Attempted Twin Peaks-Bana Samanala/බෑණ සමනළ (2010m)

This is kind of a trip I didn’t want to document early because we couldn’t achieve our target. But later I changed my mind as requested by other companions of the journey and I thought this note would be useful for someone who attempts this in future. Though we were not able to reach the peak it was a nice memorable trip for the life.

Bana Samanala are two peaks situated at closer to each other at Peak Wilderness. British called it as twin peaks to due to it’s similar view from top of Adam’s peak. They mentioned it as false peak due to similarity to Adam’s peak/Sri Pada.
But locals name one peak (tallest one) as Bana Samanala and other one as Darmaraja Gala (ධර්මරාජගල). 1:50 000 map shows it’s height as 2010m but must be lower than this.

Bana Samanola (බෑණ සමනළ), Darmarajagala (ධර්මරාජගල) and Kunudiya Parwathaya (කුණුදිය පර්වතය)

Bana Samanala and Darmarajagala

Zoomed view of Bana Samanala

Bana Samanala peak has been conquered by few members of Explora club- University of Peradeniya recently. It stimulated my mind to do this expedition (Called expedition as there is no proper path to the peak). I gathered information from one of the member from that group and planned the journey in off season of Sri Pada.
Eventually I got a big number of friends for this journey, all together 9! It was a bit challenge for me as I have never been a part of such a big group and indirectly I have to look after requirements of everyone.

I selected August month for this expedition as it is fairly dry season. The pathway we got to Bana Samanola is following the Palabaddala-Sri Pada trail up to Seetha Gangula and then goes up along Seetha Gangula. We imagined it would be easy to go up along Seetha Gangula in dry season. Our initial plan was to reach the peak in first day and camp over there. Second day we reserved for second peak and Adam’s peak. But plans would not work always.

Five of us got Rathnapura bus from Colombo and reached Rathnapura bus stand around 7’o clock. Others joined with us there and we got Palabathgala bus following our breakfast. We just informed to Palabaddala police post and the priest of the temple that we are going Sri Pada in off season. (We didn’t mention about Bana Samanala hike).

Day 01-Off season Sri Pada hike up to Seetha Gangula
Weather was fairly good at our beginning and we were informed a Buddhist monk stays at a cave situated at the base of Darmarajagala. Few villagers have gone there for alms giving on that day morning. First we crossed Pahala Pawanella and Ihala Pawanella (පවනැල්ල) villages and then passed Dorala Kade (දොරල කඩේ), Kokatiya Kanda (කොකටිය කද) and Lihini Hela. Though this is my 10th visit to Sri Pada, I have been at once in Palabathgala trail for climbing. It happened in my childhood with parents and it was my first visit to Sri Pada. We had two amateurs (Kodu Karayo) in this visit and we didn’t forget to keep a “Panduru”-පඩුරු for them. After passing Lihini Hela (ලිහිණි හෙල) the steepness was more and gradually we reached the place where Kalu Ganga origins at 1.30pm. We had number of rest stations and passed Katu Kithula Wanguwa (කටු කිතුල), Gonathalla Hela (ගොනතල්ල හෙල) and Gatanethula (ගැටනෙතුල) before arrive there. We decided to have our lunch at Kalu Ganga where we met the villagers who brought alms to meditating sermon. They explained how to reach the cave to meet Buddhist sermon and we thought it is important to meet him to get directions to Bana Samanala.

Part of team at Palabaddala before start the journey

View of Darmarajagala over Palabathgala Keerthi Sri Rajasingha RMW

Team except me

Preparing Jeewani at beginning of the journey

Passing Pawanella (පවනැල්ල) village

Small Ambalama found at Pawanella village

View of Palabaddala village and surrounding

Excellent weather at beginning

View towards

Passing Pawanella village

Entering Peak Wildness

Another mile stone-Kokatiya Kanda (කොකටිය කද)

Cement steps were made by Gamunu Regiment of Sri Lanka Army

Lihini Hela (ලිහිණි හෙල) Ambalama

Smiley face at beginning

Picture at Lihini Hela

Passing Lihini Hela

Reaching Katu Kithula (කටු කිතුල) Wanguwa

Obstacle

Foot steps

Passing Gonathalla Hela (ගොනතල්ල හෙල)

Alone man…

Gatanethula (ගැටනෙතුල)

Rathnapura-Palabaddala Sri Pada trail makes a beautiful appearance with greenish sideways and foot steps

Origin of Kalu Ganga

Lunch with short eats

Next mile stones we passed were Diyabethma (දියබෙත්ම), Indikatupana (ඉදිකටුපාන), Darmarajagala and Galpoththa (ගල්පොත්ත). We passed 6500th steps and identified the foot pathway in right hand side towards the cave. Weather has been changed to misty and gloomy. It was about 30 minutes walk to the cave and we met Buddhist sermon. He explained the route along Seetha Gangula and mentioned he has been at Bana Samanola Mountain in 2004. It was around 3.30pm and we decided to camp somewhere along the trail. We had a dip in cold weather at Seetha Gangula. The Ambalama at Seethagangula was demolished and we climbed further to reach Haramitipana where the largest flat area comes across in Palabaddala trail.

Reaching Diyabethma/Gajamansala-Rain water drops here divide into two and join with Kalu Ganga and Kuru Ganga. Therefore this place called Diyabethma. It is also called Gajamansala (ගජ මoසල)-Sometimes ago a rest (Ambalama) was here. Now it is not there. This was built by famous poet called “Gajaman Nona” (ගජමන් නෝනා).

Rest at Geththampana/Indikatupana (ඉදිකටුපාන/ගෙත්තම්පාන)

Flow over flowers

Scribbles at Geththampana

Passing Geththampana

Steps in monochrome….

Macro….

“Darmarajagala” ධර්මරාජගල- During Kotte Era a person called Darmaraja has made these stairs with assistance of Perumal Arachchi (පෙරුමාල් ආරච්චි).

Reached Galpoththa

Second round of Alum before cross walking to the cave

Wild beauty

Followed the foot pathway to meditation Kuti….

It is not advisable to visit there

Mediation cave

Weather became gloomy now….

Passing Nakiyamalahinna (නකියාමලහින්න)

Posing in gloomy weather….

Weaving…

Seethagangula (සීත ගගුල) …Origin of Kuru Ganga. Next day our main target

Heen Gangula (හීන් ගගුල)….where water is pumped to Sri Pada

කැරන්

Reaching Haramitipana (හැරමිටිපාන) Elevation is 1700m.

It was around 5.00pm when we reached Haramitipana. We had three Ambalama to be chosen to stay overnight. First we collected firewood and set a fire at outside of Ambalama to have refreshing tea. There was a watcher who stayed at Haramitipana and his initial respond was not good but later he was ok with us. As it started to drizzle we shifted the fire into Ambalama. It was a challenge to maintain the fire with damped firewood. After having a dinner we had few songs and fell into sleep. Though we carry two tents we put tent sheets only and slept on that. With freezing cold some guys were battling with sleep but I had a nice sleep till 1am. Around 1am I woke up with the scream of girls initially thought a nightmare.
Two Russian girls were climbing Sri Pada in Palabaddala road alone with dark. The dog was at Haramitipana barked at them and it made them to scream. We resettle the fire back and invited them also to be around it. It was a strange experience to all of us to have two Russian girls at our Ambalama in middle of night. We were friendly with them well and they appreciated the hospitality of Sri Lankans. We invited these two tourists to wait till 3.30/4.00 am and climb rest of the trail with us to Sri Pada.

Setting of camp fire outside the Ambalama

It was a difficult task to set a fire in mist with wind…

Cooking pot on camp fire

Preparing dinner inside the Ambalama

Around camp fire

Preparing dinner…

Mid night Russian invasion….

Day 02- Along Kuru Ganga /කුරු ගග (Seethagangula) to reach Bana Samanala

We have changed our mind in middle of the night to first visit Sri Pada in early morning. Because we noticed surrounding peaks in clearly with moon light. It started to rain around 3am and it delayed our journey till dawn. As surrounding was covered with mist even at dawn we decided to not to go Sri Pada and concentrate on our main target. Russians said good bye and invited us to visit Moscow.
Our new plan was to climb Bana Samanala peak along Seetha Gangula and come back as early as possible because the bus from Palabaddala is scheduled at 5.30pm. Nuwan decided to not to go and we kept our all stuff at Ambalama under the care of Nuwan.
After having some Samaposha we carried only little necessary stuff and climbed down till Seethagangula.
The route description given by Explora club member and Buddhist monk was like this:
Seethagangula gets branch soon and follow the right hand side one. Then follow the left hand side branch in second division and walk up along the stream till it ends. Then go through the bushes till you reach the peak. I have done map reading and had an idea of the direction of Bana Samanala peak.

Map reading: Red star shows the trail head at Siripagama. Green star shows Seetha Gangula. Black star shows Bana Samanola peak and black line shows our planned route.

Water level of Seetha Gangula was not that much high compared to yesterday but it was dam slippery to walk on rock surface. After few meters I gave up the idea to not to make my shoes wet. Once we entered right hand side branch it started to rain a little. We came across three prominent waterfalls in this journey and I would like to name them as Kuru Ganga falls-1, 2 and 3 respectively. Kuru Ganga branched into two again. We selected the left branch but it was divided into two in twice. This made us confuse as we were advised to walk till the end of the water stream. Due to thick mist the peak or even nearby higher places couldn’t be viewed. Eventually we decided to follow most left branches and at the end entered to the forest.

Trail head-Gloomy Seetha Gangula

It is always an ascend along the river

Sometimes it was difficult to go right along the river….Have to cross to the border

Branching point of Seetha Gangula

Right branch of Seetha Gangula

Kuru Ganga Falls-1. Waterfall with about 5m height.

Facing to another Falls-Kuru Ganga Falls-2

Kuru Ganga Falls-2. Height is about 5m.

Kuru Ganga Falls-3. It flows in two sections. Height is about 10m.

Prabath is at the middle of the fall.

Kuru Ganga Falls-3

Crossing the waterfall and climb it on it’s left hand side

Upper part of the waterfall

Thinking about the trail…

Fairly flat section after climbing third part

Another minor cascade

Along the water stream….Now it is about to be finished

Into the wild…No pathways within mist. Photo was taken by Chamara

Decided to turn back. Photo was taken by Kasun Shanaka.

There was no foot pathway in the forest and we had to separate bushes to move up. It was not that much difficult with Nelu bushes. We climbed up for about an hour imaging of the peak with flat rocky surface and a cave (According to them the peak has flat rocky surface and a cave). At the end we realized that we are in a flat area and time was around 12 noon. It made us to go back without getting on the top.

Reasons were:
1. We have planned to get last bus from Palabaddala-5.30pm. If we didn’t turn back at that time we would have to stay at Palabaddala over night.
2. Surrounding was extremely gloomy and only recent objects were seen with mist. We couldn’t see the peak.
3. If we reach the peak we wouldn’t have a surrounding view.
4. We were shortage of food: We had few loaves of breads for breakfast with two packets of biscuits.

Return journey was quick and we spent about 2 hours to reach Sri Pada trail. Soon after packing things we left Haramitipana Ambalama and rushed to Palabaddala as there was only 3 hours for the last bus. Though we arrived Palabaddala at 5.30pm last bus didn’t operate that day. At the end we hired a van to reach Rathnapura.
Later our map review showed we have by passed both Bana Samanala and Darmarajagala peaks and reached the plain between Sri Pada and Bana Samanala. (About 1900m-2000m height).

Approximate point we have reached is shown by black star.

Thanks for reading

සුමන සමන් දෙවි පිහිටයි.