ලංකා සිතියමේ මැද පිහිටා ඇති ලෙස දැවැන්ත වනාන්තර ප්‍රදේශයක් සලකුණු කොට ඇත. එය ඔබ අප දන්නා සමනල රක්ෂිතයයි. එලෙසම නැගෙනහිර කොටස හෝටර් නැත්ත වන පියසයි. බැලූ බැල්මට එකම වනරොදක් ලෙස පිහිටා ඇති මෙම ප්‍රදේශ දෙක තුළ පවතින්නේ එකිනෙකට වෙනස් තත්ත්වයන් වේ. සමනල රක්ෂිතය දැවැන්ත ශාක හා ජෛව විවිධත්ව​ෙයන් පිරි ප්‍රදේශයක් වන අතර හෝර්ටන්තැන්න ඊට හාත්පසින්ම වෙනස් ශාක සම්භවයක් හා කාලගුණික රටාවක් පිරි ප්‍රදේශයකි.

Popularly known Saptha Kanya / Seven Virgins Hills is also called Uda Lakshapana Gala. Few years ago it’s was a hard hike now seems to be a less strenuous journey due to clear foot path.

This is when Ana called and asked if I would like to join him for a hike. Well, this is what you call being lucky and without so much as a second thought I jumped in. Well what would you do if it turned out to be a journey which you had done twice before within the last year? I don’t think many would have been fancy to take on that offer but not me. I don’t mind visiting the same place over and over again because everytime it’s a different experience. After all, we eat the same thing again and again, do the same boring things day after day so why not see and visit the same place every now and then, I keep asking myself. So when he suggested to do the Kirigalpoththa Trail once again (for the third time within a year), I felt elated quite different from many others.

We left Mawanella around 11.30 am on 13th April and reached Kadugannawa Station and waited for the Badulla train to go to Nawalapitiya Station. The train was too late and arrived at 12.40 pm. The train, fully packed with passengers began its destination. Unfortunately the train stopped due to technical failures after passing GeliOya. So we got down from the train and crossed the paddy field to get on to the road.

After a long silence due to the busy work life; I decided to break the silence by sharing a different and a very rare experience with you all. This is not my experience, it’s my father’s. Thought of share that with our generation. Here onwards I’m writing his story.
Those days he was teaching at Batugedara Maha Vidyala, Rathnapura and was staying at a house nearby the school. As a practice they used to listen to morning news on SLBC at 6.00AM every day.

After passing Yatiyanthota we stopped at Ingiriyawatte to see the hanging bridge. According to villagers this is the longest hanging bridge of the country with a length of 360 feet. There was another hanging bridge between Kalugala junction and Bodiragala junction.

The road took us passing the Kehelgamu Oya which was in over flowing condition forming creamy white foams and running mischievously passing rocks. We had to stop for a pic. The sky looked gloomy and threatened to rain at any moment but we were not swayed by that.

After experiencing continuous rain for more than a month it was time for another waterfall hunt. The moment arrived when the rains ceased and on the 2nd of December my cousin joined me on the chase. We left delgoda at about 4am, by about 6am we were passing Peradeniya heading towards Nawalpitiya.

My kids school vacation is almost end and I was busy with my new job unable to take them for this holiday but luckily I was able to get some off days on the long weekend of Binara poya. After reading so many beautiful trip reports from Lakdasun I was forced by myself to take my kids out of our routine destinations (Nuwara Eliya or a Down south hotel) to show them the beauty of mother Lanka and to make them love with the nature.

Our purpose was to see the Laxapana and Aberdeen Falls and travel along the Balangoda Bagawanthalawa road. (It is one of the extremely scenic road in the country) .Several hydropower plants of the Kelani river can be easily accessed by this travel

We started our journey on 11th December around 5.00pm from Colombo. First day our destination was Laxapana Circuit Bungalow and we reached there by 11.00 pm with several stops in between; several security checkups were there since we were entering in to a high security zone and War was at peak during that time.

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