සමනළ වන මැද නටබුන් සොයා ගිය අපි මීළඟට ගියේ තවත් අපූරු ස්ථානයකට. ඒක කන්දක්. මහ කළු ගල් පර්වතයකින් හෙබි විශාල කන්දක් වන එය සමනළ කන්දට පෙනෙන්නේ තවත් කන්දක් සමගින් හාවී කඳු වැටියක් ලෙසයි. සමනළ කන්ද යනු ශ්‍රී ලංකාව ලෝකයට ගෙන ගිය සලකුණයි. මන්ද අතීතයේ අරාබි මුහුද හා ඉන්දියන් සාගරයේ යාත්‍රිකයන් මෙම අරුම පුදුම කන්ද දැක අප සශ්‍රීක ගොඩබිමට ගොඩවැදුණු බව නොරහසකි. අද අප සමනළ අඩවියේ හුදෙකලා වූ කන්දක් සොයා ගෙන ගියේ අතීතාවර්ජනයක්ද සමගිනි.

Sri Pada season begins with a procession to carry Sadhathuka Karanduwa, idol of God Saman and jewelries from Pelmadulla to Sri Pada Maluwa. After six months these sacred items are carried back to Pelmadulla by procession. This is my experience of last day at Sri Pada.

Kunudiya Parwathaya (1580m) is a unique shape mountain situated at Peak Wilderness, closer to Kuruwita trail. This is our journey to Kunudiya Parwathaya in one day.

Finally I managed to convince myself and the crew that 5 and 6 of Sep are the best option remaining for us. I simply couldn’t afford to keep it postponing any further and decided to take our chances with the constantly changing weather conditions. I kept looking up the AccuWeather, Weather Channel and FallingRain for weather updates. Unfortunately our own Met Department is a symbolic white elephant and not as reliable or dependable as we would like it to be so we’ve no choice but to rely on alternatives such as the above. The rain patterns have shot to hell especially during the last couple of years probably due to the global warming and our irresponsible actions towards the earth. This has made it extremely difficult for farmers, fishermen and those who depend on the regular patterns of the climate.

Even the seasoned farmers, villagers or fishermen find it difficult to predict the weather conditions as a result. Usually you can trust those villagers’ expertise better than the state of the art equipment of the US Met Department but not anymore so we resorted to these web-based weather forecasts. It didn’t look good, not at all as it kept forecasting thunderstorms and heavy rains throughout. I was hoping against the hope for a clear window to make it safely to the summit. Anyhow, we were fully committed and there was no turning back. In the back of my mind there was this feeling of security that if your intentions are good and your behavior is acceptable, you’re going to be ok, especially at the Sri Pada. It’s said in the Buddhism that those who live by the Dhamma will be protected by the Dhamma itself. So we had faith we’d face no problems and if there was any, those powers that protect the area will take care of us.

It is November the month before the official Sri pada season and I just couldn’t resist not visiting Adams peak before the crowds took over. I and Thinu were wondering whether to go to Sinharaja or Adams peak and suddenly the weather seem to be settling off so we decided to do an off season hike. Early morning we arrived at Kuruwita where we had breakfast and took the first bus (6.10am) to Erathna and from there took a trishaw to Adawi kanda (there is a bus to Adavi kanda at 7.45am). Sharp at 7 we started the hike and off we went through the overgrown mana section. The humid environment started to cause few problems within no time but we proceeded continuously.

Sri Pada(ශ්රීd පාද) /Adam’s peak one of my favorites places in Sri Lanka. After having seven visits to Sri Pada I wanted to do it in a combination of trails during off season. I selected Kuruwita-Erathna trail for climbing up and Rajamale-Sandagalathanna (සදගල තැන්න) route for getting down.