Year and Month March, 20113(26th, 27th) Number of Days Two Day Trip Crew 02 Accommodation Hatton Inn T.P. 0512222974,0779913924 Transport Bus, Three wheeler and by foot Activities Photography, sightseeing, hiking Weather Sunny day later had showers Route Hatton -> Thalawakale -> Agarapathana -> Dayagama -> Dayagama tea estate 6th division border -> Horton plains and [...]

As I have visited Horton plains from Ohiya, Pattipola and Bogawanthalawa routes, this time wanted to do it from Non parieal route. Previous day night we stayed at Belihuloya and arranged a three-wheeler to Ihalagalagama where trail starts.

December, my favorite time of the year. So as usual, I wanted to go see my beloved N’eliya no matter what the weather is like. All my friends warned me against heavy rain and landslides for no avail. As my friend Lasantha’s hometown is Welimada, I decided to go there with my friend Sanjeewa who will soon be leaving for US.

This time we went on camping at Maha Eliya and climb Thotupola Kanda. Originally we planned a hike to Kirigalpoththa but due to time constraints and weather conditions we climbed Thotupola

This was a very well planned trip as our friend Lasantha’s home town is Welimada. We decided to pay a visit to his place and visit many other places. This came as a blessing having toiled night and day at office for nearly 2 months. So Roshan, Buddhi and I got into “Podimenike” leaving for Badulla at 5.55 am from Fort on 07 July. Lasantha was to meet us at Welimada.

We Started from Colombo fort 6th Friday 8.00Pm train(night mail).There were 10 persons with our team. We reach Ohiya railway station around 4.30Am 7th Saturday and had breakfast from the shop beside the railway station. Around 6.00 we came to the hotel. At about 7.00 in the morning we have started out Hike from the hotel.

From the beginning of this year I had planned to do a hike along the Bambaraknda – Ohiya track. August was my target month and I was thinking of doing this on my own even if my friends would not join me (I thought they might not be interested in a long hike). But surprisingly they all agreed to join me and were quite interesting in this hike.

Everything was set for the journey and we took off from Moratuwa around 6 p.m., after a full day work at office. The idea was to travel somewhere close to Kalupahana and start journey in the next day early morning as we needed a full day to cover both off-road driving and hiking. We reserved ‘The Jungle Rest’ (just 500m away from the Belihuloya Rest House) which was situated away from the road as the name implies. The place was quite ok and affordable.

World’s End Lodge is situated in Lower Ohiya. The location is fantastic and the facilities are decent. This is my fourth visit to World’s End Lodge and I’ve found the facilities improving with each visit. This place is certainly not for someone looking for luxury accommodation but is a great place for anyone who enjoys nature.

It was a short Backpacking session [Travelled alone]. Left Colombo on the 23rd Dec [Friday] night and reached Pattipola on the 24th Dec at 04:30 hrs. Slept at the Pattipola train station till dawn and commenced my walk to Thotupola Kanda, 3rd highest peak in Sri Lanka, via Horton Plains at 07:10 hrs. Reached the summit and got back to the Pattipola Station by 11:46 hrs [18Kms by foot]. After a short break I started my railway trek to Ohiya from Pattipola at 12:00 hrs [06 Kms by foot]. Was able to arrive at the Ohiya station by 13:50 hrs and on my way I have walked through 04 railway tunnels including the 3rd longest Tunnel in Sri Lanka [Tunnel No.18]. Got to Badulla by train from Ohiya by 18:30 hrs [train was delayed a bit] and got into the train from Badulla on the same day and got back to Colombo by 06:00 hrs on the 25th Dec 2011

We started our journey from Hikkaduwa at about 4.30pm and reached to Kaduwela at about 7.30. We spent the night at our relation’s place. We left Kaduwela at 4.00am and headed along the low level road reached to Avissawella about 5.00. We could see the first rays of the day at Kithulgala

We were planning to start our trip at 12.00Noon from Colombo. Due to some unavoidable situations it was delayed for 2 hours and finally we left Colombo by 2.00PM. We took the low-level road and unfortunately there was heavy traffic at Orugodawaththa since construction of the flyover was taking place and we had to wait almost 1 hour there. After so many delays we were able to come to Rathnapura by 6.30 PM and still had a lot of things to be bought from Cargills. By the time we started the journey again we knew that we won’t have time to cook our dinner and decided to buy dinner from Balangoda town.