Taking time off to relax saw us heading deep down south a few weeks ago. Our destination was Sella Kataragama where SLAF has chalets for its officers. Travelling was easy as we took E1 to Matara. The drive was a breeze! A short stop at Devundra was all what we needed.

රුහුණු කතරගම දෙවියන්ගේ පිහිට ප්රාaර්ථනා කරගැනීමට කතරගම දේවාලයට එන බැතිමතුන් කතරගම දෙවියන් පිදීම සඳහා යන තවත් අනුහස් ඇති ස්ථානයක් යාල වනෝද්යාgනයේ පිහිටා තිබේ. ඒ සියඹලාව හෙවත් කැබිලිත්ත දේවාලයයි.දෙවියන්ගේ කැලය ලෙස අතීතයේ ජනයා හැදින්වු මෙම ඓතිහාසික භූමිය පිහිට ඇත්තේ යාල වනෝද්යාිනයේ කළාප අංක 3 කොටසේය.

Kataragama CTB bus left Pettah sharp at 12.00 mid night, keeping our hopes alive to be at the entrance as early as possible. It was bit of a burden to reserve the seats in the bus, however it helped us to have a comfortable journey. A sleepless night for me as I had the duty of picking up some guys on the way. We got down at Tissa by 6.30 next morning & the jeep was there with just a couple of minutes delay. After buying the breakfast from a nearby bakery, we managed to reach Palatupana entrance by 7.15 on Saturday morning.

This was one of my dreams and even though I have been to Yala many more times I couldn’t achieve this until this time. This time we planned it well ahead and booked the bungalows for accommodation and got 2 jeeps arranged through our usual safari driver Ruwan Malli (one of Sugathe’s drivers).

For no particular reason, with no particular exploration in mind we booked accommodation in Weeravila for the long week-end. With three days looming, the question ‘what can we do around Weeravila’ was thrown open. Priyanjan’s suggestion of ‘go to Kaltota’ I thought was a joke, despite his ‘it’s a small country’ tag. Yohan’s ‘try Yala Block III’ seemed a possibility.