On top of the Manigala we could see Doovili Ella far away towards the Kalupahana range. That day we all decided to visit this somehow. Eventually we could visit all other water falls in the poem and hiked Manigala peak 3 times after that, but we couldn’t go to Doovili Ella, because it is difficult to reach that. There were only a very few who have done this hike and it was difficult for us to gather some information as well

Jaffna was a place from my childhood – a place that had happy memories of unrestricted travel within the peninsula and meeting loads of friendly people. Language was never a barrier as my limited Tamil with lots of gestures managed to get what I wanted! But that was in early 1970s.

White water rafting is a very famous, challenging, recreational adventure sport in Sri Lanka. I’m sure most of Lakdasun fans have experienced this adventure sport some day in your life. But I couldn’t find any report in Lakdasun related to this. So I decided to write a report on the time.

Since my friends and I had some free time amid closed universities, we decided to seek some adventure: a hike that was in our minds for a long time, an off season journey to Adam’s peak and we chose Kuruwita-Erathna trail.

This was a very well planned trip as our friend Lasantha’s home town is Welimada. We decided to pay a visit to his place and visit many other places. This came as a blessing having toiled night and day at office for nearly 2 months. So Roshan, Buddhi and I got into “Podimenike” leaving for Badulla at 5.55 am from Fort on 07 July. Lasantha was to meet us at Welimada.

Our basic target was to see the nine arches bridge at Demodera and travel around that area. We used different way to reach wellawaya instead of normal ways (not via Beragala or via Thanamalwila).

We Started from Colombo fort 6th Friday 8.00Pm train(night mail).There were 10 persons with our team. We reach Ohiya railway station around 4.30Am 7th Saturday and had breakfast from the shop beside the railway station. Around 6.00 we came to the hotel. At about 7.00 in the morning we have started out Hike from the hotel.

Neelagiri Seya (නීලගිරි සෑය) is a name I came across when I was going through the web site of archeology.lk. Since then I wanted to visit this site. So on a Saturday I got in to a Panama bus and travelled towards Lahugala where I got down and inquired from few locals about the sthupa. And one person volunteered and gave me a lift towards Heda Oya (හැඩ ඔය) where the road continues across the stream.

Thankfully the rain had stopped and only then I knew they had a bird park too. Being a great fan of birds, I wanted to buy tickets for both and they gave a special package for both. The person at the ticket counter advised us to first visit the water world and then go to the bird park. So taking his advice we went inside the water world.

After the lunch we waited few more hours at the circuit bungalow hoping that the herd will get into the lake just opposite the circuit as told by the bungalow caretaker. But soon we realized we don’t have such luck. So we thought it is better to search the herd rather than waiting them to appear in front of us.

This year was the best period for me to do the well-known “Paada Yathra” because I currently reside in Moneragala. Actually even before I thought of walking with the pilgrims this year my friends did ask me to join them and the answer was YES SURE (with a big smile). This was something I wanted to do for some time but free time was the major problem. Thanks to the long discussions in lakdasun and talking hours with people who had experienced this walk first hand, we were ready to walk the distance with the pilgrims and experience something that is worth a million.

This was my first naked eye view of the Kandy perahara. Despite many recommended that watching it in TV is better, I still though to just experience it. According, with the help of a friend in Kandy came to town at about 6.35 and parahara was scheduled to start by 6.50. By the time we arrived the city, all the streets were completely filled with people.