A long time back, while talking to some one at the Horton Plains office to get directions to Kirigalpoththa, we learnt that there is a bridle trail to Bogawantalawa which branches off from Kirigalpoththa trail (Kirigalpoththa trail wasn’t clearly marked then as it is now; and GPS for hiking was not even heard of!). Since then it was in my list of “to do trails” but I never had enough information to plan the walk.

Our first travel location, the historic temple at Thalagama was located at a distance less than a kilometer from Ambepussa, the first train destination of Sri Lanka. The temple was consisted with three levels. The Sangawasaya, Dharma Shalawa and other general buildings used by Bhikku are located at the lower level.

Then we moved towards Dedugala road which is one of the most exciting roads that I have ever came across. Narrow and lots of bends and enriched with lots of beautiful falls. First we stopped at Rikilla Falls which is about 5km from Bulathkohupitiya town. The imposing rock and the silver color waterfall is a striking spectacle for all those who travel along this road. Then we were able to see few beautiful falls along our way and many are seasonal falls.

A 3 day visit to northern part of Knuckles range, called Knuckles due to its mountains appearance similarity to a knuckles. Once we reached Rattota around 1.30pm. There wasn’t any bus to at least somewhere near to Riverstone. Three wheel and Van fares are very high. In Rattota town they were well organized and they asked same fare. I suggest using hired vehicle from home town or Matale would be a better idea. We finally got a bus from Matale to Puwakpitiya.

We were gathered into Colombo private bus stand on Friday night @ about 10.15pm to catch 11.45Pm Mahiyangana bus. Since it was a long weekend huge crowd was there. But we were lucky enough to get seats in 10.45 Bibila bus which was came unexpectedly late. Therefore it is better if you can reserve seats in advanced if you plan to go by Bus. We get off at the Gurulupotha rest house at about 5 am. There is a water stream, which is a branch of a Hasalaka oya is flow across Mahiyanganaya road. We had ‘Roti’ for the breakfast from a small hotel at Gurulupotha

From Palatota junction onwards, we had to walk at about 1.5km to reach the Richmond Park Estate. Our destination was the Richmond Castle, a fine country house in a 42-acre fruit garden estate built in 1896. It was said to be one of the biggest mansions in Sri Lanka.

It was around 9.30 when we reach Bambarakanda Rest. I should mention again that the owning lady of Bambarakanda Rest Mrs. Sera Mayakaduwa was truly a very helpful person. Since we didn’t have a guide she gave us all the information about the trails and even drew us a rough sketch of the area.

We started at sharp 3 in the morning as our tour iternery was packed with places to visit. And took the Colombo- Puttalam road which was quite clear at that time and reached Puttalam at 4.45 and had breakfast at a known place ( One of my friend’s old family friends). It was a very tasty meal and afterwards left for Wilpattu and went inside around 7am.

Ridi Viharaya is a nice and ancient place. You will not be allowed take the photographs even without flash. But sadly you will see high voltage flash lights directed to some walls with ancient paintings.(Now those paintings are difficult see and don’t seem to have any protection)

We planned this trip to visit Yala and Bundala National Parks. On our way back home we also visited Hummanaya Blow Hole. We started our journey at about 9.30 pm by taking a Kataragama bus from Colombo. Chamika, Miniruwan, Aravinda and Supun joined with me. We got off the bus from Tissa at about 4.30 am. Lokayya (safari jeep) came to pick us from there to the rest house. After a short breakfast we headed towards the Yala entrance. We entered the park at about 6.00 am. Four or five other jeeps also entered the park with us

This was my second visit to Wilpattu, the first being equally unsuccessful due to bad weather. The past week too it had rained almost everyday, but luckily this time, the skies opened up from the first day of our safari. This raised our hopes up quite high, but now, almost at the end of the second day, we had only seen fresh pugmarks, but no real Leopards…an air of frustration was starting to build up… Just as we passed the Borupanwila Junction, our driver suddenly uttered two words that made our hearts skip a few beats… ”කොටියා, කොටියා” (“leopard, leopard”!)

Later near Yala Junction Shantha shouted “anna kotiya” and in the rush I applied braked on the gravel and came to a screeching halt and wen we looked on the right hand side a male leopard fully grown was seated in the shade just next to the road . When I opened the sun-roof and aimed my camera the fellow turned towards the jungle went a bit and turned back and most thrilling movement happend.