Corona outbreaks has opened new dimensions of travelling for me. I used to visit at some of the hotels which were out of reach earlier because of the cost factor. Monkey Mountain hike was done as a part of visit to Gal Oya Lodge situated at Bibile.

We almost completed 7 days of our trip. Its time to leave from Ampara District. We decided to visit Bibile. We leave from Inginiyagala around 7.30 a.m & we came to Bibile via Namal Oya.

Sheer drop of eastern edge of central hills-Lunugala (2465feet) creates this beautiful place.It is situated at Roeberry tea estate and descent is about 1250feet. The most immediate village at the base of this drop is called Dorabada; therefore people call it “Dorabada Pathalaya” (දොරබොද පාතාලය) as well.
In a clear day you can watch landmarks till eastern shore and peaks at knuckles range even. The margin between Badulla and Moneragala district also goes along the world’s end.

This was a journey I did more than a year ago and my focus was on some places close to Mahiyangana and Bibile – Medagama. On an overcast day I took a bus towards Padiyathalawa from Bibile and again took a bus towards Mahiyanganaya. Just before Wewatta temple there was a road to the left with Uva province tourism notice board directing towards Murungagala Archaeology site.

Mini world’s end of Elamanna is the best out of all four known worlds’ ends in SL for me and that’s why I visited the same place thrice within a period of one year. This time though I was lucky because there was no mist and I did enjoy the full view which I was craving for. On the previous two days I had hiked strenuously by visiting Udawadiya, Lunugala peak, Bambaragala pathana, Kohonawala villege and to add on to that I had to walk 18 more Km’s to achieve something I dreamt of.

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.

There are some places one must visit and Nilgala is one of those places. Finally after 1 ½ years been to Monaragala that day seemed to be closing in. I was determined to visit Nilgala during the Esela weekend and only needed few guys to accompany me but at last I had a huge crew. First of all my office staff was ever so willing to venture on and later to be joined by few of my Lakdasun friends. Though I was disappointed with the wild life department because of all the messed up bookings, I was not going to give up this time and decided to camp the first day at the park entrance.

Bibila is a town located at an altitude of 240 meters bordering the mountains of Badulla district. It is one of the richest towns in terms of nature and heritage of Monaragala district. First of all let me start from a waterfall called Nayakadura ella which is located 50 meters upstream from the second bridge one meets after Alawaththagoda on A5.

We planned the trip initially to the August school vacation but due to the National Elephant Senses which was on the way we had to reschedule the trip to September. All were enthusiastic on the trip and final number on for the trip was 10 with 3 teenagers, 2 youths and 5 adults. The campsite was booked in advanced and officers were helpful to provide us a campsite despite their strike. Cab service van was booked which was familiar due to the past experiences with the driver/owner of that van.

There was a hike to the Kahathaaththa Hela rock at Nilgala. During the time of King Dutugemunu, there had been a monastery on this rock. The ruins were to be seen. We also, saw the Nilgala aniket where the waters of Galoya gets transferred to help paddy cultivation. A few members in the group went bird watching from Kossapola Campsite one morning.

We left Colombo at around 4 pm on Friday, planning to stay overnight at the Wildlife Trust TREE centre at Randenigala. We left Kandy at around 7.30 pm after picking up a member of our group. It was a wet night and visibility was poor – interestingly the route tracked on my GPS (which has preloaded 1” topo maps of Sri Lanka) varied quite significantly from the roads marked on the map. We reached the barrier at the reservoir shortly before 10 pm – the road is closed to traffic at 10 pm, and reopened at 6 am, and reached the TREE centre soon afterwards.

We started from Colombo at 6.00 a.m. in the morning. Had morning Tea at Hingula and stopped for lunch at Loggal-oya. We reached Bulupitiya Junction [22km from Bibile town] around 3.00 p.m.
Few of us decided to walk [10km to the camp site from Bulupitiya Junction] watching birds and butterflies as older people and few others decided to go by the tractor. We reached the camp site by 6.00 p.m. We saw few birds and heard the “Painted Francolin” as well. Few Jumbos were there too close to the camp site.