I had already walked from Naththandiya to Puttalam along the railways and I wanted to extend the hike northwards till the last passenger station which was Periyanaga villu.
Exhausting rail hike to Periya Naga Villu from Puttalam | |
I had already walked from Naththandiya to Puttalam along the railways and I wanted to extend the hike northwards till the last passenger station which was Periyanaga villu. |
Mundalam to Puttalam Rail hike | |
After successfully completing the Chilaw to Mundalama stretch I wanted to do the rest and end the hike at Puttalam. |
Memories of Wilpattu | |
We decided to do this trip in two days and planned to stay the first day night in a small hotel near Wilpattu junction and to start the safari following day early morning. So on first day we started our journey from Gampaha at around 2 p.m. and reached Puttalam at about 5 p.m. where we stopped near the lagoon for a break. |
Memoirs of Occupied Ceylon and Marooned in a Fishing Village… | |
There were an endless number of sea gulls crashing like a stone and catching fish and at times floating on the water with the waves like ducks. We got fooled at first they were real ducks. The average speed of the ferry was about 8-10km an hour. It recorded a highest speed of around 20km according to Sheham’s GPS. Time wore on and all of a sudden Nissanka showed us a distant communications tower which was at BG Navy Camp. Without even knowing we had moved from Dutch Bay to Portugal Bay but for me it was the same lagoon or rather the sea. However the water looks more clean and clear than it was close to the mainland. We could clearly see the ocean floor and the depth can’t have been more than 10ft. The water looked a gorgeous emerald green too. |
Dreaming at the Kala Oya Estuary Hugging the Nature – Gange Wadiya | |
After a tiring day, the water felt great on our body but Wumi kept sniffing it feeling a bit doubtful. We stayed in about an hour and the sun was ready to go down. Shantha treated us with a cup of ripe Maa Dan (berries) and they were delicious. Having changed into some comfy shorts, we decided to take a short walk into the jungle and Sunimal advised not to venture deep into the jungle as elephants are very common there. |
Wilandagoda: The Saliya – Asokamala Hideaway | |
This September I got an opportunity to visit Wilandagoda aranya and archeological site where King Dutugemunu’s son, Prince Saliya is believed to have run away to, when he abdicated the throne in order to wed the low-caste, Asokamala. |
Kalpitiya Dutch Fort and Thonigala | |
We started around 4.00 am from Maharagama. It was raining cats and dogs and motoring was virtually difficult. By the time we reached the extended arm of the island, it was morning and the weather was not that promising. However we were able to go to coal power plant of Norochcholei and got down in front. |
Huffing & Puffing…… from East to West – Kandhakkuli, here we come from East | |
Remaining distance to Kandhakuli from our unplanned night park yesterday was 80km. Even though 80km was a bit of stretch to cycle in a single day, we decided that there is no point in breaking the journey for another day. So we were determined to do the full stretch in a day. |
Monadnocks and History merged together in Wayamba | |
I visited Tonigala inscription first and it is very close to the main road. This is said to be the longest inscription in Sri Lannka and there are two of them. I had to re visit the place to see the second inscription on another day 🙂 The inscriptions are on a rocky mountain which is near by a lake. I also noted my next destination (Paramakanda) from the 2nd inscription site. |
A Three Day Trip to Anuradapura, Polonnaruwa, Minneriya National Park,Sigiriya | |
We started our trip from Colombo at 4.30 am and we came puttulum at about 7 am and we visited wind mill developing site at Puttulum lagoon. After that we started our journey again through Auradapura and we had our breakfast at beautiful place. We stay at Nuwarawewa rest house. It is reasonable and good accommodation option at Anuradapura. Second day we went to Polonnaruwa through habarana.We stay at Girithale Hotel It is little bit Expensive but you couldn’t get that nature experience any were. |
Paramakanda – Unexpected example of how ancient our land really is! | |
We were due to travel on the Kurunagala – Puttlam road with some time to spare. So I looked up a couple of books for some diversions and came up with two interesting sounding places – Tonigala Inscription and Paramakanda Viharaya – in සිරි ලක අැසු දුටු තැන්. We never made it to Tonigala (one of the largest inscriptions in SL) as we were so taken up with what we found in Paramakanda. Turn off a few km past Anamaduwa by the sign board for Paramakanda Purana Viharaya. Driving through very flat land you suddenly see this huge rock outcrop ahead. |
The road to Sethawadiya, Kalpitiya and dolphins | |
A week end trip to Kalpitiya was planned as a family vacation. The main attraction was the dolphins but some detours to see interesting sites on the way were also in the itinerary. |