This year annual office trip was planned to Sigiriya in November. Luckily it was the season for ballooning. When I mentioned the possibility of hot air ballooning to the trip organizers they managed to negotiate a bulk discount of 50% with one of the operator called Air Magic. It was still expensive but we thought “worth doing” at LKR 9000 per person!

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 our journey from Hikkaduwa at about 4.30pm and reached to Kaduwela at about 7.30. We spent the night at our relation’s place. We left Kaduwela at 4.00am and headed along the low level road reached to Avissawella about 5.00. We could see the first rays of the day at Kithulgala

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.

When the Sun emitted his first rays of the day; it was captivated scenery of a group of elders in white; walking along the narrow road lay on the dame of a village tank. It was the first full moon day of the year (Duruthu poya day). Those devotees were moving towards the village temple located at the far end of the reservoir. Kathnoruwa, the village I had been; was another live example for the ancient concept of Wewayi-Dagabayi Gamayi-Pansalayi (the relationship between tank, pagoda, village (people) & the temple)

We organized this trip during our university vacation. We started our journey from Kandy to Matale by morning 7:10 train and arrived Matale at 8:30 a.m. All the crew members gathered at Matale town. After buying some necessary food items at Matale we hired a van to go to Riversturn. On the way to Riversturn we visited Bambarakiri Ella which was located about 1-2 km from Rattota. It was a short and easy path about 100m to the falls from the main road.

Leaving park office we drove along the Yala main road to paranaganthota (a.k.a Parana Thotupola) where we crossed Menik River and entered Block 2. Our camp site was “Nuga Sevana”, one of the newer camp sites established on the bank of the river. It was only a couple hundred meters away from Paranaganthota (පරන ගං තොට).

The first hike of the day was to Lanka Ella falls. While at first we were contemplating skipping this, Mrs. Mayakaduwa strongly recommended that we do this hike and it’s a decision that we did not regret. The hike at first began through a pine forest and this was the trickiest part since the ground was very slippery.

We started at 5 am and reached Sinharaja via Mathugama/ Kalawana (Kudawa Entrance) at 7am. Unfortunately we had to park the vehicle 1 km before the ticket office at the regional forest office as a bridge was under construction.The climb to the park entrance was steep and by 7.30 we were inside with the tracker Somapala( 045 7210845)

My very first visit to Yala was in July 2010. “Armed” with my new Canon 100-400 we headed there with the hope of capturing a good shot or two of the elusive Sri Lankan Leopard. But much, much to our dismay, even after two rounds, we failed to catch even a glimpse of a Leopard! Dusty, tired and so disappointed, we headed back to Colombo.

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.