We( 5 of us) started at 2.15 am on the 4th of November from Colombo and reached Yala office at 5.45 am. We were joined by 5 others who had come the previous day from Kandy and had stayed in Thissa.The group consisted of 3 families and 2 others who opted to leave the families behind. Buthuwa was booked for the 1st day and Ondaatje for the 2 nd night.Our tracker as usual was Shalika( t/p: 0776808666 )and we went in at 6.10 as the office opens at 6 these days.

The trip wasn’t planned extensively but was well executed at the end. The trains were booked from the Fort railway station just that morning. Third class sleeper-rest was our choice (quite economical) and due to the fact that it was a Monday evening of a non-vacation time we were able to book the train on the same day. We were able to get contact details of a cab to do the day traveling in Nuwara-Eliya. Pello Resort was booked by one of our group mates.

Ampara had been in the ‘to do’ list for far too long. Untidy circles and notes scribbled in red permanent ink makes reading my maps of the Ampara area quite a difficult task. There is such a lot to see and I had not seen any of it. Was waiting for a chance to scoot off to Ampara.

We were planning to start our trip at 12.00Noon from Colombo. Due to some unavoidable situations it was delayed for 2 hours and finally we left Colombo by 2.00PM. We took the low-level road and unfortunately there was heavy traffic at Orugodawaththa since construction of the flyover was taking place and we had to wait almost 1 hour there. After so many delays we were able to come to Rathnapura by 6.30 PM and still had a lot of things to be bought from Cargills. By the time we started the journey again we knew that we won’t have time to cook our dinner and decided to buy dinner from Balangoda town.

We left Colombo at about 11.30am on 10th October 2011 and reached Kantale at about 4.30 pm.Up to Habarana it was normal traffic but beyond few vehicles and broad wide carpet road. We were cruising at 110KMPH, but slowed down close to Kantale as traffic cops were in the road with speed check gun.

I was away from Sinharaja for too long……. It had been more than a year since the previous visit. Its a place which you can’t stay away from for long so I had to some how squeeze a two day trip in July. It was going to be Thihela’s first visit to Sinharaja as well. We left Moratuwa around 8.00 in the morning. With no stops, we straigt away drove to the Blue magpie lodge. We reached there just passed noon.

We started our journey at about 9 pm from Colombo with five members and headed directly to kurunegala to accompany with the other two. We spend the night at kurunegala and headed towards puttalm early morning, from this point onwards our crew was 7 in Hilux Vigo cab and a motor car. Road condition is excellent we only spend 45 minutes to travel 87 Kms. At puttalam we had our breakfast and drive towards Willpattu on A12 Puttalam Anuradhapura road.

Before the Sun wake up, we were busy in examination on 1:50,000 maps, to ascertain how & why we loss our goal during the last exploration. After such a hard trekking (not less than 13+3 =16km on foot) in the previous day, the crew was still aggressive to re-do the hike & not known the meaning of giving up. Having an idea on the road (Jeep track) network at the tea estates in and around Namunukula range, we decided to follow the path of the previous day as much as possible with our jeep & reach the village where we suspended our exploration last day.

Existence of nine peaks was caused to name the range as Namunu- Kula. It was the 12th highest mountain in SL. The highest peak out of 9 was climbed by many hikers each year; but from Spring Valley side which was considered as the formal path. Our ambition was to explore the whole 9 peaks from Passara side which was not popular trail and even done by nobody in popular travel forums.

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.

After spending some time at the Adisham we hit the road again towards Ohiya. Road was not in the best condition, so it took us some time. After the Ohiya Railway station the road condition was good and started to be scenic. It was around 5.30 pm when we reached the turnoff to the Hill Safari’s gravel road. We were mesmerized by the stunning view and simply forgot to proceed towards the Hill safari.

As soon as we entered the 2 started taking us to most of the rocky places famous for LEOPARDS and at 6.10 we came across this family at Rukwila and the pictures will tell the story. It was amazing to watch and after that we had the luck to see 2 more during the day : one on a rock and another on a tree.It was a treat to watch and one of the best movements in wild life encounters .