We were interested on hiking from College life. While we were doing cadetting those days we were used to hike Alagalla, Wewalthalawa, Ahupini Ella, Batelegala and etc (Most of them were situated in our region). This time Rishad brought an idea to go out of Mawanella region and explore the beauty of Sri Lanka. He proposed us to hike Udamala kanda in welimada and then go to Pattipola station. When we heard the route we found that it was very adventures and interesting.

Endagala is a unique place which I came across for the first time while going through a book called “Stone in Eloquence” and since then it was roaming around my dreams. One day while traveling to Padiyathalawa I noted a board saying Endagala put up by Uva tourist board and that was enough to stimulate me to go in search of it. I have only seen few pictures of a pond but I was sure that there were much more to expect.

During my waterfall hunting at Matara district, I have noted there are some old cave temples as well. Some of them are belong to Anuradhapura and Pollonnaruwa periods. These Buddhist temples are popular among nearby villagers. But not familiar to others. Therefore I decided to note down some information about these places to others also.

We started around 4.00 am from Maharagama. It was raining cats and dogs and motoring was virtually difficult. By the time we reached the extended arm of the island, it was morning and the weather was not that promising. However we were able to go to coal power plant of Norochcholei and got down in front.

The coming weekend was Vesak holidays and there would be plenty of free food everywhere waiting for me to have a taste. So I decided to hang around Maha oya and experience the village style of celebrating Vesak though my main objective was visiting few archaeology sites. I got together with my batch mate Chanaka and arrived at Maha oya leisurely at around 9am and after having some breakfast we wanted to visit one of the Mega irrigation projects which was underway.

Nuwaragala the fortress on top of a rock in the deep forest of elephant country was once a dream, nevertheless just like many other dreams this one also came true. After getting guidance from Priyanjan who had been there last year, I got together with my friend Dumidu and decided to give it a try. Though it was raining elsewhere and drizzling on and off at Maha oya we went ahead with our plans.

We wanted to do a complete Jaffna tour within three days. Before plan this trip I read Sri’s Jaffna and Delft report (The Land of Horses-Delft & re-awakening Jaffna) which was the most recent updates of Jaffna in Lakdasun especially about Delft Island. Then I went through Kristy’s reports of Jaffna (Jaffna-Micro Attractions and which gives a good idea about rare places there. Zoysa’s Jaffna report (On the A9 Road to Jaffna 2010) also helped me to know about Vallipuram and VVT. I knew about Fort Hammenheil from Chandanie’s report (Fort Hammenheil-a prison in the middle of the ocean)

It was a period of mixed weather and I had been away from temples and Archeology sites for a while so decided to have a small tour around Padiyathalawa and Maha oya region on a weekend. Visiting archeology sites and temples is not an easy task since there are many issues lately that cause significant problems and it’s essential to win the trust of the head priests these days otherwise you would be labeled as a “Nidan hora” and be arrested by the 119 squad. Despite all the barriers I decided continue on my quest so on a Saturday I headed towards Padiyathalawa and took a bus towards Wahawa to start things off.

Some friends came to our home to spend a holiday with us. As they hadn’t gone in a local train we decided to do a short train trip. The easiest trip to do was to take the morning train to Pattipola and to catch a train back home.

Horton Plains is one of my favorite places in Srilanka. So I spoke with some of my friends to go on a trip there and Pasindu, who has prior experience in camping, was the first to jump in and suggest the idea of camping at HP. I put in that we walk the whole journey from Pattipola to HP and back. We gathered all information from “Lakdasun” and www.travelogueslanka.com

Kaluthara District is blessed with number of waterfalls. There are about 20 cascades situated in this area mainly located in Mathugama, Baduraliya and Athwalthota. These waterfalls are not much famous except few and we can’t find big waterfalls here. But some of them are so beautiful and having unusual way of flowing.

We started our journey around at 6.00 in the morning with the fear of torrential rain spoiling the weekend. It took around 1 & 1/2 hours to reach Dodangoda exit from Ja-ela. Mathugama to Agalawaththa, road condition was superb and I was so happy to be the driver….But from Agalawaththa-Baduraliya road was under constructions and was in bad shape. Again the road conditions were ok from Lathpadura to resort. It took close to 1hr to reach kukuleganga from Highway.