We are a group of 3 people decided to go and worship Sri-Pada via Kuruwita-Erathna road as we have already been there via Rathnapura-Palabaddala route and Hatton-Nallathanni route.

We started the journey from Petta CTB stand around 2PM on 21st Friday, 2014. There was a Rathnapura bus and we took it to go to Kuruwita. It was around 4.30 when we got down from kuruwita. Our aim was to go up to Erathna and stay there. However after getting down at Kuruwita, we were lucky to catch the last bus that goes up to Adewikanda which is the last point that public transport is available during Sri Pada season. We got meals for the night and bread for the following day morning. Around 5.10PM the bus started from Kuruwita to go up to Adewikanda. If we got down from Erathna, there are few kms that we have to walk or go by a taxi to get Adewikanda. Around 6.30PM we got down from Adewikanda and we stayed the night there. Our main objective was not to climb fast but to walk as normal and see the nature as well. That is why we didn’t start it at night.

Sun set seen from Adewikanda

The following day we visited Mahamevna Asapuwa for religious activities at Adewikanda and started the journey afterwards

Mahamevna Asapauwa – Adewikanda

Tunnels that goes to the hydro power station at Adawikanda

Sunlight rays seen on the way

The color makes the eyes to rest a while

Places where people worship on the way to summit

We walked neither too slow nor too fast

We met this mother climbing down. See how healthy they are.

Nepenthes distillatoria ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nepenthes_distillatoria )

Before warnagala resting place, there is a large rock bed with a water stream on the right side of the way (not more than 100m from the path) and it is very beautiful to see and also a good place to rest a little while.

Large rock bed and it’s time for a break

Could hardly see the way back to Adewikanda

Having breakfast

We were visited by these beautiful butterflies

Hardly you will find stairs like this before Haramitipana

It looks so much beautiful and the greenery is amazing

The starting point of the Adewikanda hydro power plant

When you climb via Kuruwita, you will find a price list like this that displays the cost for each item. We have never seen this on Hatton side and also the prices are very much reasonable and well organized.

At Warnagala, we saw so many beautiful things.

There are 3 epigraphs at Warnagala but we didn’t know what it says

You will see many sceneries like this when you come to Warnagala resting point.

A lizard who wants to hide her eggs

After lunch, he was trying to have a nap.

Passing warnagala resting place, it’s filled with beautiful sceneries like this

Thick forest is having millions of these

Walking towards “Sitha Gangula”

On the way, you will find many water streams like this.

There is no climb in some places where you will have to walk as usual.

We reached “sitha gangula” around 3PM.

A tribute for god who protect us during the journey – at “Sitha Gangula”

Around 5.15PM, they switched on the lights. But its better you bring a torch.

You will see this notice at “Haramitipana” where Palabaddala route and Kuruwita route join together.

After “Haramitipana”, you will find another 2 boutiques and this is the one before last.

The new glim that has fixed recently but it’s not allowed to light it because it’s made from stone and it’s already cracked due to heat. So we went for the old glim thinking “Old is Gold”

We didn’t remember how many times we visited.

We were planning to get down via Hatton route but there was a massive crowed who had blocked the way down. Therefore we decided to climb down via the Rathnapura route till we get the cross road that links both Rathnapura and Hatton routes together. It was a good idea and we could reach to “Idikatupana” without any problem.

It was so crowded at Hatton route – “Sitha Gangula”

Beauty of the sun was seen on the way back

Sunlight comes through the trees created a picture

“Saama chaithya”

At Gangulethenna we had breakfast and around 11 AM we could reach to Nallathanniya where we got a bus to Hatton.
We saw lots of people are not aware of how valuable the nature is and polythene is everywhere. It’s less on Kuruwita route because the amount that tackles that way is less compared to Hatton route. Another important fact we noticed is that, there are certain procedure followed by the owners of the boutiques on Erathna route such as they don’t sell cigarettes and having price list so that people can see the prices of each item they sell.
We had walked 24kms in 28 hours. If it is the kuruwita trail, it’s much better not to hurry because it makes us tired soon as well as we won’t be able to see the nature and surrounding. Finally we want to thank all Lakdasun members and especially the trail details published. (http://www.lakdasun.org/trails/trail-18-kuruwita-erathna-trail-to-adams-peak-sripada.htm). It was a great journey at last and having long lasting memories. You may see the video here too. (www.youtube.com/watch?v=KkVOP3Iz1_U& ). Thank you.

Introduction

Trails to Adams Peak

Most people know that there are 6 trails to climb Adams Peak. Out of these 6trails 3trails are most commonly used by pilgrims,

1. Hatton/Nallathanni Trail
2. Kuruwita/Erathna Trail
3. Rathnapura/Palabaddala Trail

The other 3 trails are less frequented by pilgrims as they are just footpaths in the jungle

4. Deraniyagala/Uda Maliboda Trail
5. Murraywatte/Rajamale/Sandagalathenna Trail
6.  Hapugastenne/Mookuwatte Trail

But what I’m going to tell you is that there are 2 new possible trails that can be used, these 2 are,

7. Batulu Oya Paradise Trail
8. Batulu Oya Waterfall Trail

Idea of this trail & plan
Around 10yeas back a friend of mine showed me a paper article which had a brief description of the lesser known trails to Adams peak. Ever since reading that article I wanted to explore these trails but due to lack of information and other restrictions it wasn’t possible. However in September 2010 along with a few others whom I met online we did the Sandagalathenna trail and in the following year (i.e. 2011) some ware around January we did the Uda Maliboda Trail and in February of 2012 the Hapugastenne (Mookuwatte) Trail.

By February of 2012 I had climbed Adams peak 6tims using all 6trails. Since my initial plan was to complete all 6trails and once this objective was achieved I decided to retire from climbing this peak. But this decision to retire only lasted a few days because as soon as I downloaded my GPS data of the Hapugastenne trail to my computer I found out that there are 2more possible trails that could be done.

One which I call the “Batulu Oya Paradise Trail” and the other which I called the “Batulu Oya Waterfall Trail”

Hapugastenne Trail (Marked in Red) Waterfall Trail (Marked in Blue) Paradise Trail (Marked in Yellow)

The Batulu Oya Paradise Trail

Anyone familiar with the Hapugastenne trail may remember a place called “Paradise” This name was given to this place by Hiruna and his team. As the name suggests it’s a beautiful place with a stream and a water fall.

But the interesting part was not the beauty of the place, but the stream. The stream that flows form there ends up at Fishing Huts. This became evident when I downloaded the data from my GPS. This trail seams very straight forward all you had to do was to hike up from Fishing huts along the Batulu Oya and then the stream splits in 2, take the left hand stream and continue up stream and after passing a few waterfalls you come to the place called Paradise form their onwards continue on the Hapugastenne trail till you reach the Peak. This stream is even visible on Google earth and navigating this in the dry season will not pose too many complications. (Just a word of caution, travelling up a stream that has a few waterfalls could be very dangers even for seasoned hikers so take care if you plan to do this)

But this trail seams too simple and for more than half of the trail up to the peak you will be travelling along the Hapugastenne trail which did not impress me that much.

Batulu Oya Waterfall Trail

But when I started analysing the Hapugastenne trail in detail I noticed that I have marked a small stream at the base of Adams peak. This stream seems to be flowing in to a valley and the opposite end of the valley is close to Fishing Huts which led me to believe that this stream that flows in to the valley also has to exit at this point. Since Batulu Oya (the river that flows in front of Fishing Huts) is known to be the main river in the area the logical conclusion was that this stream joins Batulu Oya or even may be the source of Batulu Oya. Further analysing of Google earth and the meter map confirmed my belief.

But one problem with this trail was that we would not be able to start from Fishing Huts and continue to climb because once we reach the top part of the stream we may not be able to find the correct branch of the stream that crosses the Hapugastenne trail so if we were to do this we needed to climb Adams peak from Hatton and then descend down to Fishing huts.

Of the 2optios available the Batulu Oya Waterfall Trail seemed like the better option as most of the trail has never been explored before.

Please note that all photographs published in this trip report were taken by Kasun and full credit should go to him for photo documenting this trip.

The Trip 

Even though this idea came to me in February of 2012 due to many reasons the trip was put on hold. However this year I made a firm commitment to myself that I will do this trail. Doing this trail off season is simply out of the question as the water level in the stream and any waterfalls that we may encounter will be dangerously high and there is also the high risk of flash floods.

So the dates were set but a few last minute cancelations by a few members of the team left us with only 3people to go on this hike. Ideally I would have preferred some ware around 6people to be part of the team but postponing was also not an option because the Peak Wilderness has been having a severe drought and doing this trail before the rains start was one of the key safety plans in our hike.

On Thursday (27/02/2014) Myself Kasun and Uditha met at the Pettah privet bus stand and took the 7oclock bus to Hatton the bus reached Hatton by 11.15am and we were dropped at the main bust stand. We then walked up to the Hatton station as the busses to Nallathanni were usually parked there. As expected there were several busses to Nallathanni parked there because of the season and we got in to one of the buses.  However this bus did not leave till 2.30am as it was waiting for the night mail from Colombo to arrive. As soon as the people from the night mail got in the bus departed and arrived in Nallathanni around 4am on Friday (28/02/2014).

The Hatton Trail

Sun Rise on the Way Up

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Since we were in no hurry we climbed it slowly but steadily and reached the peak around 9am. After spending a short time at the peak we started our decent on the Rathnapura trail till we reached the start of the Hapugastenne trail. Then it was sharp decent of around 1km to the base of Adams Peak. Once we reached the base it was time to bid farewell to the Hapugastenne trail and follow the stream in to an uncharted area of the peak wilderness which was later named as the “Valley of Waterfalls”.

The Valley of Waterfalls as seen from the Peak

Descent

Entering in to the Jungle (Hapugastenne Trail Starting Point)

Descending along the Hapugastenne Trail

Pointing Out the Valley of Waterfalls

.	Hapugastenne Trail falling on to the Small Stream that Leads to the Valley of Waterfalls

The water level of the stream (a branch of the Batulu Oya) was low because of the drought and following it wasn’t a problem. Less than 100M in to valley we came to our first obstacle!! It was a small waterfall which did not pose too many complications in getting down.
Uditha and for reasons known only to him wanted to call this waterfall “Sumudu Ella” so we all agreed and named it as Sumudu Ella.
After passing Sumudu Ella and a few small cascades we came to our second obstacle!! Which was less than 50M from the previous waterfall. Descending this falls looked a bit dangerous so we decided to climb down through the jungle till we reached the base of the fall and continued on our journey passing several cascades till we reached another waterfall and then another. Waterfalls seem endless and since we were deep in a valley even my high sensitivity GPS had problems locking on to satellites. We opted for a slow and steady phase mainly because the risks involved were too grate and making a mistake in this valley could be fatal. Our plan was to travel till 3pm and then find a suitable campsite to camp for the night.
3pm came and we still did not come across any site even remotely suitable to pitching a tent. Around 4pm we were on top of another set of waterfalls (3waterfalls close together) and found a slab of small stone on top of the first waterfall. Uditha and I thought its best we spend the night on this rock since it would keep us safe from any flash floods. But the downside was that this rock was too small to pitch our small 2man tent so we would have to use the tent as a blanket and spend an uncomfortable night on top of an uneven rock.
Kasun (the official photographer) volunteered to descend the 3waterfalls and find a better suited place and thanks to his efforts a much better place was found to set up camp. The site was along the banks of a small tributary to the mainstream that we were following.
Uditha set about clearing the site for the tent and I went about gathering firewood and at the same time clearing a path for us to escape just in case the water level increased and we had to abandon the camp.
We skipped lunch because our progress was so slow and so the supper was to be a grand affair. While Kasun was preparing our supper Uditha and I were busy pitching the tent and even before we could get our flysheet up the havens opened and it rained cats and dogs and pretty soon the tent was flooded with rain water.
After having noodles straight from the pot in the pouring rain we decided to stay inside the tent till the rain stopped. By this time the tent was full of water and was better suited for fish than for us but fortunately the rains stopped 1hour later and we set about mopping up the water in the tent with our T-shirts. By this time the water level in the stream has risen considerably and was flowing if furiously.
Since the tent was a 2person tent fitting 3 people it to it was a challenge and our backpacks were put inside garbage bags and were left outside the tent for the night.

The Easy Part

On Top of the First Waterfall (Sumudu Ella)

Planning our Descent Down Sumudu Ella

The Descent

The Trail

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The 2nd Waterfall

Descending Through the Jungle

Trying not to get wet

The Trail Continues

Descending Down Small Cascades

And Another Fall

Reaching the bottom

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.	On Top of Another One

.	More Trouble Ahead

Not Sure How We Got Down But We Did

At the Base of Yet Another One

Finding our way down

Going Down Yet Another Waterfall

Looks Like another Water Fall Ahead

At the Base of a Waterfall

Clearing for the tent

It was a sleepless night spent mostly worrying about the water levels in the stream and trying to keep warm inside our damp tent. Next day morning at sharp 6am we decided step out of the tent and have a look around.
The stream was back to its normal flow and the flash flood that we experienced the previous night has washed away one of our pots along with a few other small items that we could not bring up to higher ground.
By 7.20 we were ready to leave, by my calculations if we continue encounter waterfalls like the previous day we would have to spend an additional night in the forest which none of us wanted.
We maintained a slow and steady pace by this time the vegetation in the jungle has changed indicating that we had come down in altitude considerably and it looked as if we would not be encountering too many waterfalls.
But our hopes were shattered when we started coming across one waterfall after another. Kasun had a very simple approach to descending waterfalls he would always insist on taking the shortest path to the bottom!! Sure footed as a mountain goat he would descend down slippery waterfalls with ease. Being the oldest in the team and carrying the responsibility for the safety of the other 2, I wasn’t at all happy about Kasun’s methods but thanks to his high risk unorthodox method we did manage to save a lot of time.
By 1pm we managed to reach the place where the 2 streams meet and the sight of it gave us such relief because we knew that fishing huts were just a hop skip and a jump away and that we have completed the most dangerous and risky part of the trail.
From there it took us another 1 1/2hours to reach the Fishing Huts mainly because we were in no hurry.

Our Camp Site

A beautiful Day

.	Our Pot was found a long way down stream form our campsite

Do we use the Para cord or not?

Sending the bags down using the Para Cord

Slippery

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Yet another waterfall

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Now What !!

Long Way Down

Made it to the Bottom

and another one

Only Option is to Jump??

Too Deep to Cross

It’s Time to Get Wet (swimming across)

Brunch

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Sending the Bags First

This slippery log fallen across the waterfall helped us to descend to the base

Another small log which helped us

The 2 Streams Joining

The Peak

The Team

A walk in the park

Entering Moray Estate (near Fishing Huts)

The care taker of Hut no 1 was very helpful and offered us lunch and since we politely refused his offer he made us tea and served it with some biscuits. The care taker arranged a three wheeler for us to get to Nallathanni and form thereon we took a bus to Hatton and form Hatton to Colombo by train. Thus ending a highly adventures and high risk trip.

Matale-Illukkumbura-Pallegama road (B 274) gives access to number of waterfalls and tourist destinations like Riverstone, Pitawala Pathana etc. During this three days journey we covered following waterfalls.

Waterfalls visited during this trip (Order from Matale)

1. Bambarakiri Ella (බඹරකිරි ඇල්ල)
2. Pitawala Pathana Ella-1(පිටවල පතන ඇල්ල-1)
3. Pitawala Pathana Ella-2 (පිටවල පතන ඇල්ල-2)
4. Raththinda cascade (රත්තින්ද ඇල්ල)
5. Wadda Pani Ella (වැද්දා පැනි ඇල්ල)
6. Wambatuhena Ella (වම්බටුහේන ඇල්ල)
7. Bambarungahana Ella (බඹරුන් ගහන ඇල්ල)
8. Sera Ella (සේර ඇල්ල)

Road guide (Waterfalls in bold letters)

Road guide (Waterfalls in bold letters)

Bambarakiri Ella (3m)

This couple of waterfall can be found at Bambarakiri turn of Matale-Illukkumbura road. It is fairly popular place. It has two waterfalls as Maha-Bambarakiri Ella (මහ බඹරකිරි ඇල්ල) 7°29’43.02″N, 80°41’57.01″E and Punchi Bambarakiri Ella 7°29’41.05″N, 80°41’56.76″E (පුoචි බඹරකිරි ඇල්ල).

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Bambarakiri Turn

Maha Bambarakiri Ella

Maha Bambarakiri Ella –Few years ago it had a deep pool. This claimed for so many lives. Following landslides it became shallow

Maha Bambarakiri Ella

Suspension bridge-Have to cross this and take right turn to Punchi Bambarakiri Ella. This bridge to connect Welannwaththa (වෙලන්වත්ත) village

Punchi Bambarakiri Ella

Looked up

Wambatuhena Ella  (7°33’13.46″N, 80°46’4.34″E)

This 10m tall waterfall is situated in left hand side of the road towards

Puwakpitiya from Puwakpitiya junction. The water stream comes from Pathana village (පතන ගම) and later joins with Thelgamu Oya.

Direction at Puwakpitiya junction- White arrow from Matale side, Red arrow to Illukkumbura and Black arrow is to Puwakpitiya. We were stranded there without having a three wheeler

Wambatuhena Ella

Wambatuhena Ella-Different colors

Closer view of Wambatuhena Ella

Bambarungahana Ella (3m) 7°34’40.19″N, 80°44’4.73″E

This beautiful waterfall is situated at Puwakpitiya village. Getting closer to the waterfall is bit challengeable task. You have to get the foot pathway on left hand side of Puwakpitiya temple. Then walk about 1km to reach the waterfall. The origin is Dunumadala Oya (දුනුමඩලා ඔය).

(Villagers of Illukkumbura don’t know about such a waterfall. Always ask from Puwakpitiya village)

Note the direction of the foot pathway closer to the temple

Pitawala Pathana Ella-1 is seen to Puwakpitiya temple

Pitawala pathana

Have to cross the stream

Bit challengeable

Dunumadala Oya. Red star shows the place of the waterfall. It is better go on left hand side of the stream (red arrow)

The beauty

Bambarungahana Ella

Closer view. It is an energetic waterfall

Sera Ella 7°35’17.95″N, 80°45’18.57″E

She is the queen out of these beauties. Sera Ella is situated at Poththatawela (පොත්තටවෙල) village. The origin is Puwakpitiya Oya. It is one of a widest waterfall in Knuckles range (about 35m width). Two waterfalls can be seen here. Sera Ella has an additional feature of a cave which is situated behind the waterfall. A Bird species called “Seru” were here to give the name – Sera Ella.

You can drive up to the foot pathway towards Sera Ella. There is a nice foot pathway to the waterfall. It branches to the base of the waterfall and to the cave of the waterfall.

This is the junction where road divides to Puwakpitiya (black arrow) and Poththatawela (red arrow). Have to drive about 2km to reach the waterfall

Scenic

Road to Poththatawela

Nicely made steps to the waterfall

Getting down

Getting down

Lateral view

Sera Ella

View from the cave. Fantastic experience

Front view

Front view

Naturally made frog face

Walking from Poththatawela to Kambarawa.

This was a reward for us. After visiting Sera Ella we didn’t have a time to catch the bus from Hettipola to Matale at Illukkumbura. The next available option to get a bus is to walk from Sera Ella to Kambarawa.

The total distance was about 5kms and it took 2 hours to reach Kambarawa. There was a mortable road from Kambarawa to Poththatawela a decade ago. But it has been forested and now only a foot pathway can be seen. This was an unexpected beauty. It was nice to walk along this foot pathway which was bordered by the forest.

Road from Sera Ella to Poththatawela village. Well functioning

Road gets narrow after Poththatawela village

“පැල”

Scenic

Nice to walk here

Old “Sapaththu Palama” සපත්තු පාලම

Water streams crossing the road

Flow

Again road gets wider as we are closer to Kambarawa

Reaching to the Village. Border of Mahaweli development area

Kambarawa Village

Greenish

Pitawala Pathana Ella-1 (Approxiamte-7°33’10.46″N, 80°44’26.73″E)

This 75m tall waterfall is situated at Pathana village. Origin is Pathana Dola (පතන දොල). After making Pitawala Pathana Ella-1 and Pitawala Pathana Ella-2 (Unnamed waterfall, we have named as Pitawala Pathana Ella-2) it joins with Puwakpitiya Ganga.

You can observe the full cascade of this waterfall flowing down from Pitawala Pathana at Puwakpitiya village.

Reaching to Pitawala Pathana Ella-1 is not an easy task. First you have to go to the abounded village called “Pathana Gama” පතන ගම and then take the help of the guide called “Ekanayaka Mama.” (Most of the villagers in Pitawala and Illukkumbura are not aware of this waterfall and haven’t visited there.)

Pathana Village and Redbana Company (Narrated by Ekanayaka Mama)

The story of Pathana Village is interesting. This village was established by Redbana Company in 1960-1970 for cultivation of cardamom. Initially it had about 150 families and functioned as a village with a school and a temple. After 10years this cardamom cultivation project was given up by the company. Then villagers moved to their initial residences and village was invaded by the forest. At the moment only two villagers live at this abounded village. Ekanayaka Mama is one of them.

You have to walk about 3km from Red Bana junction of Matale-Pallegama road (after 33km post) to Ekanayaka Mama’s house. Then another 1hour walk to Pitawala Pathana Ella-1. There is no proper foot pathway to the waterfall and leeches are often come across.

Red Bana junction will come across after 33km post of the road. Arrow shows the direction to Pitawala village

Initially it seems as a mortable road

Nice to walk here

Wow

Road divides into two: left one is the correct one

View of Pitawala Pathana Mini World’s end

Note-People at Mini world’s end

Jumping over the Fence of Ekanayaka Mama

Small house and tree hut

Karagahathanna (කරගහතැන්න) (Left) and Riverstone (right)

Ekanayaka Mama -He showed the ruins of houses of the village.

“Wallapatta වල්ලාපට්ටHunters” were there

First view of the waterfall

Climbing up

Pitawala Pathana Ella-1

Lateral view

Another view

After successful journey

Then Ekanayaka Mama accompanied us for another beautiful waterfall made by the same water stream down to Pitawala Pathana Ella-1. This waterfall is bit taller than the previous one and more beautiful than it. I would like to name it as Pitawala Pathana Ella-2 as it is unnamed. Pitawala Pathana Ella-2 is much popular among Puwakpitiya villagers than Pitawala Pathana Ella-1.

Pitawala Pathana Ella-2 (Approxiamte-7°33’15.26″N, 80°44’27.63″E)

Pitawala Pathana Ella-2

Pitawala Pathana Ella -2. Closer view

Pitawala Pathana Ella-2

Summary of the route. Black arrow shows our approach to Ekanayaka Mama’s house. Red arrow shows the direction towards two waterfalls. Picture was taken from Mini World’s End-Pitawala Pathana. You can’t see waterfalls from here

Zoomed view

Raththinda Ella (7°31’24.00″N, 80°44’59.98″E)

This waterfall is situated at Pitawala village. It is a cascade of three parts and clearly visible to surrounding areas like Pitawala Pathana, Maningala. There is a foot pathway towards the middle part of the cascade from Pitawala village. (About 1km journey). Once you come to the middle part you can go to upper and lower parts of the cascades. There is a nice foot pathway which goes along a private land to connect with other side of the waterfall. We followed the first one to reach the waterfall and other one to come down.

Sun rise over Maningala and Thunhisgala (තුන්හිස්ගල) is far away

Riverstone

View of Raththinda Ella from Pitawala village

Land mark we came across on our way to the waterfall

Another land mark is this water tank. Drinking water project of Pitawala village

Middle part of the cascade

You have to cross the middle part and follow the foot pathway on left hand side to reach the upper part. This is upper part

Top of Raththinda waterfall

Beautiful landscapes

Paddy fields of Atanwala village

Follow the foot pathway down to reach the lower part of the cascade. This is the lower part

Side view of lower part

Surrounding view

Another snap

Towards Atanwala village

Good morning

.	A hotel is under construction closer to Rathninda waterfall. Above landscapes were taken at it’s garden

Wedda Pani Ella (7°31’2.08″N, 80°45’21.27″E)

This waterfall is made by Thelgamu Oya when it flows under the bridge connecting Raththinda and Atanwala villages. It is about 6m height waterfall. To get a clear view of the waterfall, you have to get down to Thelgamu Oya. There is another small but beautiful waterfall about 50m down to Wedda Pani Ella.

Due to the death of a Wadda by falling down from this waterfall is the reason for this name.

Thelgamu Oya flows under the bridge. Just before to make the waterfall

Wadda Pani Ella and it’s base pool

Wadda Pani Ella

Complete view of Wedda Pani Ella

Small cascade found down to Wadda Pani Ella. Photo credit goes to Ashan

Thanks for reading

When we were (Ashan, Sanketha and Me) climbing Pettigala I pointed my finger to a far end and asked Ashan whether it’s Horton plains. He replied me with a smile “Hariya Nogiya Thenna “. Surprised???? Yes for more than 30 years of my life I had never been to Horton Plains. So I was desperately needed to do HP ASAP and was in a hunger to do many trails within a short period. Within 3 days we ( Me and my friend Thenuka ) were able to cover five paths/trails of Horton Plains

1. Kalupahana-HP jeep track
2. Worlds end Circular trial
3. Thotupola mountain trail
4. Kirigalpottha mountain trail
5. HP to Dayagama trail

As this was my first visit to Hp I wanted to do this in somewhat different (I mean special) manner. My basic plan was like this. In the first day, start from Bambarakanda falls and walk towards HP as much as possible (at least to pass Devil’s staircase) and camp in a suitable place. Then to reach HP early morning next day and do Circular trail and Thotupola trail then camp in campsite No 1 ( we booked earlier ) .After that do the Kirigalpottha last day and descend via Dayagama .

Everything was executed accordingly except camping inside the park (due to Bad weather)

This report concludes the first trail “Kalupahana HP jeep track” i.e. Scenic walk along the solitude jeep track

We left our home around 5.00 a.m. and took a Three-wheeler to Kaduwela. Then we Boarded to a Badulla Bus and got off at Galagama in order to buy some essential items. Then we picked another bus and got off at Kalupahana. After that we hired a three wheeler to V-cut. Surrounding view was splendid

View from Kalupahana

Starting Point of the jeep track (waypoint KH01)

Nice views

Paddy fields too

Bamarakanda falls – Low level of water (waypoint KH02)

Bambarakanda,Wangedigla,Balathuuwa & Gonmolikanda in the Single frame

Endless mountains

Roads were paved with these type of bricks and still men were working

Famous V- CUT(waypoint KH06)

From here onwards we started our original hiking around 11.30 a.m. Although there were short cuts through tea fields we stuck to the main path to enjoy scenery without getting hacked. Since there were only two in our gang we had to carry considerable amount of weight including the tent, Gas cooker ( Given by our Friend Prasanna ) food, water etc.

Stream We crossed

This is the stream which feeds Bambarakanda falls

There were short cuts but we chose the original track as we had ample time

After little while I showed my friend a foot path which leads to Bambarakanda falls. I was not interested to visit the top of Bambarakanda falls as I had done it once (from the bottom). But my friend was desperate in visiting same. So I obeyed to his request and did a detour to top of Bambarakanda falls after keeping our backpacks in a safe place

Descending through pine plots. He was happy

This place is somewhat below the top of Bambarakanda falls. But went there to get the thrilling experience. (Be careful though )

Water fall on the Top of B’Kanda Fall

Top of the Bambarakanda falls

Then we came back to the jeep track and walked along the heavenly path

Path to heaven

Oh……… This was a heaven

Lanka Ella seen far away

Flora

More views

Estate houses

Tea+ mountains

We had lunch here ( Biscuits+ cheese ) filled water bottles from nearby house ( from pipe lines )

Old buildings

Kingdom of mountains

More views

Then we came to a tricky place. One guy said that the left path is the way to Horton plains. We told him that we wanted to do Horton’s plains along the jeep track. But he didn’t realize our intentions and strongly said to follow the path left. But after walking in that path we realized path becoming narrow and it’s not a jeep track. May be there could be foot paths to Horton’s plains from that point. But our intention was to explore the jeep track. So we came back and chose the right path.

This was a tricky place. But As we had a GPS we went straight

Land mark in the path

Tiny waterfall

Another landmark

After this point we encountered a difficult descend

Isolated path

Udaweriya estate at far (As I guess)

Y junction Mentioned in Trail guide(way point KH08) picked the Right Path

The Devil’s Staircase

The Devil

Wow

You should go there and experience it………………

Bridge before the important junction

Land mark

flora

More	A place where we had shelter in a drizzle

Difficult for a driver but Scenic for a walker

Around 5.00 p.m. we reached the most important junction of the jeep track .According to the trail guide the road left will take you to HP ( 3 KM )which very difficult for a driver. We took the left path and proceeded in the isolated scenic road searching a suitable place to camp. As the trail was not broad and surrounded by tea fields finding a camping place was not easy. After nearly 1 km from the junction (near a small water tank) we found a suitable place for camping along a small foot path. Even that place had marginal ground space to pitch a tent. After pitching the tent we cooked noodles for dinner and settled in.

It was windy but we had already tied our tents well using stones. Although it was a tea estate there were no houses nearby and no one was traveling. We had a nice chat till night and went to sleep. Heavy winds hit the tent throughout the night also temperature was remarkably low but it was a rewarding experience to flee away from our usual hustle bustle life.

Trail division – Starting the Most difficult part of jeep track ( Go left ) waypoint KH 11

Going up……..No civilization ………..my favourite section of the trail

Dangerous bends

Our tent ….Nearly 30m away from the jeep track

Cooking was easy thanks to Prasanna’s Gas cooker

We woke up early in the morning and got ready for the final section of the journey around 6.50 a.m. Morning mist had invaded the path and it was a holly experience for us to walk along the path. Sometimes I felt whether these estate works are managed by ghosts as we didn’t see any human till we reached the park. Little by little we were reaching the border of the park. Only decision point was the T junction which was described in the Trail guide and we took the left path. By 7.45 a.m. we reached the Ohiya – Hp paved road

Bed Tea

Mountains covered with mist

Here we Go again

T junction ………..Took the left path (waypoint KH12)

Oh this was my favourite bend

Some white marks in order to ease the driving under misty conditions

Why not have a relaxing break……….It was rewarding

Seen this for the first time

FD land marks

End of the estate and beginning of the forest

Here we are at OHIYA-HP Road ( Not to mention to take the left road )

Remember the land mark (waypoint KH13)

Path was so beautiful and we were forced by nature to walk the next 1.5 km to the ticketing office. While enjoying the scenery we reached the ticketing office around 8.15 a.m.

So this was a historic achievement for me to be at Horton’s plains for the first time. I really enjoyed this journey as well as the four other trails described in next report. Hope you enjoyed the report and till I meet you in the next report Good Bye

Misty path continues

These were very common

Life on life

Near park entrance

Here how HARIYA Celebrates his First arrival to HP

Thanks for reading!

We started from Nivithigala around 9am in the morning. The crew was three and we used a micro sports double cab..

The drive to Delwala was quite effortless. To get to Delwala one has to turn from Kalawana road at Pabotuwa to Uda-Delwala road. From Delwala to Udadelwala road condition not too bad and can be managed by a car with some ground clearance.

After reaching Uda-delwala, there is a gravel road to right as one pass the temple of Uda-delwala. This road can only be managed by a 4wd vehicle or by a three wheeler. Otherwise one has to walk 1 km to reach the starting point of the hike. We were lucky as one boy volunteered to guide us. Otherwise we might have spent hours looking for the waterfall as some places path was not clear.

We reached the 1s waterfall after about 45mins climbed which was not very difficult. (We climbed wearing formal clothes).It had many sections and height was around 40meters or more…..

Glimpse of 1st fall in distance (sorry for poor quality-3mp camera phone..)

1st waterfall……

Upper part of the fall…

Can you see our guide and my friend reaching mid section of fall…

After reaching the 1st fall we started to climb. But the stretch from 1st fall to 2nd fall is strenuous. We had to use all four of our limbs in some instances. It took us 45 mins to reach the 2nd fall. On the way to 2nd fall we reached the top of 1st fall.

Top of 1st fall…….

2nd fall…..difficult to get closer…..

Closer look….

2nd waterfall with the base pool

We had a dip in 2nd waterfall, base pool…..

It was very disheartening to see the destruction brought by “walla patta” fiasco to this virgin rain forest adjoining Sinharaja.

We had to finish our journey of climbing from 2nd fall as time was not permitting. We hope to cover the remaining 5 falls on next time, probably with one night stay in the forest.

My elder son and daughter did not join due to their busy schedules. I started around 5.30 am on Poya day with my wife and younger son and reached Eheliyagoda and turned left along Dehiowita road and reached Eheliyagoda Rubber estate where you can see Bisodola Ella.

Road through Eheliyagoda rubber estate

Bisodola Ella, didn’t have much water

Then we came back to A4 and turned left before Kuruvita junction to reach Bopath Ella.

Bopath Ella and the base pool

It’s gorgeous

Driving another 2 KM further up along this road we reached the turn off to Dodan fall

Sign board at turn off to Dodan fall

Dodan fall did not have much water

Then we came back to Kuruvita junction and turned left and continued along Erathna road and reached Diva Guhawa. Lord Buddha had come to this place with 500 priests, while he was visiting Sri Pada.

Diva guhawa, also called Bata thota lena – Click Image to Enlarge

You have to climb nearly 500 steps

Sthupa inside the cave

Diva Guhawa

We came back along Erathna road and turned left before kuruwita junction, towards Batadombalena. About 5 KM along this road, we reached Arambe Ella just by the side of the road.

Arambe Ella

Lower part of Arambe Ella

Then we came to Rathnapura and took the road along Siripagama. About 7 KM along this road we turned right at Malwala junction to take the Wewelwatte road.

Aanda Ella was the first waterfall we came across on this road. Another few kilometers ahead there were two water falls in close proximity.

Aanda Ella

Both falls are within 50 meters

Katu Kithul Ella

Hal Ella

Then we drove about another 5 KM on this road where this gorgeous Dehena ella was seen just by the side of the road.

Dehena Ella seen from the main road

Road to Alupola Ella – Click Image to Enlarge

Then we came to Wewelwatte junction and turned left and drove about 3 km to reach Alupola Ella. As we turned to Alupola road, it started raining and we missed the waterfall and gone passing it and turned back to see this glorious waterfall.

Road side beauties along Alupola road

Capturing Alupola Ella

On our way back from Alupola we could see the Beruwatte fall, far away.

Alupola Ella near the base pool

Beruwatte fall zoomed, seen from the Alupola road through thick mist

From Wewelwatte junction we drove about another 2 km and reached this massive waterfall.

Beruwatte fall

Gushing water at the base pool

After a heavy battle with leeches at Beruwatte fall, we proceeded further towards Rassagala and there was another beautiful one just by the side of the road which I thought was the Wewel Ella.

Upper part of Wewel Ella

Lower part of the fall

Then we noted another small cascade along the main road, but when reached it only recognized that it is just a water channel with a Peela. Few more kilo meters ahead, we came across another tiny waterfall seen far away through paddy fields.

Water channel

Seen far away through paddy fields

It is the Dodamgallena Ella or may be Demala Ella. Then we proceeded towards Rassagala

Dodamgallena/Demala Ella zoomed

5.30 pm near Rassagala

That was the last waterfall along Wewelwatte road and we came to ‘Terico Resort’ at Belihuloya. The Belihul Oya is running just by the side of this hotel.

Belihul Oya as seen from the room

There were plenty of open areas like this

After breakfast we left the resort and came to Pambahinna along A4 and turned right towards Kalthota. After passing Sabaragamuwa University we reached Samanala wewa dam and stopped for a while to see the famous leak.

Leaking water of the dam

This leak is a blessing for villagers

This leak is a serious engineering blunder in Sri Lankan history which caused this project to be a failure. However, this leak provides a continuous supply of water to people living there and for them, the leak is indeed a blessing.

Samanala wewa Dam

Road to Kalthota through thick forest

After driving through these lush greeneries for about 30 minutes, we came to Rajawaka and drove about 5 KM to reach Thanjantenna town where we turned right to reach Kuragala. It was 11.30 am and not the best time to climb Kuragala. So we gave up the idea and came to our next place on the list, Duvili Ella.

We had to walk about 1½ KM from the ticketing centre as the road was under repair.

And from there another exactly 362 steps down, to reach the waterfall.

362 steps to reach the waterfall

Kalthota Duvili Ella

There is a walking track where you can reach the top of the fall.

It’s really eye catching

Top of the fall, not a safe place for bathing

Top of the fall where Duvili Ella begins

Endless views

Then we came to Kalthota junction and took the right turn. We passed the Budugala Archeological site and the Budugala viharaya. Driving few more kilo meters we saw the Diyavini Ella.

Diyavini Ella seen from the main road

Diyavini Ella zoomed

Huge pipes carrying water from Samamalawewa reservoir

Then we came to Haputhale through A4 and reached Cues Tar Inn. After a quick wash we went to Bandarawela to meet our veteran hiker Priyanjan and that was the first time I met him.

View from the hotel

View from the hotel

Next morning we left to Lipton’s seat. It’s a 19 KM journey through Dambetenna estate and one of the best scenic roads I have ever come across. We came to the Kelburne point which is about 5 KM from Haputhale, where you can get a unique view towards down south.

Kelburne Point

View from Kelburne point

Along the road to Lipton’s seat

Along the road to Lipton’s seat

Road through Dambetenna estate

Dambetenna tea estate

After 1½ hrs drive through these lush plantation, on a very narrow road we came to Lipton’s seat. We were the first to arrive there, but the place got crowded within about half an hour.

Lipton’s seat

Place got crowded very soon

History of Lipton’s seat – Click Image to Enlarge

Thick mist around Lipton’s seat

We couldn’t see anything except the thick mist. Although we stayed there for more than one hour, there wasn’t any sign of a clear view.

So we left the place desperately and came back on the same road. Halfway we turned towards the Nayabedda estate. Passing Nayabedda factory we came to Bandarawela/Poonagala road and turned towards Poonagla. It’s 18 KM to Poonagala and a very scenic road through several tea estates. Poonagala is a small town and majority of people are estate Tamils. From Poonagala we came towards Koslanda which is another 14 KM drive. Before reaching Koslanda, we stopped at Makaldeniya junction

Seasonal fall along Poonagala road

Found a comfortable seat in heaven

A massacre… Very soon there will be hotel here

Poonagala International cricket stadium

We took the left turn from Makaldeniya junction and there was a hotel but it was closed. I wanted to get to the top of Diyaluma but there wasn’t any trace of a walking track. This is a very lonely place and there wasn’t anyone to get any information. Wasting about thirty minutes walking up and down I gave up the idea and came back to Makaldeniya junciton and proceeded towards Koslanda. The road to koslanda is very narrow and steep with a number of hair pin bends.

Steep hair pin bends

and narrow roads

Finally came to Diyaluma falls which is the 2nd highest with a height of 220 meters

Diyaluma fall

Diyaluma fall

From Diyaluma, we came to Bambarakanda which is the highest waterfall of Sri Lanka, with a height of 263 meters.

We came across few seasonal cascades along Koslanda/Beragala road.

Along Koslanda/Beragala road

Along Koslanda/Beragala road

We came to Bambarakanda Holiday Resort around 4 pm. After a chat with Mrs. Sera Mayakaduwa, I left to Bambarakanda water fall with my son. As I reached the turnoff to the waterfall from the main road, I was shocked and miserable to see the ‘development’ of the area. Now there are concrete steps built up to the base pool with an observation deck. The walk through those pine forest, tumbling, crawling and the struggle with leeches are no more there. Frankly, Bambarakanda is a concrete jungle now. They have spent 16 Million rupees so far and the project is still underway

Bambarakanda seen from the resort

Observation deck

Base pool as seen from the observation deck

Next day morning I had a walk along the Bambarakanda/Ohiya trail and the road was lightened with early morning rays.

Bambarakanda/Ohiya trail at 6.00 am

Road is paved up to the V cut

After a heavy breakfast with rotty we started the hike to Lanka ella. Mrs.Mayakaduwa’s son in law ‘Lanka’ also joined with us. First part of the trail was through a pine forest.

First part is to climb through this pine forest

Bambarakanda/Kalupahana road seen from the trail

Then we had to pass a thick Maana forest where there wasn’t any clear path but we managed to find the trail and finally reached this magnificent fall.

On the way to Lanka Ella

finally reached this gorgeous Lanka Ella

The base pool resembles the map of Sri Lanka, hence the name ‘Lanka Ella’ derived.

Shape of the base pool

Right end of the base pool

Then we came back to Bambarakanda Resort and said good bye to Sera Mayakaduwa and drove towards Rathnapura. On the way we saw the Surathali Ella from the main road. We walked about 100 meters through a foot path to reach the base pool.

Surathali Ella seen from A4

Surathali Ella at base pool

Then we came to Pelmadulla and turned along Kuttapitiya Road to reach Kirindiella. It is about 7 KM drive from Pelmadulla.

Kirindi Ella seen from observation deck

What an amazing sight

It was almost 9.00 pm when we reached home and yet another memorable family trip.

Year and Month	April, 2014 (15th, 16th)
Number of Days	Two Day Trip
Crew	One
Accommodation	Cook’s room of a guest house
Transport	Bus, Tuk Tuk
Activities	Trekking, Hiking, Photography
Weather	Sunny
Route	Maharagama -> Galle -> Hiyare -> Kottawa -> Kanneliya -> Udugama -> Yatalamatta -> Galle -> Maharagama
Tips, Notes and Special remark	Carry leach repellents (eg. Salt). A guide is not needed for the Kottawa trail. Tickets should be bought to enter both reserves. Kottawa Rs.600/= Kanneliya Rs.28/= (for the ticket) 400/= or 800/= (guide fee options for main / Kabbale trail) Trekking /hiking through Kanneliya is not allowed without a guide. Vishan (0774614930) and Nilantha (0718192079) are two of the best. If you are planning stay at Kanneliya, it is advisable to book from forest department office at Baththaramulla. Few private lodges are also available, which are ideally should be booked in advance to ensure you have a place to spend the night. Wear cargo pants and trekking shoes to protect from possible snake attacks. Go early as you can to see the beauty of nature.
Related Resources	Trail Guide: Kabbale Mountain and Anagimale Falls Circular Trail – Kanneliya Rain Forest
Author	Dhamz
Comments	Discuss this trip report, provide feedback or make suggestions at Lakdasun Forum on the thread Solo travel to Kottawa and Kanneliya forest reserves

The initial plan was to travel somewhere around Mathale and Reversten, with a bunch of officemates. But everyone seemed to be busy, visiting relatives for the new year. Knowing that it would be a crime to spend the holidays at home, I decided to visit Hiyare, Kottawa, and Kanneliya. This is my 1st ever solo travel experience

On 15th morning, I left home and arrived Maharagama around 7am. Took the bus via expressway and arrived at 8.30am in Galle. From there, I got into Galle-Udugama (#377) bus which left around 9.20am. It took roughly 40mins to arrive at Hiyare junction. Alternatively, you can take Colombo-Udugama (#393/1 ?) bus from Pettah.

From Hiyare junction, you have to take the road towards right. Landmarks at the junction are a set of shops and, “Nigrodaramaya” temple. Estimated distance from the junction to Hiyare forest reserve is 4KMs. The sun was up and with the amount of trekking to be done in two days, I was hesitant to take a walk to the gate. The tuk tuk guy quoted Rs.150/= and without having 2nd thoughts, I got in. Once you go along the way, there’s a bridge. As soon as you pass, take the dirt road on the left side. You will arrive at the gate in about 100Ms.

Bad news! The gate is locked! The security guy told that the forest reserve is closed. Hiyare was a must-do-trail as I was longing to photograph snakes. With a bit of disappointment, I got into tuk tuk and headed towards Kottawa (If you are traveling via bus/car, continue through Udugama road. After passing 13KM post, you will see the Kottawa information center -you are supposed to buy tickets from here. Further along the road before the 14 km post, is the entrance on the left side with a large yellow sign board “Kottawa Arboretum Wet Evergreen Forest Kottawa Khombala”. You can enter the forest from here)

Kottawa information center is also closed!! Since the entrance to the forest is located separately, I took a chance and went further. My luck is working! The gate is not locked. So I got down from the tuk tuk and entered the forest (the driver asked for 650/= which seemed to be too much).

.	Otocryptis wiegmanni Wagler, 1830; Sri Lanka Kangaroo Lizard (E); Pinum Katussa (S) Endemic

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Inside the Kottawa forest, there’s a main trail and few by-trails. You can easily navigate alone but do remember the landmarks especially if you opt to deviate from the main trail. I was trekking through one of the by-trails and then navigating along a small waterway, and with the excitement from seeing endemic fish, I forgot to take a note on the trail. Took awhile to figure out how to get back on track

After spending about 2 hours in the forest, took a Galle-Dellawa (#358) bus and headed towards Kanneliya.

Kanneliiya

There’s a huge board of one of the lodges (Kanneliya Forest Resort?) at the base of the road. You have to take the road on the right, which goes up to the mountain. Busses won’t travel in this route. Estimated distance is 700M-1KM from the base to Kanneliya gate. At 500M, you will find Kanneliya Forest Resort on the right side, and few more resorts on both sides when you travel further.

It was around 3-4PM when I arrived at Kanneliya. My initial plan was to spend the night at a temple, and explore the forest on the following day (16th). Apparently, there are no temples around Kanneliya. Options I had were, either to travel back to Udugama, or move further towards Dellawa. (All the resorts at Kanneliya were closed due to new year holidays). Since traveling back would take a considerable amount of time, I was tapping into houses and asked them whether there is any place that I could spend the night. One lady said she would have taken me in, if not for the visits she had planned to see the relatives Another old couple told me to travel straight and get inside the gate (ie Kanneliya forest).

So I got inside and asked from guides about accommodation. Bad news! All the places are booked. I kept on emphasizing that it is just for me, and I only need space to sleep. Suddenly, one guide said that they were informed from a nearby house that a solo traveler is looking for a place, and asked whether it is me. I nodded. Then he said that there’s a possibility, but doubt whether I would like it. Now luck is turning my way. I agreed to check out the place, and we went to a guest house which is just outside the gate. The place was occupied, but the cook offered me his room to spend the night, which was a gem at that point! (the room is an elevated cottage-like, which they will offer soon to solo travelers and couples, thanks to me

I started the trek, via Kabbale trail at 7am with Nilantha (who opted to guide me. Apparently, he’s the 2nd in command of the guides). We’ve also covered about 2KMs of the main trail at the end. Sharp at 2.15PM, we finished the journey. Below are some pics.

Rana temporalis (Günther, 1864) Endemic

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Eutropis floweri Taylor, 1950; Taylor’s skink (E); Taylorge hikanala (S) Endemic

Dendrelaphis caudolineolatus, Gunther’s Bronze-Back. Endemic

Anagimale falls

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.	Iru Raja (Zeuxine regia) -An endemic and endangered ground orchid that grows in lowland wet zone and sub montane zone forests of Sri Lanka. Most of the time it grows on leaf litter. It is used in traditional medicine for treating snake bites.

A ground orchid species

Ceratophora aspera Günther, 1864; Rough-horn Lizard (E); Ralu-ang Katussa (S) Endemic

Otocryptis nigristigma Bahir & Silva, 2005; Lowland Kangaroo Lizard (E); Pahatharata Pinum Katussa (S) Endemic

After the journey, I quickly had a dip in Gin ganga and headed towards Kanneliya junction to catch a Udugama bus. From Udugama, there were no buses to Galle (probably because it’s the late evening. Est around 5PM). So I took a bus (can’t remember the destination) and got down from Yatalamatta. There are buses passing Yatalamatta frequently to Galle. Got to one of them and headed back home

“The time is passing 11.30 Next coming up the devil’s hour with the shrill sound of Cicadas & the hollow less darkness. The night mail train of Badulla from Colombo fort is starting by now with erasing that all noises. Our destination is Ohiya railway station with the intention of other new journey. Our aim is walk to kalupahana on the devils steps.”

Branch of short elbow bends across deep brae is called as “Devil’s Stairs” by English planters. Because of hardness & dangerous of the way and the shape of the stair this was named as “Devil’s Stairs”.
There is no any bus as transport & people fulfill their all facilities on walking to city. The nearest hospitals are Boralanda & Haputhale. Consider above facts we can decide the people who live there are very lonely & separate by the society with rural lives.Besides plucking tea, growing vegetable is an additional way of income in these people.

It was about 4.30am of done which got down Ohiya. It was very cool in the morning because of the dry weather condition of these days here. Baring that tough cold we reach to Mr Gaminie’s stores to get the breakfast to start hour journey. We swallowed very hot rotiis and left there looking for Udaveriya by Gaminie’s trishaw with having lunch also.

Another beautiful dawn

The way which we should walking

The top view of “ohiya waththa” estate

Heart stolen view of nature lovers…

It’s at about 6.00am when we start our journey from the name board of Udaveriya. First portion of this path is tar paved and it is fall across a serpentine forest. Then it came to open area. “Ohiya waththa” state can be seen ahead. Path is fall down across this state to down side. We reach to decayed tea factory across short cuts of tea state.

Mmmm… Do you want a fresh tea?

Ruins of the tea factory

What an amazing beauty…

Along the way…

Cool misty morning

Misty valley

Bonny view of land mark

Misty is not leave yet

Another angle of misty valley

Paradise of the photographer

Beauty of nature

We can see here a line of workers houses also. And also we can get the help of a small guide at there. Then orderly we passed Udaveriya tea factory, Bangloor & went forward and also we were not forgotten to chat the innocent tamil people in here which we met. It is break down the duties of Ohiya also Udaveriya factories because of the administration problems and the building also became as ruins. We went forward with passing other crop lands. The way was very tough & hard by then.

We went forward across tea states without any sign of human. Then we entered to “Lyburn” division of Udaveriya state.

A tiny cottage of estate people

Their Cemetery

Work happily

Prosperous crop land

Just click

Ruins of another tea factory

Name board

After passed another 2km’s we could see another line of workers houses. The children who lived there ran up to us because they don’t familiar with new comers. When we treated them which our foods they get a very happy with less of words. That’s the same also us. We start our journey with a new impression with neglecting the disturbance of tough sunlight.

The moment of leaving misty

Along the rough way

Their smiling eyes waiting for you…

The place which collect tea leaves

On the way to “Kalupahana” then we entered to “Kings lyburn” The board which mentioned the distance to “kalupahana” as 14 km was making us so tired.

If the time passes 10.00 am there was a tough sunlight because of the dry weather condition.

We went forward with feeling the beauty of surrounding. Then the way was entered little bit higher area. We entered the upper part of the way. After then we entered to western “Haputhale” division of the “Udaveriya” estate. From that the way was slope full.

The harsh way with painful legs

Smiling with forget their labored lives… (Don’t forget to chat in a moment with innocent people)

Enter to the “Kings Lynn”

We have more to go…

Great work – Click Image to Enlarge

You must go upper way

Welcome to West Haputhale

The way through the tea estate

It was not any repair of that road which sharp stones. Any other line of cottage was met for us and we didn’t forget to bring some sweets the small children in there also. We could see the upper part of “Lanka Ella” passing another 4 km.

Journey was very tough because the time was reaching 12’o’ clock. When we entered to devils steps which were passing the “V” cut we were very tired. We get a small rest to have the lunch and again started to continue our journey.

Their community hall

Another tiny cottage

Sharing with sympathy

Do you feel him?

Running in front of us

Feel the tasty of sweets

Is this innocent face hope only foods? (You must feel this close with them)

Their also other innocent children live in our country…

Go forward with severe sunlight and the hard way…

Group of tiny cottages

The view of “Lanka Ella”

The place of “V” cut

The way which seen down at the “V” cut. We should go this way ahead.

The main road of “Badulla- Colombo”

Then we could see the way which we should walk is looked like stairs. When we went forward we could see 1st scenery of “Bambarakanda” Ella.

And also we had met a sudden wild fire. It was destroyed a large amount of forest area by the fire devil because of the dry weather.

Sudden wild fire

It’s spread rapidly

We had not anything to do all is finished instant.

The first scene of the “Bambarakanda”

Blossomed wild beauty

Heads of crown shape Finas

We could reach to “Bambarakanda” fall at about 2pm & also we put off our all tired by felling the water fall.

From “Bambarakanda” to “Kalupahana” we hired a three wheel & from there we reach to “Kurunegala” across “Rathnapura” & “Kegalle”. And then the time was 11 pm. We reach to the destination adding with the beautiful memories to my travel life.

Blossomed wild beauty

Relieving her all weight from the top

She is the tallest mermaid in Srilanka

If it is lack of water but much of bonny…

Actually you may feel this experience with mountains, narrow slope, passing. And also don’t forget to bring some sweets for friends who the children live there. Because they always waiting for us with calling “Hello Friends”.

Thank you very much to my tracking partner & also those who read my report.

So this is the continuation of my Horton plains journey. If I describe story so far briefly:-

We started from Kalupahana and came to V cut by a three wheeler and started walking in the jeep track. Had a de tour to Top of Bambarakanda falls and came back then continued walking. After passing Devil staircase and walking further few kms we camped in the last part of the jeep track (in the tea estate) and reached Ohiya – HP paved road next morning and reached ticketing office around 8.00 a.m.

You can view the full report here.

After reaching Horton plains for the first time I was in a hunger cover many trails. Although my friends informed that’s difficult to cover so much in a single trip I was not in a position to give up. “If there is a will there is a way”. My plan was to cover Word’s end circular trail and Thotupola trail as fast as possible and to reach camp site 01 before dark. Then do the Kirigalpottha trail next morning and descend via Dayagama Trail.

I would say our timing was perfect as we finished all the trails earlier than we estimated. But Weather didn’t allow us to camp as it was raining and thundering in the evening but God had faith on us and introduced a kind hearted human so as to execute our rest of the plan smoothly.

So this is our Four Trail Marathon of Horton Plains

At the Ohiya entrance. We showed the receipt of Campsite booking and entered the park

There is nearly 5 km to the visitor centre. we walked nearly for 2km and hired a three wheeler for the next 3km

Along the way we saw the path to Ginihiriya Bungalow

Near canteen. Feeding wild animals is not a good thing. We also had our breakfast around 9.00 a.m.

Word’s End Circular Trail

We kept our bags at DWC office at farr inn and took only a bottle of water and proceeded. Wildlife officers requested us to remove even the polythene label of the bottle .That’s really good supervision.

Starting the circular trail Sharp at 9.30

Stream at Red Bridge

Beginning of Circular. We took the Right path

Chimny Pond

Another pond……….. Mutton Leg???

Belihul oya was flowing calmly

Entering the forest patch

Steps down to see baker’s falls

Baker’s falls- view from the observation point

View from the middle

View from the bottom

Promoting tourism………………….

Back to plain

flora

The Great World’s end Drop

Houses at the bottom ( Belihuloya )

Zoomed

Towards Mini world’s End

Mini World’s End Drop

Valley

relaxing

Interesting (Rawul Gas)…..From this point we speeded our walk

Interesting rocky path

wow

Closer to starting point of circular trail

We were at farr Inn at sharp 12.30 . Completed the trail within 3.00 hrs

Thotupola Trail

Then we came back to the car park and searched for a three wheeler. But there was only one. The driver was waiting for his visitors/passengers as he had to drop them to Pattipola. What to do. As humans who have the best ways of communication we should be able to solve a problem by negotiating peacefully. We gave him an offer.

First drop us at Thotupola and come quickly to car park to pick his passengers. Then drop them at Pattipola and come back again to pick us at Thotupola trail head. The bid we offered was 1500/-. He happily agreed.

So we got in to three wheeler and rushed towards Thottupola even without having lunch. He dropped us at Thotupola Trail head Sharp 1.10p.m and we told him to come and pick us at sharp 3.00 thinking we could cover the trail before 2 hours. We settled Rs.500/- for the initial journey and promised to settle balance after picking us .Also gave some extra money to bring a pair of batteries and some food items. Sometimes it’s worth trusting humans by taking a mild risk.

At the Thotupola trail head. We started Sharp 1.10

Important notice – Click Image to Enlarge

Misty path

Misty, rainy and dark .I loved this weather although it was not good for photography

Dark and mysterious ………

Resting a bit at a flat rock

Journey continued

Thotupola (familiar word for both of us. But this time it’s an unofficial visit )

New one

We were at the third highest peak of SL

We came to the summit around 1.55 p.m. since rain started to pour we crept in to a small hut nearby and waited for 10 minutes. Then we started coming back. It was like a marathon. Not only had we wanted to escape from rain we wanted to flee away from the mysterious dark surrounding. Two times we were stopped by a sound of a large animal that was running through the forest patch. Both times it was a large elk. Luckily we didn’t notice a clue about its predator.

We came back to the trail head at 2.25 p.m. it’s a real marathon to cover this trail in 1hr and 15 minutes. So we waited for our driver at the rest room/wash room which was being built.

Resting after the marathon

To our surprise our driver came at sharp 3.00. After thanking for the commitment and settling his balance we rushed to the canteen and had two large spicy egg fried rice.(They didn’t have fish or meat.).Then we came to Farr Inn before 4.00p.m. and got ready for the camping part.

Unsuccessful Camping

But weather was not friendly. It was raining and heavy winds aggravated the condition. Also few thunders were joining the tragedy. Wild life officers by their experience told us it was not suitable for camping. They also mentioned If we were deciding to abort camping better to leave park early as after 5.30 it would be difficult to find a mode of transportation. But I was not in a position to give up and told them we’ll wait till the last moment.

We waited till 5.30 but conditions were getting worse and we had to make a decision. I gave up the camping part but was really concerned about other upcoming two trails. Only option was to go back to Pattipola and come back in the morning which will consume a lot of time, money, and energy. I knew if we had gone to Pattipola or Ohiya it would have affected the positive mind set and Moral, surely it would have lead us to abort the trip from that point .Because I knew we couldn’t expect such a commitment and punctuality from our tired bodies and soul .

Again the Communication Skills came into part .We talked to the officer in charge for the night shift and clearly described our intentions. He was a Young, well understanding and kind gentlemen. And he was a very intelligent officer who used “Rubber Band Theory” at that moment and gave us an option where neither had he to break the rules nor we had to suffer the night. As there are some ethics to maintain I am not going to describe each and every thing. I can say because of his helping hand we were fresh, fit and positive enough at the Kirigalpoththa trail head by 6.30 a.m. following day.

Kirigalpoththa Adventure

Farr Inn

My Friend with the Helping Hand. New friendship is begun with two departments.

Our First attraction

Beautiful but threatening plants. Gave us a hard time to walk.

Morning view of the plain

Activities of big cats found even at the beginning

Mist ……….my favourite

flora

interesting

Came to the first forest patch

Came out of the forest….We passed a plain then a forest.Again a plain then forest for few times until we reach the last forest patch

Only decision point…Cross the stream..Turn right………that’s all…….

Drown in the mist

Bowitiya the queen in the hills

Spongy / bumping sections .here after we entered the final and the longest mountainous forest patch

What has happened to this large bee hive in Sri’s Report…. Tony must have eaten it all…

There were so many jungle cocks and emerald Doves eating Nelu seeds. But they didn’t give us a chance to picture them

Rock where we had breakfast

Lovely

Starting to climb the peak

Taking a small rest

Some barriers

Here we are at the viewing point which is 150m below the summit. But the view was not clear due to mist

So we made it interesting and adventurous. walking in narrow path in the misty and drizzling condition

There was a safe edge at either side. So we didn’t want to pick the forest trail(by route)

Slowly but carefully walked on the rock

Final part

Flat area at the summit .we reached the summit at 9.15a.m ( 2hrs and 45mins for the hike)

Here is the second highest peak of SL ( Similar rock arrangement as Thotupola)

How do you express your feelings in the highest peak which is accessible by foot…… ……..By Doing YOGA ?????

I’ll do it in my way……………………

beautiful

We waited nearly half an hour and decided to come back

Through the Nelu Bushes again

Foot prints of the Giant. It was not there when we were climbing. He had come to the foot path from right end and walked for 20-30meters and re entered to the forest from left side. Also there were nail marks on a tree .didn’t bothered to take a picture even and left the place with rocketing speed.

colourful

Coming to the plain. Is it Agra – Bopath mountains? we slowed down the speed after this

Maha Rath Mal

At 11.35a.m we were able to reach Farr in .We were above par to do this in 5hours as I was thinking of 6hrs initially..So we slowly refreshed and got ourselves ready for the return journey. We had a hearty meal at the canteen and said good bye to park and Wildlife officers then started our last trail at 1.15 p.m. That was to descend via Daygama

Dayagama Trail

We had to walk in the pattipola Road for nearly 500 m before we enter the trail head near one of the bungalows belonging to wildlife officers. I should say Dayagama trail is a very scenic and isolated one. It had been used to enter the park using vehicles early days. But it’s now abandoned. We were walking along the wide paved road (initial part was difficult) .It was truly a walking in the park (Almost no change in elevation).Mild breeze and scenic mountains washed away our tiredness. We felt like fit enough to do another three day trip. By 2.45 we were at the Dayagama upper division (estate /HP border)

Starting point

Beautiful mountains covered with thick forest

Refreshed by awesome surrounding

Initial part of the trail is washed away due to rain

Coming back to the paved section

Exchanging the back packs

Scenic

Original walking in the park

Path through the beautiful thick forest

More to go

One of many water streams we met

Trail end ( From HP)

Estate /Park Border

After reaching the park we rested for a while in the nearby Kovil .As I mentioned earlier our planning and timing was very successful as I had studied all the trails before the journey. But I couldn’t follow the Dayagama trail that much as it’s an easy and one way trail. So I forgot that we have to arrange transport from park border to Dayagama before descending. My assumption was no sooner we reached park border we could arrange a tri wheeler. It was not. There were no line houses or vehicles close by. I was undecided. I offered some panduru for the God and pleaded for an option. After that we started the journey again. While walking my friend also mimicked “three Wheel ekak labewa “

Kovil

We didn’t see any

Estate houses far away

After few minutes we saw the glimpse of line houses faraway .but there was such a distance if walked along the road. So were finding for short cuts through the tea estate and luckily we found it. So we decided to descend through tea estate. The view was priceless. And we got the bonus too. We saw a beautiful waterfall at the corner of the estate. Later I came to know ( From friends) it’s Agra Falls. She was fabulous. I realized why god hadn’t let us to travel by a tuk tuk at the beginning.

Descending through tea estate

Glimpse of a waterfall

Zoomed ………Bonus …..She was beautiful

Civilization is near

Then we reached the line houses and asked for a three wheeler. One guy promised to drop us at Dayagama for Rs.800/-.We reached Dayagama and took a bus to Hatton. We reached Hatton at 6.00 p.m. For our surprise there were no buses coming to Colombo. Funny thing was there were some brokers who arrange Vans which can accommodate 10-12 to go to Colombo at the cost of Rs 500/-each. Initially I refused to go in that way but finally decided to take the next van as there was no other option. Driver with a struggle picked 10 people and left Hatton around 7.00.It reached Kaduwela around 9.30 .From there we took another three wheeler to Battaramulla.We reached our home around 10.00. After the dinner my companion said good bye to me by ending our memorable three day hike to Heaven on Earth

This is just a beginning to my Horton plains Explorations .I would say this was a surface study. Willing to explore HP deeply in future .Till then bye for now.

Thanks for Reading

A long awaited dream…
Sometime ago while traveling on Ampara – Siyambalanduwa road I saw a giant box shaped rock and got to know the name “Govindahela”. I was fascinated to climb it but had literally no information about it. Later found an article on Lakdasun forum written by a foreign lady who climbed the rock. But that article was not very encouraging as her experience turned out to be a very tough and difficult one. A couple of years later suddenly there came a report on the forum by – of course – Ahsan, who had climbed it, alone, with not much hassle and once again I started living in my dream. But the year 2013 obstructed me with bad weather a several times and kept me away from fulfilling my dream. But this time however I found a way to sneak through.

The looooong ride…
The whole country was still in holiday mood on the weekend following Sinhala – Tamil New Year festival. The roads were empty, free from traffic jams, so I got into a Monaragala Bus from Pettah bus stand expecting a rather quick journey and fewer crowds. But surprisingly the bus was full when it left the bus stand and was packed when it passed Kaduwela. I had no problems with that since I was in a comfortable corner but I wasn’t comfortable with the speed bus traveled at all. It was one of the slowest bus journeys I have ever had and it took ages to get to my destination, Buttala where I was to meet Ashan for our first day’s excursion.

A quick connection…
I got down from Buttala starved to death as I had not eaten anything for many hours and annoyed by the long ride, badly wanting to have something to eat. I called Ashan who had come there after his morning duty and went towards the bus stand just to find him waving his hands from an already leaving bus signaling me to get in to it. Left out with no other option than getting in, I quickly caught the connection to Badalkumbura. It was a great relief to know that Ashan had bought us lunch packs. It took more than 30 minutes to get to Punsisigama where we got down.

Waterfalls of Menik Ganga…
We hired a three wheeler to reach two waterfalls formed of the Menik ganga river situated close to each other. With a banging subwoofer behind and a smoking driver in front of us, we got to the starting point of the stairway to the waterfall. The stairs got us only to the river where some villagers were bathing and we went a little further along the river to get to the top of the Pareviyan ella.

The path to the river

First of the many cascades right at the bottom of the stairway

View from the top of Pareviyan Ella

Pareviyan Ella cascading point

Then we took the footpath to the base of the fall. Though we thought the water level would be low since it was the dry season, Pareviyan Ella had enough water thanks to a few recent showers in the area.

On the way down to teh base

Pareviyan Ella

The falls and its 70 feet deep base pool

It was lovely

Top part of the right side fall

The base

.	Left side part plunging down

.	Ancient rock steps on teh other side of the fall

It was too sunny and difficult to capture at slow shutter speeds

Amazing rock formations…

Along this part of the river we came across some amazing rock formations. The turbulent waters of the river had beautifully crafted the rocks into many shapes, smoothly polished rock slabs and some scary looking pits with depths of many feet. Some multicolored rock surfaces also were among these wonders.

Through a small cannyon

Scary looking

A deep hole carved in

Shapes

Colors

A rock slab

smoooooooth…

wow

Beautiful

Enjoying the views of the rock formations and some mini cascades we trek another short distance down the river to come to the top of the Dunhinda falls of Menik River. It seems like the name “Dunhinda” is common to some fantastic looking waterfalls of Uva province. As Ashan said there is another waterfall named Dunhinda formed of the menik river further up. This Dunhinda wall was a real beauty with a good height. It looked like it was at least 30 or 40 meters in height.

Going down along the river

Pareviyan ella framed

lovely

a mini cascade

another beautiful cascade

Dunhinda cascading point and a mini cascade

wow	Dunhinda plunges down

wow she’s a beauty

.

The top

Mini waterfall

WOW

.

sadly, only the side view…

gorgeous…

and the river flows on…

.

The base

.

This cascade was lovely

another cascade

Ambitious but…

Dunhinda fall was plunging down the sheer vertical drop off a wide rock slab. As it seemed it would create a mighty wide fall during the rainy season. There was no path to the base of the fall and both sides of the fall also had a sheer vertical drop as same as the falls itself. It looked too dangerous to descend directly, so we came up with an ambitious plan to reach the base of the pool. Our plan was to climb up the hill on the left side of the falls and then find a way down from the other side.

With Ashan leading the way, we set off for a very hectic mission than we thought. The climb was serious, the undergrowth was thick, and the soil was loose and slippery and on top of all it was extremely hot and humid making us sweaty as sweaty can be. After a short time we came across a large boulder blocking our way which we tried to avoid by going around it. Then we saw a slope towards the river and started going down. Crawling down a couple of rocks we came to a small clear area where we could see outside just to find all our efforts has gone in vain. We were still on top of the fall and more annoyingly further behind than our starting point. We had no idea where we lost our direction. We were short of energy and time for going back and search for a different path. So we decided to bare the disappointment and to refresh ourselves. After coming back to the place where we saw the villagers were bathing we jumped into the river and had our lunch. It was great to have a dip in the chest height cool water after a hectic day.

Going back

The oasis…

what a lovely place to have a cool dip

wow

The time has come…

Of course, to fulfill my long awaited dream I was excited. Wanted to leave Monaragala as early as possible but the 1st bus to Ampara was leaving Monaragala at 6.30 in the morning. But on that day it seemed to be either missing or late. So we got into a Buddama bus and got down from 9th milepost junction after about 1.5 hours journey, then walked about another 600 – 700 meter to our destination.

The rock was standing majestically under the morning sun very close to the road and the temple at the base of it was right by the roadside. We spoke to the chief monk and informed that we are going to climb the rock and set off. The first part was a nice easy walk through a lovely forest patch. Though it was the dry zone, it had fairly good undergrowth.

direction board

The giant

The temple

here we go

shady path

lovely path

After crossing two streams over the remains of – what used to be – bridges over them the climb got steep and got steeper in no time. We were ascending along the rock steps and in some places along the footpath over the rocks. It was just the morning and was very shady inside the jungle but we were already soaked with sweat. After about one hours walk we came to the base of the rock where we saw the gigantic rock wall standing to the sky above us through a small opening in the tree canopy.

once a bridge…

how we crossed it

.	it was a lovely forest

wild flowers

well, there were ferns

a rock cave

flat areas were extremely rare

the path

arched

sun wastrying hard to sneak through the tree cannopy

steep

and a glimpse of our destination…

The climb got harder after this point until we met the mighty rock wall itself. It was a 90 degree vertical rock surface challenging us. We would not have climbed it if not for the six iron ladders placed at the most difficult parts. The ladders were not in very good shape except for a couple of them. We climbed them cautiously to reach the “sulang kapolla” where we were offered a great view towards the east coast.

the first two ladders. had to keep the camera inside for some time from this point onwards

what we saw at the sulang kapolla

Towards east coast over the Konduru hela

we came along this drop…

Dream fulfilled…

Another short climb after the sulang kapolla took us to the top of the rock. I was ecstatic by the fact that I fulfilled my long awaited dream and by the mesmerizing view unfolded in front of us. It was a grand panoramic view stretching over many miles towards all directions.

The awesome we greated us at the top…

WOW…

a pano

Towards Siyambalanduwa

.

the large pond carved into the rock at the forst view point

.

towards Monaragala over Muthukandiya

Muthukandiya reservoir zoomed. Maragala kanda is seen faintly in the backdrop

9th milepost junction, Buddama road and Ampara road seen

The king’s seat (Rajaasanaya)

the elevation

Magnifiscent…

Govindahela…

The 558m tall iconic monadnock in Siyambalanduwa, a far corner of the Uva province is easily identifiable unmistakably from anywhere you see it. The rock not only a natural phenomenon but also has a long history. It is said to have existed as a fortress of an ancient king – as I read, a king named Buwanekabahu. But I could not find more information to determine which Buwanekabahu this was, as the information I read in couple places were confusing. However it is obvious why this place was chosen as a fortress by whomever the king. Its natural unreachable formation and the excellent view towards all directions would have made it an ideal stronghold.

Later the Englishmen named it “Westministers Abbey” due to its shape. Today the rock is known by both names.

Still there are remains of ancient structures. We saw about five ponds carved into the rock and another large pond on top of the rock. The rock walls of that pond are still in good shape. There were many other ruins and some inscriptions as well. We also could witness the treasure hunter’s leftovers, some of very recent activities.

ruined pun kalasa

this moonstone was in very good shape

the large pond

rock walls of the pond

.	another moonstone, faded…

Pillars

someone has tried to read the inscription very recently

another pond carved into the rock

another one

looked like carrying water to the pond

vandalized

one more…

After spending nearly one and half hours enjoying the endless stunning views from all four view points and roaming around the jungle patch on top of the rock we started getting down. The first thing we did after getting down was informing the monks about the evidences of recent treasure hunting activities we saw.

a pano from teh second view point

first view point seen from the second

the drop of forst view point

what a view…

towards wadinagala range

Wadinagala peak zoomed. Jayanthi lake and Gal Oya reservoir seen

Jayanthi lake in front and Gal oya reservoir in back with Walasgala mountain in between them and mount Inginiyagala behind it

from the view point #3

lovely

wow

.

.

mind blowing scenaries

lovely…

third view point seen from the fourth view point

towards east

the two man team

the king should have felt ‘Majestic’ with the view in front of him…

the last one

And a video clip of our hike -

Thank you for reading.

Dedication – I’d like to dedicate this report for everyone who’s ever bothered to share their travelling experience with others such as writing a trip report or using a post. Folks, your time and efforts are very much appreciated and continue the good work.

Hi folks, I’m back with yet another Journey and this will be the first of another type, Waterfall Hunting aka Tour de Waterfalls. I’ll try to keep these too short and sweet like my Pic Journeys so that you won’t have to spend that long to finish reading them.

Ok, so let me straight get down to business without any hanky-panky.

The 1 May that has a very dramatic history behind was about to be celebrated yet again by all the laborers and working people around the world. Unfortunately in SL, it’s nothing but political drama being played on vividly decorated stages by bringing hundreds and thousands of people to Colombo from all around the corner using our public transport buses depriving the needy to go anywhere on that day.

We decided to celebrate this historical day with the beloved Mother Nature by visiting the Best Creation of her, the majestic Waterfalls. While the Sri Pada season is about to wind down and the South-West monsoon rains are beginning to hit the parched and cracked earth bringing that freshly earth smell with it. Trees were beginning to dress nicely and Hasitha out of nowhere suggested we do a waterfall hunt on A4.

We found very vital pieces of info from one of Ashan’s trip reports way back in 2012. This is why I love trip reports. You can get some very crucial pieces of info even after years thanks to the people who had bothered to share their experience. Lakdasun is becoming the best knowledge bank thanks to these when it comes to visiting SL.

Uncle Tony, after a long silence, decided to break the shackles and join us but not before his majesty granted him permission. I felt lucky to be single after all. We got together on the dawn of 1 May and headed towards the Kottawa under the capable hands of Hasitha while Tony started typical Pacha Stories to keep us awake.

The Path we took in details:

Maharagama->Kottawa->E1 up to Galanigama Exit->Rathnapura->Kuruwita->Take the Devipahala Road->Bopath Ella.

Continue further up the Devipahala Road->Dodan Ella.

Back to Kuruwita->Weralupa Junction->Turn to Kospelawinna Road (Mahawela Estate Road->Katugas Falls.

Back on A4->Thiruwanaketiya->Take Nivithigala-Kalawana Road->Marapana->Rajana Falls.

Back to Thiruwanaketiya->Maswatte Junction before Lellopitiya->Nuga Lena Monastery Road->Hathbili Ella.

Back on A4->Pathakada Junction->Devalegama Road (Buddhist College)->Pulun Ella.

Back on A4->Pelmadulla->Opanayake-Ellepola->Ellepola Falls (138km Post – 138/11 Bokkuwa).

Tour Highlights:

 1. Bopath Ella – Kuruwita

2. Dodan Ella – Kuruwita

3. Katugas Falls – Weralupa

4. Rajana Falls – Marapana

5. Hathbili Falls – Lellopitiya

6. Pulun Ella – Pathakada

7. Ellepola Ella – Opanayake

So let’s get started:

Bopath Ella – Kuruwita

Take the Devipahala Road near the Kuruwita Pradeshiya Sabha (to your right when coming from Ratnapura side) for about 2-3km until you reach the turn off to your right to Bopath Ella. There’s a Pradeshiya Sabha Car Park about 500m down the road. If you are early you can drive right up to the ticket counter, further 500m or so.

N.B. You have to buy tickets Rs. 20/- each. Wear your school uniforms and get a 50% discount. Further, you have to cross the river to get to the base of the falls. This might be tricky due to flash floods and rise in the water levels within a very short time. Be careful and don’t try anything which might endanger you or your team.

Don’t forget the school uniform and get the 50% discount

Please do these not just read and forget

The info about the waterfall

View from the steps

Calm and placid water

These guys were showing us the safe passage

Early morning and she was simply awesome

Closer

More	Right up to her face… very kissable

The stem of the Bo Leaf

Bopath Ella on fire? Nope it’s jus the water vapor

The trio

Tackling the slippery rocks while keeping an eye out for broken glass

Gushing down

Up to knee level

For them, it’s just a part of day-to-day life

Dodan Ella – Kuruwita

Get back to the turn off of Bopath Ella and turn to your right further up Devipahala Road for another km or so till you reach the Dodan Ella Road (the road name is that with a sign) to your right in front of a shop. There’s a huge concrete man-made canal and just follow it till you reach the falls to your left next to a house. You can get to the top of the falls as well.

The typical village mud houses still at large

The top of Dodan Ella

The fall is just beyond the edge

We were treated to some clear skies

The water seeping through the tank like structure on the top

The falls seen from the top

Good for a Lakdasun Gathering

Here she is

Just the right amount of water

Gorgeous

Portrait

The below

Could keep looking at her forever

Time to go

Common ones in the area

Katugas Falls – Weralupa

Along the A4 just before Ratnapura town, you’ll come to Weralupa Junction where there’s a turn off to your left called Kospelawinna Road, also called Mahawela Estate Road. Take this road straight till you reach a football ground to your right. (About 2-3km away from the A4). This is your landmark and there’s a small bridge (more like a Bokkuwa) and take the tiny path to the left of it along the waterway for about 100-150m till you reach the falls.

N.B. You’ll come across a tiny falls which flows along a slanting rocky slab go further up and there’s a tiny waterfall to your right similar to Gal Oruwa Ella, Wedda Peni Ella or Pilituda Ella which I named Katugas Mini Falls. You have to go further uphill for another 100-200m to reach the real Katugas Falls.

See where Tony is pointing. This is just passing the Bokkuwa. The football ground is about 50ft before

Getting to the Katugas Mini Falls

There she is, very narrow reminds me of few other falls

This is not the couples I was referring to

Up close

From the top

Searching for the real Katugas Falls

Plenty of safe bathing places available

Going uphill was a tough ask

There she is… just falling down a narrow passage but hardly any water

The base pool and there’s a cave like thing at the bottom

The cave is barely visible from here

Obscured by the water vapors

Rajana Falls – Marapana

Take the road up to Thiruwanaketiya where it’s forked into two. Take the Nivithigala-Kalawana road for about 1km till you meet a bridge with a bend to the right at Marapana Junction. (Not the bridge you meet as soon as you turn to Nivithigala Road.

There’s a fruit stall at the end of the bridge. Take the steps built into go down to the waterway to your left at the beginning of the bridge bordering a house. Follow the path for about 150-200m till you reach the falls.

Just at the start of the bridge… The fruit stall is at the end

Here it is

Juicy

Beginning the trail

Rajana falls too had very little water to offer

Up close… the base pool is almost 320-degrees encircled

The water is muddy

The top of her

There were these fellas having a dip in the top pool

Here they are waving at us

Hathbili Falls – Lellopitiya

Just before Lellopitiya junction called Maswatte Junction. Here there’s a road to your right with a notice saying Nuga Lena Monastery. Take this for about 500m till you meet a concrete paved 3-way junction. Go straight till you reach a shop (on the wall it says “Nuga Lena Aranya Senasanaya 1.5km with an arrow to the left) and take the left footpath. There are at least 2 different cascades you can visit. The first you meet after about 500-600m along this road. However the correct Hathbili Falls is further up.

Walk some more along this path till you reach the end of the road with a sharp bend to your left. There’s a mud hut with a jack tree and beyond that a large house. The path to the Hathbili Falls is in front of this house through a tea patch about 100m away.

Lush greenery

The shop with the directions go the Nuga Lena Monastery

Leading from the front

Mangustine

A cascade along the path

Abysmal looking

Oh dear!

At the end of the road and see the hut.

Good for a tea advert

From the top of Hathbili Falls

No different from others

Hmmmm

Trying his best to capture what little there is

The middle part

This is the top half with a nice pool for a dip

Crystal clear water

Pulun Ella – Pathakada

Go along the A4 towards Pathakada. There’s a road to the right called Devalegama in front of Pinwatta Gems. Go about half a km passing Pathakada Buddhist College till you reach the turn off to your right with a notice on a yellow painted board. The falls is less than 100m from here.

I don’t think they really are awake having seen many hundreds of liquor bottles and cans

Pebbles

Here’s Pulun Ella, the lower part

Barely any water

The bottom

The upper part with a deep water pool for swimming and diving

The village boys were enjoying making it hard to get a clear pic of the falls

The top

Ellepola Falls – Opanayake

This is located just off A4 just passing 138th km post at 138/11 Bokkuwa to your right. Ellepola School is just before the falls. It’s easy to miss if you don’t keep an eye out for it.

See the diversion of water?

The falls is created by the gap in the wall

What a pity!

This the gap which creates Ellepola Falls

Going downhill trying to reach the base

Here we are

Water going downwards

Finally some water to speak of

The bottom

Rocky well like place

Side view of her

Just reflecting on day’s events so far

The pic of the day…

Time to say good bye

What a tragedy most of these falls are facing

Looks cute, ain’t he? He was with some people who had come for a bath

Well, folks, as you see except Bopath and Dodan Ella, all the other waterfalls are nothing glamorous in terms of water levels. This is due to both lack of the rain falls and diversions created by the villagers or local authorities to take water for mini hydro power plants or other purposes. It’s heart breaking to see this happens but there’s nothing we can do. Dodan Ella too will suffer the same fate not long before as we saw a gigantic canal is being made to divert its water elsewhere.

Video Collection of the Waterfalls:

Hope you enjoyed my first encounter this year with waterfalls in a specialized version of my trip reports, Tour de Waterfalls. Hoping against hope that there’ll be some with more water to expose in the upcoming months.

Take care and keep travelling.

How can I start? As you may aware Sri Pada and Knuckles are my favourite places on earth. I used to visit them at least 2-3 times per year. If I talk about knuckles it’s a vast area covering more than 30 mountains, more than 20 isolated villages, so many waterfalls and caves large variety of flora& fauna etc. Importantly in this range you can find waterfalls cascading over caves. One example is Sera Ella in Puwakpitiya area. But out of that type The Most Beautiful, Most isolated, Most difficult to Access and undoubtedly queen of all waterfalls in knuckles area is The Duwili Ella in Kalupahana. It’s situated almost middle of knuckles range and to reach it by using any path you have to walk in the thick jungle for at least 15 kms or more. Some of the accessible routes to this hidden beauty are via Bambarella (via Enasal Wadi), Ranamure, Meemure, Rambukoluwa, Walpolamulla etc. After seeing many reports, discussions and videos about this gorgeous waterfall I was dreaming to visit it and spend a night in the cave. Although the path through Walpolamulla was said to be harder than other routes I was willing to choose that path as I desperately wanted to visit that isolated village Walpolamulla and to spend a night there too .The name itself gave me a strange feeling

Our Target..Our dream..Our Mission Queen of Knuckles waterfalls. Famous Duwili Ella . Cave is in the middle part.

I was dreaming for this more than a year or so. Finally dream came true on 24/04/2014

Beautiful Walpolamulla . This was in my dreams too. Achieved it 23/04/2014

But I had heard, read and understood that the successive rate of reaching Duwili Ella ( Caved one ) by using Atanwala-walpolamulla road is very low due to the distance you have to walk is too long and you have to pass many water streams . But I was not in a mode to give up. From Last year I had been planning to do this but abounded due to bad weather, less no of persons, lack of time etc etc. But in the meantime I read all the reports about this journey at least 10 times each in order to draft a master plan. Most of all Malaka’s Map was the recourse article I referred most.

Malaka333 s Magical map was very important for Me ( Taken from Malaka’s Report )

Therefore I could understand the challenges, risks and mistakes of a hiker who use this route. This is what I understood about Attanwala-Walpolamulla Route

1. Since the distance from Pitawala ( last place you could go with any transport mode ) to Duwili falls is 16-17kms you should start at least from Walpolamulla(4 km from Attanwala)
2. Even from walpolamulla you should leave before 6.00 a.m.( before the first rays of sun reach earth )
3. You shouldn’t waste time on searching for lower falls ( You can search them in the return journey )
4. Not necessary to take the tent as the shelter in walpolamulla and the cave is so far good
5. Shouldn’t waste time on cooking or bathing
6. Team shouldn’t be large (my opinion – 5 is ideal) and they must be strong enough to take any challenge. Previous hiking experience is a MUST
7. Backpacks shouldn’t be too heavy (you should bring less cloths, light dry food, no tent etc.)
8. And Most of all you need a bit of luck. So doing rituals (according to your belief) will be a great relief to your mind. As you tend to think there’s someone always protect you in this dangerous terrain.

After waiting for years I decided last that “I am going to do this”. According to a Sri’s comment on a report of me it was my “Most wanted journey this year “.So I called Wasantha and arranged a guide and accommodation .Then came the difficult part .Finding hiking partners. All the lakdasun members whom I had traveled with were busy as those were week days. I didn’t pick my work mates too as I hadn’t traveled with them often although they were free. Then I remembered my loyal heroes whom I knew them for more than 20 years or so. And they have done tough hikes with me including knuckles ( Prince – Meemure & Chiran – Riverston, Manigala). Since they happily agreed to join me I drafted my plan after taking the above facts to mind and executed smoothly.

23rd April ( Initiation of the process with the tight schedule )

Our objective was to reach Walpolamulla before 6.00 p.m. and stay the night there. As we knew with the public transport it was difficult to achieve target, we chose bikes. Bike plus Hike made us interesting. So We left our homes around 5.30 a.m. pumped petrol full tank and checked air from Koswatta . Me and Chiran were traveling in my Bike and Prince in his own. The challenge we faced was due to an engine repair in prince’s bike he couldn’t exceed the speed limit of 45km/h and he had to stop for 10-15 minutes in every 40 kms. With this moderate speed we reached Kandy around 10.00 a.m.( We stopped for breakfast at Pilimathalawa ).Then we visited Tooth relic to get the blessings for our risky journey and started going towards Mathale at 11.00 a.m..Since the road constructions were going on it was a slow ride. We purchased many items from food city at Mathale and re- started our journey around 1.00p.m.( we had to stop for some while due to heavy rain ). On the way to Pitawala we came across so many attractions such as Bambarakiri ella, Riverston Peaks,Pitawla Pathana but skipped those lovely places because we wanted our main target to be achieved i.e. WALPOLAMULLA. We were able to reach Pitawala around 2.45 p.m.

My Two Heroes of the journey Prince-front ,Chiran – Back (Taken at Nittambuwa )

Sacred Temple of Tooth

When We Go to Peak Wilderness – We Get the blessing of Holly Foot Print When we go to Knuckles- We get the blessing of Holly Tooth Relic ( Dalada Samidu Pihitai !)

On the way to riverston

We had to Check for our slow and steady Rider – Prince

Manigala Seen to Pitawala Pathana

Attanwala Paddy fields

Shop at Pitawala where we had light lunch and did the final part of shopping(Rice, Eggs, some biscuits )

We went to Wasantha’s Place and parked our bikes in his garden. Although he wasn’t there he had given instructions his wife and our guide ( Ekanayaka Mama ) of our arrival. Ekanayaka mama also came to visit us from Attanwala as we were late. So after re arranging our stuff we left wasantha’s place at 3.30 p.m. and started walking towards Ekanayaka Mama’s home at Attanwala.

Beautiful Attanwala

Ancient warriors were in sleepy mode as giant mountains

Thelgamu oya

Attanwala temple close to Mama’s House

After walking nearly 1.5 kms from Pitawala, we reached Ekanayaka Mama’s home around 4.15 p.m. Mama went inside to prepare his bag and other stuff. I was in a hurry as I didn’t have clear idea of the path to walpolamulla but mama was not. He told us to rest a bit and ordered his daughter in law to make tea for us. So we did our final repacking of the day and most importantly applying Alum. From the very beginning I knew “The leach factor” would really affect Prince. In any other day I would have laughed at prince’s Leach Phobia but this time was not. I took it very seriously and previous day I had bought some fresh Alum from Pettah which consumed me nearly 2 hrs. But it was worth wasting time because we saved lots of time due to that. For my surprise in this kingdom of leaches , Prince never complained a single word about leaches and concentrated purely on the hike. That was another Key factor of our success. Finally we left Ekanayaka Mama’s Place at 4.45 p.m. and walked towards Walpolamulla

Ekanayaka Mama’s Home.. Getting ready for the “Mission Impossible”

First Hurdle….. We successfully crossed many hurdles in our journey

Road signs ( They were there till the Duwili falls )

Manigala

Perfect guiding. After this you have to turn right to get in to Walpolamulla

Place where we did rituals and rested for a while…Why not have some fun too

Other side of Manigala. After some while we began to descend

Oh God …This is heaven ( Our Second favourite place on the trip)

See their joy. This was early a tank Made by Yakka Gothra

Finally a Group photo PHOTO : CHIRAN

Our destination on Day one. We Came Sharp at 6.00 p.m. PHOTO : CHIRAN

Let Me explain about this place and how we execute our rest of the plan.

This is the only house in the village. There used to be six seven families in the village but now reduced to one old person. He had also gone to one of his sons home at Mathale. This house contains two small rooms , kitchen and a tiny passage as a store room. First thing we did was collecting some fire wood. While Me and prince were doing that Mama and Chiran went to nearby stream ( 200 m away from house ) to take some water for cooking and drinking purpose. We had to hurry up as it started raining .We had planned Rice and curries for 23rd night, 24th Breakfast and lunch as we could prepare those from this house without much difficulty.(If we prepared them in the middle of the jungle much time would have spent and things to carry would have been so heavy.)In other words in this Whole journey we did all the cooking being in a resting place. i.e. House or cave

We lighted some candles and switched on our torches ( We carried 4 including two head torches ) and prepared tea(nest cafe ) then prepared our dinner. One advantage was there were some pots, pans in the kitchen also a well made Hearth (LIPA) . Adding to that we had the portable gas cooker of Prasanna .So why not have the benefit of it. We made rice and 3 curries and a boiled egg for Prince. After cooking we wanted to have some wash but it was around 7.30 and didn’t want to take a risk by going to the stream as it was fully dark. Adding to that it was thundering and raining. So we used the conditions and bathe under the rain like small children which was barely enough to wash away our tiredness. Sometimes we used the water came out from the roof as a Peella. However Prince(local sudda ) and Mama did not join our rain dance . We used rain water for washing pans, Spoons too. After putting new cloths we had our dinner and had a chat for a while. We put some fire wood to the hearth as it was difficult to put a campfire outside due to rain .Mama was singing Kawi not about knuckles but about his lovely wife who had passed away two years ago. He had beautiful memories about their young age and her demise seemed to have affected him a lot. Around 10.00 p.m. we went to sleep memorizing our beautiful journey of the day and entering the next day plan to our inner minds.

Happy cooking

Rice, Dhal Curry, Fried Salmon , Soya Meat and Boiled egg ,Yummmm. What else you need

24th April (Propagation with extreme alert to reach Target)

We Woke up around 4.30 a.m. Our target was to leave Walpolamulla before 6.00 a.m. and to reach Duwili Eli Cave before 4.00 p.m. As I told you earlier we tried our best to save time. So we didn’t want to waste time on cooking in the middle of the jungle. We prepared tea and went to the stream to collect water and prepared rice, Fried Dry fish, Dhal curry, Soya meat and Boiled eggs. Then we cleaned the place and re packed our bags. Then we had our breakfast around 6.30 and packed our lunch too. By 7.00 a.m. We said good bye to Walpolamulla.I would say we were about half an hour late but should give an excuse as we had breakfast there and much time and day light wanted to clean the place.

By 7.00 a.m. Said Good bye to Walpolamulla

Steam from where we took water for basic needs PHOTO : CHIRAN

Obstacles were sometimes enjoying

Thunhisgala seen Far away PHOTO : CHIRAN

Endless mountains

After that we encountered a steep descend till we reached the next water stream

Nice place

Nature at its best PHOTO : CHIRAN

This is descending……….Be careful

First water stream

Rocks were slippery due to yesterday’s rain and I slipped when crossing a large rock and twisted my right ankle. I lied down as I couldn’t go any further. Cried with pain but didn’t want to give up. Waited for five minutes after spraying Chiran’s Magic spray then continued with limping feet. Mama Cut down a branch of a tree and made me a wooden hiking stick. We again came to somewhat flat terrain and reached Nugathalawa around 8.30 p.m.