We left Colombo on time around 6:00 in the morning. Had breakfast at Ambepussa and turned towards Kurunegala at Ambepussa. From Kurunegal instead of going towards Dambulla as originally intended we headed along the Puttalam road heading for Hattikuchchi (Rajangana).
At Padeniya we turned right and was at Hattikuchchi before noon.
Hattikuchchi
The name of the place was supposed to be given because there's a large rock which looks like the belly of an elephant. I learnt this from the guide when we we're here last (about 5 years ago). Unfortunately I did not have a digital camera then. So a second visit to the same site served its purpose.
The place was full of ancient ruins.This was also, supposed to be the place where King Sirisangabo gave away his head.
Another interesting sight was this rock which looks as if it's almost about to fall. (Well this looked the same 5 years ago so I guess it has not fallen since then).There were a few reptiles and monkeys here and there.
It was a good start for our trip and afterwards we had some "Beli Mal Watura" and headed towards Anuradhapura (Nachchaduwa to be exact.)
Nachchaduwa
We did not have to go to Anuradhapura to reach Nachchaduwa. We turned right at Sravattipura and drove along throgh some narrow gravel roads and reached the Irrigation Department's circuit Bungalow at Nachchaduwa. This was in the vicinity of the Nachchaduwa Tank.Had lunch at Nachchaduwa, bathed in the tank and around 3:30 in the afternoon headed towards anuradapura.
Anuradhapura
We did not have much time to visit all the places in Anuradhapura but we visited Jethavanaramaya, Samadhi Buddha Statue, Abhayagiriya, Stone Bridge, Ruwanweliseya, Sri Maha Bodi and Thuparamaya.
Sunday 16th October (Day - 2)
Thanthirimale
On the second day we started early about 9:30 in the morning and headed towards Thanthirimale (similar to Hattikuchchi this was not in our original plans). It was about 40km east from Anuradhapura.
As we travelled towards Thanthirimale the change in climate was apparent. The land on either side of the road was drier than in Anuradhapura and it looked as if it has not rained for a while.It took us about an hour to reach the Raja Maha Vihara as the road was not that good. There were dried up tanks along the way.
Not many vehicles passes us along the way and we were of the impression that there will be a tiny temple with hardly anyone there. However, we were mistaken
The Rajamaha Vihara was a place full of activity and thousands of people. A large number of vehicle were parked in front of the temple. Then only did we realize that this is a trip in itself. There are many places of interst inside the temple premises which spanned acres and acres of land. The rock formation there itself was supposed to cover an area of 250 acres.
We left Thanthirimale and headed towards Anuradhapura in just after noon. The trip was uneventful. We had lunch at Anuradhapura and started on the last part of the journey towards Rtitigala.
On the Way to Ritigala
We passed the most beautiful lush green countryside we cam across during our trip on the way to Ritigala.
The sky started to get a bit darker with approaching clouds but luckily it did not rain.We turned left towards Ritigala. According to the Tourist Guide Book we had we were supposed to turn left after 5km. Unfortunately we did not measure the distance and turned left when we came accross a sign for the Ritigala Monastery.
We lost our way and came to a Monastery where monks are living at present. We lost about 1 hour because of this mistake.
The monk at the monestary informed us about the correct way to the Ritigala Ruins and we
turned back and headed in that directionRitigala
Eventually we reached our destination in late afternoon. We were warned that there could be elephants on the roads in a short while so we did not want to risk that. Therefore, we had to limit our exploration of Ritigala to about one hour.We managed to go about a couple of kilometers into the forest climbing the ancient stairways that had been treaded by the meditating monks in the old days.