For a number of years my father has been mentioning the name ‘Nuwaragala’ and had told me that we should climb it one day. On a Thursday night, as I was about to go to bed he ordered me to make ready my backpack before I sleep and said that we would be going to Ampara the following day. I knew that it was going to be a tiring weekend.

On Friday afternoon, my father picked me up after school and we rushed back home. After having a quick lunch we raced to the bus stand and took a bus to Wellawaya. From there, it was another bus to Monaragala. Then, one more bus to Siyambalaanduwa. As it was dark and there were no buses we were forced to hire a three wheeler which took us to Ampara. My father’s friend picked us up from the town and took us to his place.

On the following day we went to a farm belonging to the Civil Defence Force in Akuloba.

The harvested ‘Bada-Iringu’ being dried

An uncle of the Civil Defence Force agreed to show us the way to Nuwaragala.

We walked for about 3 km through open ground, patches of mana and through a few very small forest patches to reached the base of Nuwaragala.

On my way

At the base we were shown what remained of a retaining wall made of stones built during ancient times.

Ancient engineering

The climb to the top was along a path that zig zaged on the side of rock. The path was overgrown with mana in many places.

“Hands Up!”

When we reached the top there was a large man made pound.

Roof top

75’ x 55’

Perfect

Later, we walked to the edge and climbed down a little bit on the side of the rock to see a large cave. In the cave we found elephant drug. Also, we saw that people who had visited the cave before us had written their names on the inner walls.

Room with a view

1957………….. 1967…………

At the cave we ate the roti we had taken and also rested for some time. The view from the cave was very beautiful.

The view

Later, we climbed down the rock along the same path. While coming down we spotted cut marks on the wall.

Sigiriya ?

After we reached the base of the rock, we met an interesting person. My father’s friend called him a “Local Cow Boy” because he was looking after about 250 buffaloes. When talking to him we found that he had come to Nuwaragala after walking for 5 days from Kudaoya in Thanamalwila along with his buffaloes.

Cow Boy + Traveler

We walked back to the farm. Thanked the uncle who showed us the way and left the farm hoping to one day spend a night camping on top of Nuwaragala.

We returned home the next day. This time it was just one bus from Ampara to Bandarawela.