Udaya Dewi is the train travels between Colombo and Batticalo. This is my experience of rail walk of 70km between Maho to Habarana.

Sri Lankan rail tracks run in different environmental locations of the country where you can have different experiences with rail walk. Rail hike along central part gives maximum beauty of the country and costal rail walk is totally different from it. We thought of doing a rail walk in dry zone mainly rail tracks runs through forests.

Medirigiriya (මැදිරිගිරිය) is located closer to Polonnaruwa and it has few tourist attractions. When you visit at Polonnaruwa you can pay a visit at Medirigiriya as well.

Ritigala the giant of ancient capital Anuradhapura stands tall with an altitude of 766m and is the best view point of north central Sri Lanka. Ritigala is an important asset to us in terms of history, folklore and bio diversity. It is the birth place of Malwatu oya and during the North – East monsoons it receives heavy showers more than any other place in the region. Most of the time there is a veil of mist covering its summit.

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 🙂 )