Railway museum, Kadugannawa, Sri Lanka.

Kadugannawa, Sri Lanka.

Tower built by the British  at Kadugannawa to remember Dawson who supervised the building of the roadway to the then inaccessible capital, Kandy.

Bridge for  pedestrians over the  rail-road at the  Railway station, Kadugannawa.

At the Railway Museum, Kadugannawa, Sri Lanka.

The steam locomotive, the 'Engine Driver'- Vigna and the controls in the locomotive, Kadugannawa, Sri Lanka.

Exhibts at the Railway Museum, Kadugannawa, Sri Lanka.

Platform lamp.

At the National Railway Museum, Kadugannawa, Sri Lanka.

The Kadugannawa 'tunnel' and its environs, Sri Lanka.

The road by-passing the old 'tunnel'.

The old 'tunnel' created by the British.

A small rivulet by the highway.

A rock-shelter.

The 'Balana' S - Look-out - fort of the Kandyan Kingdom overlooked the Kadugannawa climb. It spelt the nemesis of many an invading army. 'Kadu' S - Sword, 'ganna' S - to pick up, 'aawaa' S - arrived, shortened as Kadugannawa was the place where presumably the armoury of the 'Ihala Kotte' was situated. It was also the place of blacksmiths of repute. The climb to Kadugannawa from Mawanella is steep and in the old days the vehicles would stop to cool the hot engines. Now it still has water hoses by the roadside to wash cars while the drivers take a rest. The highway is now lined with fruit stalls.

The valley below Kadugannawa, Sri Lanka.

This would have been the view presented to the warriors of the Kandyan Kingdom in late 15th to the early 17th century. The soldiers advancing against the Kingdom would have been spotted miles off before they attempted scaling the Balana rock fortress. At present there are lush green paddy fields and an air of peace and serenity prevails.

'Ambalama' - 'Ambalam', Kadugannawa, Sri Lanka.

On the climb to Kadugannawa from Mawanalla, there was an old building. This was labelled as 'Ambalama'. An 'Ambalam' is a very old word much used in Tamil to refer to a resting place. The exhausted travellers on bullock drawn carts climbing the steep road to Kadugannawa, were provided with a resting place here, in olden times. The old building has been renovated recently. Somehow the charm of the old building is now gone. I took this picture on 29/11/2009.

Waterfall - bathing spot, Kadugannawa, Sri Lanka.

Upto the 1980s the climb to Kadugannawa had only one tea-shop and a waterfall as a bathing spot. I have stopped there in my Fiat Millicento in the late 1960s, to have a cold bath from the cascade after a long drive. Now the activity is shifted further up with a lot of fruit stalls. These were introduced by our late Mr.Premadasa. This place has no stop-over travelers now. I took these photos in November 2009.

'Bathalagala' - 'Bible rock' seen in the afternoon, Kadugannawa, Sri Lanka.

The rocky mountain gave the impression of a bible to the conquring British. They called it 'Bible-rock'. The local name for it was 'Bathala-gala'. You can see the lush green valley and a part of a terraced paddy-field in the picture. You can also see a 'chaitya' on a dome shaped rock below. I took this picture in October 2009.

'Chaitya' on a rock, seen from Kadugannawa, Sri Lanka.

Looking across the valley from the ascent to Kadugannawa on the Colombo road (A1), one sees the 'Bathalagala - Bible rock'. Below the rock is another bare-faced rocky hill, on which a white painted 'chaitya' is seen. I took this picture through an afternoon haze using a 10 zoom on my Funji Fine-pix digital camera..