Exciting Hike to Illumbekanda Doowili Falls & Ranwala/Kuda Falls

I was waiting to hike to Illumbekanda doowili falls and Niroshan & Amila did this recently (July, 2014) from Denawaka Kanda side though they didn’t visit the Ranwala/Kuda Falls…..

Finally I decided to go on this hike as I couldn’t postpone it much further…. We went by threeweeler upto Illumbekanda school ( don’t get confused…though school is named as Illumbekanda, Trail starts from Denawaka Kanda)… We parked the three-wheeler near the school and started walking along the footpath that lies along the school…. It directed us to the suspension bridge in poor condition. After crossing the Heen dola we met motorable path that lead to Denawaka Kanda. If you have read NIroshan’s report, he has hired a three-wheeler from Pothupitiya to Denawaka Kanda along this path. Though the road was meant to be repaired; now it is in much worse condition than the time of Niroshan’s visit and three-wheeler drivers rarely agrees to take one to Denawaka Kanda.

Though Niroshan mentioned there was no bus service, there is a CTB bus which arrives to Illumbeknada school at 7am in the morning from Kalawana and it works till afternoon. Unless one has a 4WD vehicle/bike best way to reach the trail head is by this bus and walking the rest on foot to Denawaka Kanda as I mentioned earlier which is roughly 2kms to trail head….

.	Its like Pisa tower…angling to one direction…..

Dangerous….

Another pitfall…..

Pines patch along the road to Denawaka Kanda…..

Scenery along the road to Denawaka Kanda…..

We walked that 2kms along the Denawaka Kanda road and met our guide…. Though Niroshan mentioned that one can hike alone in this trail I advise, better avoid…. We were strongly advised by every villager who we met on the way to meet our guide/villager not to hike alone as no one has visited this place for ages from Illumbekanda side…I may be the first one to do this hike after Niroshan according to villagers and in some parts the path is non-existence….which we too firmly agree after our personnel experience gained during the hike….. they say most visitors come in January/February which are relatively dry months….at that time of the year path may be more clearer….otherwise try to find a guide….

Actually there are two paths to do this one…

1)along the river until the fall….

Advantages- this one can be done without a guide
Scenic…. One can enjoy 2 more comparatively small but very beautiful falls along the way
Less leeches

Disadavatages- As Niroshan correctly mentioned, this is hell of a walk- reminded me of hiking to Yaka-bedhi falls
Risk of flash floods in rainy season
Distance is greater compared to footpath

2)along the footpath- after about 2kms this path lies along the right side to the river, sometimes very close to the river bank….

Advantages- Distance is less
Aviod walking on slippery rocks

Disadvantages- path is pretty much lost in some areas
Plenty of leeches
Less scenic
It branches off in two points before path get dissapeared… if you take the wrong turn will end up in the river if fortunate and can walk upstream until the fall….otherwise end up somewhere upstream on top of the fall……

I’ll start with what we did….

So we walked up to Denawaka Kanda from that suspension bridge….. Though the scenery was magnificent we had to climb an elevation of more than 200meters during that course till the starting point….

With the guide we entered the forest….

Initial part of the trail was cleared enough so we happily walked on…After about 1km we met a junction… Left side path leads to the top of the fall further upstream to the top of the mountain while the right path leads to the base of the fall… One advantage is that most of the trail we were walking on flat terrain with small hills… So if one find strenuous climbing….have taken the wrong turn….

But soon rather than walking , we were climbing over fallen trees, crawling under the bushes….. Our villager looking at the path suggested us that we should walk up the stream….We too agreed as there was no path at all, and our village who has spent may nights in the forest was finding it difficult to trace the path…..

So half way along the path, we jumped into the river…. It was one hell of a walk upstream as NIroshan suggested…. We were barely walking without slipping…. And in some places the stream had deep areas where if one slips…he better be knowing how to swim…… One plus point is we met two small falls…. One fall reminded me Maha falls of Morapitiya….

We at the trail head……

No path at all…… see our guide trying to clear the path with mana knife…..

One hell of a climb upstream..…..

Small cascade we met on the way…..

Side we of the fall which reminded me of Maha falls…..

Finally we were able to reach the base of the fall after close to 2hrs of trekking….
Niroshan suggested there were only 3 sections of the fall…. But actually there are 4 sections of the fall… To see the top section one has to climb to the base of the second part( according to Niroshan-base of the top section)… we saw the top section through the bushes but difficult to get a pic as due to excessive flowing we cloud only climb to the base of the 3rd section with greatest of difficulty using all 4 limbs….. And according to our villager young people of pothupitiya/Kalawana come there during relatively dry months of January/February and stay overnight on the rock of the fall…But do not try to camp there on raining season…. After spending sometime there we contemplated on returning…. None of us want to walk downstream as it has more risks than climbing upstream….. So we took the path and with much clearing and crawling we were able to come to the trail head…. Villager said that usually outsiders take 2hrs to do the trek…. But on our way, with dark clouds looming overhead, we did that in record time of 1hr and 15 minutes…. And our villager said that eev they can’t do it less than 1 hour in dry conditons… With the pride of our acheivemt we walked to see our next target- Ranwala/Kuda Falls….

First view of the fall except the top section which on to the right side hidden along the trees….. & 4th left part of the fall

Lower half 3rd left section of the fall…..

Upper half of the 3rd left section….…..

4th left section…..

2nd section and top half of 3rd right section…

Right side of the fall except 1st and 4th part of the fall…..

Missing sections- 1st section and 4th left section…..

Finally we were able to reach the base of the Ranwala/ Kuda falls… but the fall was quite tall… probably between 20-25 meters….. it has 3 sections… main section is the middle section… top section only can be viewed from distance….

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.	Can faintly see the bottom of top section….

Thank you for reading…