My Dream HIKE- Nivitigala, “DELWALA SEVEN FALLS”

I was dreaming for close to one year on conquer the Delwala Seven Falls….. I had the chance to hike the 1st two falls (1st three falls, according to my count) in April, 2014…… One can refer to my earlier report…….

First a brief description of the seven falls…. As many might not hear about it…. But every single main fall in the complex is more than 20 meters in height…

This is situated in a village named Delwala which is situated on Delwala road branching off from Thiriwanaketiya-Agalawatta road in Pabotuwa junction (between Nivitigala and Kalawana). One has to travel 6kms on Delwala road up-to Uda-delwala Temple and take the gravel road next to the temple on right hand side and footpath lies to the left side of the gravel road after 100 meters.
This footpath leads to Delwala River. This water fall complex is formed by a tributary of the Delwala River. Villagers say it’s a Seven Fall complex….. But for me it’s Farrrrrrrrrrr better… It’s a Ten falls Complex……and by far most falls seen in short stretch in Sri Lanka….( So Lankagama complex will only get the 2nd place…)

Not to get confused I’ll number the falls according to villagers and put the number allocated by me in brackets…..

Let me start our hike…… We reached Uda-Delwala around 9am in the morning and met our guides. Uda-delwala…. After climbing down through private tea patches we reached the Delwala river….. We crossed the river…. If waer levels are high then it will be difficult to cross it. But we waited 2 weeks after the rain… so easily crossed it.

As I mentioned earlier, all the falls a are formed by a tributary of the Delwala falls….

We climbed uphill until we reached the top of 1st fall(2nd fall)…. As I said earlier to me 2nd fall…. There is, around 10 feet small fall just before the main fall which villagers ignore…. We climbed half way down along the 1st fall(2nd fall) to have some snaps….

As one has to climb along the edges of the falls most of the time, it’s a necessity that to have some local support….. As they know from which places to climb up without slipping (by hunting Walla patta)… Or else should be a pro in rock climbing…..

Below are some snaps of the 1st fall (1 &2nd falls)

1st and 2nd fall in distance….. from my previous visit on April,2014…. Due to the drought very little water then….

Top of 1st fall(2nd fall)

Side view of the top half of the 1st fall(2nd fall)…those pits by the side are pretty deep(more than 12 feets..)

Another pic of the top half of the 1st fall(2nd fall)…….

Back to the top of 1st fall(2nd fall)

Our crew at the top of the fall…..

After further climbing we reahed the base of the 2^nd fall (3^rd fall)….. this was the place we concluded our hike last time and had a nice dip……..

2nd fall(3rd fall)…..

2nd fall( 3rd fall)-total package….. note te deep base pool…..

Lower section of 2nd fall(3rd fall)

Upper section……

Myself @ base of the 2nd fall(3rd fall)

Then we climbed to the top of another fall( 4^th fall) which villagers have not given a number though it is more than 10 meters in height….

Top of unnamed fall…( 4th fall)

Top of the unnamed fall (4th fall)

By the side of a small cascade on the way up…..

Another small cascade we climbed on the way up….

We reached the base of the 3^rd fall (5^th fall) after another climbing…..

3rd Fall ( 5th fall)

Myself with friends posing-3rd fall (5th fall)

Left Half of the 3rd fall (5th fall)….

The most fascinating to see, was that the base of this fall was covered by high rock wall in all three sides except the side where water was flowing….. And the floor was formed by single rock slab where one can walk as the depth of the natural pool was less than a foot…..

As I said… the single rock slab…as the floor….

Climbing up by the side of the fall….

Top of the 3rd fall (5th fall) with the shallow rock pool I mentioned……

With some more climbing…. We reached the base of the 4^th Fall (6^th Fall)

4th Fall… (6th fall)

Guess the height…..

Deep base pool…..

Appreciating the beaty….

So… We kept on climbing… and reached the base of the 5^th fall (7^th fall)….

Climbing up…..

5th fall (7th fall)….

5th fall (7th fall)….

We started again to climb up hill… We passed the 6^th fall (8^th fall)…. But didn’t go to the base…. Went straight to the top of the 6^th fall (8^th fall)…..

Failed attempt to capture the side view of the 6th fall (8th fall)…..

Top of the 6th fall (8th fall)….

From here we could visualize the Delwala road with the tea factory…far away…. Forest covers all the falls and one won’t see a single fall from the Delwala road….. Such a hidden beauty…..And saved from Hydro power projects….

Note the tea factory……

After another climbing we reached the 7^th fall (9^th fall)….  We had a nice shower there…..

7th fall (9th fall)… See our guide climbing down from top of the fall……

7th Fall (9th fall)…

Top half of the 7th fall (9th fall)

My friend having a nice shower….

I too, couldn’t resist a nice shower….

There was another unnamed fall (10^th fall) further uphill according to our guide… But time didn’t permit us to climb further up… So we turned back, and climbed downhill (actually running downhill) and reached the starting point around 4pm…Climbing downhill, our guide took us along a path that lied inside the forest, thus permitting us to climb down the hill within 2 hrs.

Thanks for reading……