea of mist. Even though the scenary was heavenly, capturing it on camera at 100kmph was not easy. The dirty windshield did not help the cause either.

We chose Madu-Mannar as the destination for our year-end office trip after reading a number of trip reports on Lakdasun. We started form the suburbs of Colombo at about 12.30 in the night/morning as we had only two days to explore all interesting places that had been discussed in those reports. The crew was forty and we travelled in a 55-seater Ashok Leyland bus. As we started early, we reached Medawachchiya Rest House by 5.30 am and refreshed ourselves with a cup of tea. (Prior arrangements made to have tea so early!)

It was about 7.30am when we started our journey from Kaduwela and our only stop was for breakfast past Avissawella. The scenery changed after the turn off at dehiowita, it was a gradual ascend with the not so good road conditions giving us ample time to admire the beauty of mother nature.

We started our journey on 11th December around 5.00pm from Colombo. First day our destination was Laxapana Circuit Bungalow and we reached there by 11.00 pm with several stops in between; several security checkups were there since we were entering in to a high security zone and War was at peak during that time.

It was a short Backpacking session [Travelled alone]. Left Colombo on the 23rd Dec [Friday] night and reached Pattipola on the 24th Dec at 04:30 hrs. Slept at the Pattipola train station till dawn and commenced my walk to Thotupola Kanda, 3rd highest peak in Sri Lanka, via Horton Plains at 07:10 hrs. Reached the summit and got back to the Pattipola Station by 11:46 hrs [18Kms by foot]. After a short break I started my railway trek to Ohiya from Pattipola at 12:00 hrs [06 Kms by foot]. Was able to arrive at the Ohiya station by 13:50 hrs and on my way I have walked through 04 railway tunnels including the 3rd longest Tunnel in Sri Lanka [Tunnel No.18]. Got to Badulla by train from Ohiya by 18:30 hrs [train was delayed a bit] and got into the train from Badulla on the same day and got back to Colombo by 06:00 hrs on the 25th Dec 2011

We started journey from Gampaha at 3.30 a. m. Very less traffic on the way and we could reach Riverston at 6.45. We were the first to be there for the day. We left Reversturn around 9.30 am and this is on our way to Pitawala pathana. Manigala behind the scene. This is around 5 Km away from the Hittipola Road. The road was very bad condition and difficult manage with the car. We had to stop the car and walk last 2 km.

On the Friday eve, after office we started our journey from Battaramulla, typically very punctually, 2 hours behind our schedule. We stayed at a private place in Kandy on that night. Next day we wanted to leave Kandy as early as possible and again as usual we were way behind our schedule. After having breakfast from a friend’s place in Rattota, we headed towards Riverston. Our first stop was at the small yet scenic “Bambarakiri Ella” falls. It is just a few hundred meters walk from the main road to the water fall.

I visited there several months ago but I thought it is good to publish trip report at least now because I don’t see any trip report related to Sithulpawwa. Beacuse of the time past, I can’t remember much details about visited places at Sithulpawwa

It was end of 2010 and we went to visit Kataragama for few days (Five Days). This Ranminithanna visit is the main part of the our trip. We started the our journey from kataragama around 8.00am. it will take 30min from k’gama bus stand to main road entrance of the park and other part(main road to park entrance)will take around 30min by walking.

We started around 6.00 am from Gampaha and stopped at Rathanapura and had the breakfast. Then we proceeded towards Udawalawa and reached Udawalawa bungalow around 1.30 pm. While passing Udawalawa park we saw few elephants inside the fence, just by the side of Udawalawa road. These elephants have got used to come up to this point as visitors feed them with fruits. There are signboards saying ‘Do not feed animals’ but visitors don’t adhere to these instructions.

We left around morning 6.00 from Dehiwala with Bopath Ella to be our 1st sighting in mind. We reached Kuruwita around 8.00 – 8.30 and from Kuruwita took a left turn and travelled about 3kms to a village called Agalwatta where the fall is located. It was interesting to see that the area surrounding the fall has changed a lot from my last visit for this fall in 1996. Then as per our agenda it was Doovili falls in Kalthota, so we made a move towards Balangoda. After passing Pelmadulla town we were lucky enough to spot Kirindi Ella in distance from the main road (although I have seen images of this waterfall had no idea where it is located exactly). So we have to come back towards Pelmadulla town and took a right turn in Kuttapitiya road.