Kaudulla national park probably is the best location to watch elephants in Sri Lanka if you are a big fan. But the exposure given is very much less in my opinion comparing to other national parks.

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.

We left from Pasikuda around 11.30 a.m. and took A11 road towards Polonnaruwa. From Polonnaruwa we preceded to Minneriya & about 2 km after passing “Gunners Club”, we took the road in to right that leads to Kaudulla NP entrance & reached there at 2 p.m. & started to see the Museum established at the park entrance until our safari jeeps come from Minneriya NP

This lodge is an isolated, quiet very simple place and it is far away from human habitat. It’s surrounded by huge trees and gives the real feeling of a forest. You will not be disturbed as there are no TV or telephones, except the hassle of your mobile phone. There are swings and outdoor showers. This is an ideal place for a relaxing holiday.

We started at sharp 3 in the morning as our tour iternery was packed with places to visit. And took the Colombo- Puttalam road which was quite clear at that time and reached Puttalam at 4.45 and had breakfast at a known place ( One of my friend’s old family friends). It was a very tasty meal and afterwards left for Wilpattu and went inside around 7am.

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 🙂 )

Although it was a 3 day trip arranged by ‘Lakdasun’, for me it was much more than that as we were invited to stay at ‘Back of Beyond – DEHI GAHA ELA’ in Dambulla, a couple of days more by Uncle Yohan.
I had seen photographs of this place and I knew it was going to be a fantastic holiday. I was so excited about it.