අතීතයේ හෝර්ටන් තැන්න සහ සමනල රක්ෂිතය කිසිදු වෙන්විමකට ලක්නොවුණු එක යායට පිහිටි වන පියසක් වූ අතර එහි අලින් බොහොමයක් වාසය කල බව නොරහසකි. නමුත් සුදු ජාතිකයන්ගේ හුදු විනෝදය පිණිස හෝර්ටන් තැන්න සහ සමනල වන පෙතේ විසූ දහස් ගණන් අලි ඇතුන් මරණයට පත් වුනි. එසේම උඩවලව ප්‍රදේශයෙන් කොස්ලන්ද හල්දුම්මුල්ල හරහා වන පෙතට සංක්‍රමණය වූ අලින්ගේ ප්‍රමාණය සීමා වූ අතර වර්තමානය වනවිට හෝර්ටන් තැන්න අලින්ගෙන් ශුන්‍ය ඉසව්වක් බවට පත් විය. නමුත් සමන් දෙවි අඩවියට ඉතා සීමිත අලින් පිරිසක් කොටු වූ අතර උන් සියල්ල අඩවි වනපෙතේ කිසිදු ගැටළුවක් නොමැතිව මේ වනවිට ජිවත් වේ. මෙම අලි ගහණයද ලංකාවේ ජිවත් වන සාමාන්‍ය අලි විශේෂයම වන බව සඳහන් කල යුතුමය. මේ එම අලි කිහිපදෙනේක්ව විවිධ පුද්ගලයන් විසින් කැමරාවට හසු කරගත් දර්ශණ කිහිපයක්.

This was the first official trip I had after joining. This was to Habarana Village by Cinnamon for 3 days and we have enjoyed a lot and I and two of my friends had a small adventure on massive Habarana lake as it was fully dried. We walk around the lake and crossed it and again walked for nearly 2Km on the river to explore the atmosphere to get an understanding of the status of a dried lake.

Heagasulla mountain is  a very beautiful destination but it is more risky than we expected. This is the forest called VRR Forest Reserve (Victoria-Randenigala-Rantambe). We had our first visit to VRR Reserve for the Galpadihela and Kosgolla mountain hike on October 2017. Before that we reached to the Golumale which is at the border of VRR Forest reserve.

We stopped at Wahalkada in Warakapola for breakfast. This turned out to be an excellent one. They serve buffet (a bit expensive – but once in a while on a day like this, it’s worth going for something like that) breakfast with a wide range of meals such as Egg Hoppers, String Hoppers, Rice and Curry, Rotii, etc… However, they serve Kenda which was one of the very best I’ve ever had.

We left for Kaudulla national park for a Elephant watching safari and reached the park around 3.00. The park entrance was well maintained and there were some peddle boats which the visitors can hire and have a ride in the lake. But unfortunately we had no time. Then we started our safari. The driver took us straight to a place where he was informed that there was a number of elephants on that day. That was a herd of elephants with about 100-120 elephants. That was a stunning view. We enjoyed those 2 hours of our lives to the max

After much planning and anticipation we left Kandy at 8.00 am on 30th October 2010. We had our breakfast of bread, pol sambol and Srinath’s mom’s milk rice (yum yum) just past Palapathwela under a big roadside tree. We proceeded to Dumbulla while munching boiled bada iringu on the way. We bought all our provisions from the Dambulla Cargill’s Foodcity. Fully equipped, we left Dambulla and headed straight to Galkadawala. We reached the lodge by 11.30 am. We were greeted by Kariyawasam, the friendly caretaker. We were stunned by the serene environment and the simple beauty of the lodge.

The trip was planned mainly to get away from all the stresses of our usual schedules. We wanted to visit Ritigala as most of us had not been there and Galkadawala was selected as it came highly recommended by one my friends. It was also perfect for the activities we had in mind – visit Ritigala, see the Gathering at Minneriya, photography and to relax. There was no TV, no telephone and that was just perfect for us (except for those who couldn’t bear to be away from their mobiles 🙂 )

Thusitha asked me to park the vehicle at a suitable place for the brake-fast, having observing my eyes were locating the face (dial) of the wrist watch. We were going on a trip with Thusith’s family; since it was the August vacation for kids. In the next moment we were under a tree near the construction site of proposed Zoo at Pinnawala. At that point; we had almost reached the first travel location of the journey, the elephant orphanage at Pinnawala.