Wilpaththu NP (විල්පත්තු ජාතික වන උද‍යානය) is the largest (131, 693ha) and oldest national park in Sri Lanka. It is famous for visiting Leopards and wild bears. Special feature of Wilpaththu NP is having water filled natural lakes-Willus.

This is a quick report with few tips to unseasoned travellers to Wilpattu National Park. 15th Friday was a holiday and some of our friends gathered as usual in the afternoon and the chat turned in to a trip planning session and was thinking of going to Wilpattu early next morning with the intention of being at the entrance by 6 AM. One of the guys wanted to leave on the same day and the discussion turned in to leaving in the evening on the same day.

So this was my second visit (previous visit) to Jaffna this year and I would re visit this lovely land at any given time because there is so much to see. This time my main objectives were to visit two populated islands in Jaffna and also to show around my wife the beauty I experienced during my previous visits. On the way to Jaffna we did stop at Iranamadu to have some tea. We reached Jaffna at around 9am and refreshed ourselves before exploring the peninsula.

Back in October of 2011 I had this bright idea of cycling to Jaffna. The easiest way of doing this was to travel on the A9, but then again that would be so boring and the whole point of riding to Jaffna was not complete the journey from point A to point B but to enjoy journey and experience the solitude and the care free way of travel. The only road that meets my expectations is the Costal road; this road hugs the western coast line of Sri lank all the way to Jaffna!!

There were an endless number of sea gulls crashing like a stone and catching fish and at times floating on the water with the waves like ducks. We got fooled at first they were real ducks. The average speed of the ferry was about 8-10km an hour. It recorded a highest speed of around 20km according to Sheham’s GPS. Time wore on and all of a sudden Nissanka showed us a distant communications tower which was at BG Navy Camp. Without even knowing we had moved from Dutch Bay to Portugal Bay but for me it was the same lagoon or rather the sea. However the water looks more clean and clear than it was close to the mainland. We could clearly see the ocean floor and the depth can’t have been more than 10ft. The water looked a gorgeous emerald green too.

After a tiring day, the water felt great on our body but Wumi kept sniffing it feeling a bit doubtful. We stayed in about an hour and the sun was ready to go down. Shantha treated us with a cup of ripe Maa Dan (berries) and they were delicious. Having changed into some comfy shorts, we decided to take a short walk into the jungle and Sunimal advised not to venture deep into the jungle as elephants are very common there.

We, two groups on two vehicles, met at a road side night shop near Negombo at around 3.45 am. Six of us were on Prasanna’s Mitsubishi jeep, started from Nugegoda and went to Negombo while Theshantha started from Kiribathgoda, picked up 3 others and came to Negombo in his Toyota Double cab. We had a tea there and set off towards Puttalam

It has been almost a year since visiting Mannar and I was tempting to go there again, especially in the middle of the migration season. I have called Mr. Laurance, the owner of Four Tees Guest Inn, many times since the season begun, but couldn’t go there due to some concerns. This time I was very determined to go there and ask my friends to join me from about month a go.