We booked the campsite early and arranged everything for 3 nights. Drive up to kumana was soo long and tiring. We left Gampaha around 11.30 in the night. Stopped several times and reached Arugambay around 8.30 am. Spent around 2 hours in the beach and went to Panama to meet our jeep guy, Sena. He is the only Sinhala guy operating in the area.

කැබලිත්ත සියඹලාව දේවාලය හාස්කම් වලින් පිරුණු ස්ථානයක් ලෙස බොහෝ දෙනාගේ පිළිගැනීමයි. පුරාවෘත්තයන්ට හා ජනප්රවවාදයට අනුව ඉන්දියාවේ සිට පැමිණි ස්කන්ධ කුමාර හෙවත්, කතරගම දෙවියන් ලංකාවේ නතර වීමට තීරණය කල බැවින්, එතුමන් පැම්ණි රන් ඔරුව ගල් කල බවත්, එම ස්ථානය රන් ඔරුගල නමින් හඳුන්වන බවත් සඳහන් වේ.

පිළියන්දලින් රාත්රී 11 ට පමන පිටත්වූ අප උදෑසන 9 පමණ වන විට පොතුවිල් මුහුදු මහා විහාරයට ලඟා වුනෙමු. කුමන පිවිසුමට ලඟාවන විට දහවල් 12 පමණ විය. එතැනින් දිවා ආහාරය ගත් අප අපේ පළමු දින නවාතැන වූ කුඹුක්කන් ඔය හෙරලිගස් ආර බලා පිටත් වුනෙමු. කුමන පිවිසුමෙන් ඇතුල්වූ අප බාගුර පිටිය, කුමන විල්ලුව, මඩමතොට පසු කරමින් 23 පමණ දුර ගෙවා හෙරලිගස් ආරට ලඟා වුනෙමු.

This year was the best period for me to do the well-known “Paada Yathra” because I currently reside in Moneragala. Actually even before I thought of walking with the pilgrims this year my friends did ask me to join them and the answer was YES SURE (with a big smile). This was something I wanted to do for some time but free time was the major problem. Thanks to the long discussions in lakdasun and talking hours with people who had experienced this walk first hand, we were ready to walk the distance with the pilgrims and experience something that is worth a million.

In 2010 couple of Lakdasun members lead by Priyanjan participated in Pada Yatra. As usual the resulting discussions in the forum provided every little bit of information one would need regarding the cultural event as well as the walk. In 2011 Priyanjan planned his North to South excursion along the full Pada Yatra route all the way from Jaffna. I couldn’t have got a better opprtunity to do this walk than joining Priyanjan at Okanda to do the last stretch!

The story is that the God Kataragama had met his future wife Walli amma on a rainy day near a tamarind tree at this place which is also called Siyambalawa devalaya (මහ සියඹලාව දේවාලය).We were asked to be refrained from consuming all kinds of meat and alcohol for one week before the date and we bought fruits and other stuff which are needed for the pujawa (පූජාව) the day before.Mohan been a veteran organized a couple of cooks with all the dry rations needed.

If I explain to you the very little I know about the devalaya, this place is considered very sacred by devotees of God Katharagama . They believe that the God’s present staying place is the ‘Maha Siyambalawa Devalaya’ (Kebaliththa). I’m too believe that without any doubt. There are so many ‘Haskam’ which I cannot explain here. People at Kotiyagala respect this place very strongly and they are even scared to deal with this place. So I listened to their word and prepared my self as per the customs which they told that we have to follow.

We started after dinner, from Maharagama around 10.00 pm and reached Udawalawa Dam by 2.00 am. The barrier was closed. However after checking our credentials, they allowed us to pass through with a warning about the bad road condition. Closing the Dam at 10.00 pm seems to be a formality now.The road condition from Udawalawa to Thanamalwila was really bad. It was under construction and it took nearly 2 hours to pass that stretch. Our 5th member was to join us at Okkampitiya. We reached Buttala by early morning and reached his home for breakfast.

With the reopening of the Kumana national park early this year it had been on our priority list for quite some time and finally we managed to make that dream come true. The camp sites were booked more than three months in advance as there is no other accommodation south of Arugam Bay. Wildlife department is trying to rebuild the destroyed circuit bungalows and hopefully we will get to use them before long.

We started from Colombo around 9PM on Thursday. We bought all the provisions needed from Cargills, Maharagama. We didn’t have a gas cooker or a cylinder as my friend who own those had given them to one of his friends. We tried to buy one for our selves but that too did not work out as all the 2.5Kg tanks were sold out at Laughs. So we decide to cook using firewood. After collecting everyone, it was around 12 PM when we left Colombo, and we managed to pass Lahugala by around 5.30 AM. Rising sun had made some wonderful scenery.

My parents told me that we were going to spend three nights camping in Kumana. I had never been there before but had seen a lot of pictures of Kumana taken by my father who had been there several times during the past few months.
This was also going to be my first camping trip in a National Park.