ගල් කුට්ටියක මානව මුහුණක් නෙළීමට ගත් ලාංකේය උත්සාහය මීට වසර ගණනකට පෙර දිවයයි. ගල්පිටියාය පුද්ගලික වතු සමාගමේ උඩවේරිය දෙසට එනම් උතුරු – ඊසාන මායිමේ පිහිටි ගලපිටිගල නම් ගල් කුට්ටිය වන සංරක්‍ෂණ දෙපාර්තමේන්තුවට අයත් වස්තුවකි. දේශීය විදේශීය සංචාරකයන්ගේ අවධානය තවමත් යොමුව නැති මෙම ස්ථානය පුරාවිද්‍යාත්මක බවින් වැදගත් ස්ථානයක් ලෙස ගවේෂණය කළේ ආචාර්ය රාජ් සෝමදේව මහතා විසිනි.

Hello everyone! Hope you’re all well and getting geared up for the up-coming festive season. Well, all the glamour of the festive season would’ve been over by the time you read this article. However, after our previous hike based at Kande Ela, there was a transitional period, very much like the “Nonagathaya” aka inauspicious time during April New Year. I was going mad with nowhere to go and was ready to walk up a wall when finally Hasi came into my rescue and we managed to do a small Waterfall Hunt in Colombo.

If it wasn’t for that, I’d’ve had to be admitted to a sanatorium. Even after that, there was a long wait before our scheduled journey to the Koslanda, Bandarawela and Demodara. The constant rains made me think of those gorgeous cascades falling majestically having been fed by the increased volume of water but I was stuck at home with no means to go see them. However, we planned to visit a few of them during our journey, most notably the Upper Diyaluma Falls or according to Dr. Eberhard Kautzsch who wrote the book “A Guide to the Waterfalls of Sri Lanka”, this could even be the Kudalu Ella.

Time to solve a mystery and this time it was a success. Uma oya falls was another mysterious fall marked on Sri Lanka road map just like Galagama falls. Somehow with the help of Priyanjan I did locate it on Google earth and paying a visit was the next step. I have been loitering around Badulla for some time now and on two other occasions I did cover up few places around Badulla, Bandarawela & Wiyaluwa.

Year and Month 2015 March 16th Number of Days One Day Crew 02-Nirosh and Niroshan Accommodation Uma Guest House-Uwa Thanna (Previous day night) Transport By bus and then climbing Activities Mountain climbing and Photography Weather Excellent Route Kalupahana( කලුපහන ) -> Beragala (බෙරගල) -> Back to Colombo Tips, Notes and Special remark Start the journey […]

I grew up in Haldummulla. I lived 20 years there. It is shame to say 🙂 I never heard about Adarakanda, Havagala, wangedigala beside lakdasun. Thanx again to lakdasun.org and members. When I reading the Camping, Hiking reports I wanted go for camping, so I thought ADARAKANDA range will be good for me as a beginner. I planned to go on December 2014 but it didn’t work out because of bad weather. Then I planned to go on February 2015. My brother and Prabath joined with me.

We departed from Colombo early morning and reached Beragala around 9am. When we got down at Beragala there was a bus waiting for Wellawaya. Latter part of A4 road from Beragala to Wellawaya was not in good condition. From Koslanda we got a trishaw to first visit at Meeriyabadda (මීරියබැද්ද) Land slide site and then Diyaluma waterfall.

I wanted to start my trip calendar of 2015 with some fresh waterfalls hunting following heavy rains of end of 2014. My first visit to Bambarakanda happened in 2010 and this is after 5 years. Bambarakanda area doesn’t have much rain during last two weeks. But feeding lands of these waterfalls-Hortain plains had such heavy rain. Therefore waterfalls showed their full phase in our visit.

hen we were (Ashan, Sanketha and Me) climbing Pettigala I pointed my finger to a far end and asked Ashan whether it’s Horton plains. He replied me with a smile “Hariya Nogiya Thenna “. Surprised???? Yes for more than 30 years of my life I had never been to Horton Plains. So I was desperately needed to do HP ASAP and was in a hunger to do many trails within a short period. Within 3 days we ( Me and my friend Thenuka ) were able to cover five paths/trails of Horton Plains

So without even informing Mrs.Mayakaduwa I started my journey towards Bambarakanda. I left home around 4.30 and came to Kaduwela by a Three-wheeler and got in to a Badulla CTB Bus. Neither bus nor me in a hurry so we slowly reached Kalupahana(just before the 172nd Mile post) around 10.30am(It stopped for breakfast at Pelmadulla).Then I took a TukTuk and reached the Bambarakanda rest around 11.00 am.

The primary purpose of this trip was to visit two different kinds of hydropower projects in Sri Lanka, to see the sites, equipment, mechanisms, etc. and learn about them. Enjoyed some other attractions on the way too. We got this opportunity as one of our friends is an engineer attached to Samanalawewa Hydroelectric power plant.

The first hike of the day was to Lanka Ella falls. While at first we were contemplating skipping this, Mrs. Mayakaduwa strongly recommended that we do this hike and it’s a decision that we did not regret. The hike at first began through a pine forest and this was the trickiest part since the ground was very slippery.

After spending some time at the Adisham we hit the road again towards Ohiya. Road was not in the best condition, so it took us some time. After the Ohiya Railway station the road condition was good and started to be scenic. It was around 5.30 pm when we reached the turnoff to the Hill Safari’s gravel road. We were mesmerized by the stunning view and simply forgot to proceed towards the Hill safari.