Kalawawa

Dried up Kalawawa Tank

After having a some tasty Kiribath(milk rice) my father and I walked over to the Kalawawa, it was a great site from the time go! The water was pretty low as this was the dry season and this gave my father a great idea of walking all around kalawawa, I looked as far as I could and going around was quite a task ahead, any way as we all know that “a journey of a thousand miles begins with one step” we stepped into our journey around the lake!

The age old trees that still stood its ground over hundreds of years were seeing jutting out of the water while only a few fishermen dared to go 

fishing in there canoes under the wild winds that swept across the lake! It was a bit sunny at first my father had a hat and I had my natural hat, which was an overgrown bit of hair :P anyway we continued our walk not really knowing what might come up ahead.

Guess what?.. it was a wild elephant gazing by itself only a few hundred yards away! I love elephants but I knew this was a wild elephant! And it is generally known that loners don’t welcome too many guest, it was only yesterday that we saw two big herds of wild elephants while on a jeep safari in Mineriya National Forest,  however seeing a wild elephant 

while on foot is far more rewarding than seeing a 

Sunset on the way back

herd of wild elephants within a comfort zone of a jeep! We walked around the tank looking over the shoulder just to make sure that no elephant is charging at us, I was able to capture some magnificent pictures of the landscape right around the kalawawa tank. There were quite a bit of wildlife flocks of birds, lizards and herds of buffaloes and cows. The cows were not really wild even though they were roaming like wild and free! 

We knew that at one point we might have to wade across to the other river bank, but it turned out to be quite a many times, this was because water was released into kalawawa and quite a bit of water was 

flowing into the tank, but this created a perfect delta

Wading across Kalawawa

that made our trek very much more interesting. I had to take off my shoes many times however I loved the feeling when walking on fresh soggy mud, so I opted to walk bare feet for quite a distance.  

after almost four hours of walking adjacent to the wild side of the kalawawa tank, we finally came “close” to the tank bund that would take us back to our car, but to our dismay we realized that quite a volume of water separated us from our bank and the bund up front, but as always the Lord provided us with some fishermen who directed us to that exact spot from which we could wade through with ease. With a bit more wading which submerged my father fully and me up to my chin, we ended our great trek around the Kalawawa tank.

August 2012 with thathi

Kaludiya Pokuna - Kandalama

Ruins of a temple in kaludiya pokuna

I packed a couple of t shirts, my camera,  GPS,  and the first aid kit and off  I went with my father on a small trip to the dry zone,  We first drove ourselves to Kaludiya Pokuna, dambulla. It is an arcilogical site slightly off the tourist map, so it was just us who were there and Mahinda who happened to be the caretaker, and he was nice enough to take us around. We passed a stupa (religious dome like structure) which was in ruins; however the workmanship of men a thousand years ago was really a work of art. He continued taking us around the site and talked of the many rock caves that people in the past used for meditation. We were all excited about it and asked him to lead us over, and so he did lead us to 7 caves out of around 100 odd caves scattered around a 187 acre land.

The caves were huge in size some even could host a well over a dozen who needed refuge either from the scourging heat or the monsoon rains! And on the 7^th cave it even had a wall that still stood over the years, the plastering used was still holding on to the wall, I just couldn’t believe it!

Sleeping Giant - kandalama lake

The Sri Lankan history is simply marvelous, any way 

I was keener on getting to the top of the mountain,

 as the peak of the mountain was the “nose” of the set of mountains that made up the “sleeping Giant” however Mahinda was not too keen as he had never done it before, so I guess I have to leave that for the next trip. 

Kandalama lake

However my father and i leaving Mahinda took off on a small trek to the top of another mountain,  we were pulling our self on a sheer rock face, to my surprise I saw a small pond full of water , this was a pleasant surprise, passing all that we reached the top where we spend a few moments gazing out into the yonder , we could see the Kandalama lake right infront of our eyes , it was a great sight!

Having spent some time up there we climbed down and ready for the next destination!


Small trek in kaludiya pokuna, dambulla  with thathi
august 2012