It’s been a week since I completed the road trip of the year, so I thought about writing my experience. Nine of us got together and planned this trip from a few months ago. The main organizer and the planner was my good friend Dulith from “Travel with DK” (Facebook, Instagram). The trip was 3 nights and 4 days covering almost 1000km in beautiful Sri Lanka.
The route was Nugegoda, Colombo > Nelundeniya > Hemmathagama > Nuwaraeliya > Randenigala > Hasalaka > Minneriya > Tambuththegama > Puttalam > Kalpitiya > Colombo. We stayed the first night in Nuwaraeliya, the second in Minneriya and the Third in Kalpitiya.
Day one: First day started around 5AM and we took the Colombo Kandy highway upto Nelundeniya and took a turn towards Ganthuna. The road was magnificent with rubber trees on both sides.
On the way we passed a waterfall near Holombuwa. According to Dulith it’s called Galgediyana Ella. We spent a good amount of time there, but time was not permitted to take a dip in the cold water.
Then we departed to the small town of Ganthuna to visit “Ganthuna Ella” waterfall. According to the villagers, the waterfall was accessible only by foot and the hike takes around 1 to 2 hours. So we decided to give up and leave for the Kadiyalena Waterfall.
On the way to Kadiyalena we passed few breathtaking sceneries including the Samasara Mountain in Aranayake, which landslid few years back causing chaos. And the plantations by the mountain roads were an amazing thing to see.
Our next destination was Kadiyalena waterfall. By the time we got there, it was past sunset, and a rain has started to fall. Due to the rain, the water was muddy. If we could’ve arrived in a sunny day during mid-day, we could’ve taken a bath in the natural pool.
The next destination was the place we were going to stay the night in Nuwaraeliya. After a few minutes leaving Kadiyalena, it got dark and by 8:30PM we were in Nuwaraeliya town.
Day Two: Our plan was to reach Randenigala hydro power facility on our way to Minneriya. We left Nuwaraeliya around 10AM and reached Randenigala around 12PM. On the way there, breathtaking sceneries.
After reaching Randenigala Dam, we joined a guided tour inside the observation tunnel. The tunnel goes close to 1000 feet into the underground beneath the dam. And it was drilled through solid rock.
After leaving Randenigala with sore leg muscles, next we stopped near Ulpathgama to take a bath in the Ulpathgama lakes. Then we left to the last destination of the second day, Minneriya.
Day Three: The destination of day 3 was Kalpitiya. Due to the time limitations, we did not stop at many places. But we stopped at Neela Bemma in Saliyawewa.
We left Neelabemma after spending sometime. Next destination was to the place we were going to stay the night in Kalpitiya.
Day Four: Finally the last day was arrived and it was the most exciting. We were going to see dolphins in the Kalpitiya ocean. All of us got into a small boat which can carry only 8 people and embarked the sea journey. After spending a lot of time looking for Dolphins, asking clues from fishermen, finally we found a large school of dolphins. On the way back home, we went to see the Lakvijaya Coal Power Station.
