Karunagala-කරුණාගල (1668m) and Kikiliyamana-කිකිළියාමාන (2240m) Two ends of Kikiliyamana FR

Year and Month	2018 November 17th and 18th
Number of Days	Two Days
Crew	Day 01-Nuwan, Kelum, Sanjeewa, and Myself Day 02- Sanjeewa and Myself
Accommodation	Kuda Oya-Nuwera Eliya
Transport	By car and hiking
Activities	Hiking, Sightseeing and Photography
Weather	Excellent but became misty at latter part of the day
Route	Day 01 Colombo->Peradeniya-> Thawalanthenna-> North Pundalu Oya estate road (before Pundalu Oya town)-> Choice line houses-> Karunagala / Kattarawala->Back to Choice line houses->Pundalu Oya town->Nuwera Eliya via Dunshinae EstateDay 02– Nuwera Eliya->Kikiliyamana->Back to Nuwera Eliya->Colombo
Tips, Notes and Special remark	Start the journey early. Leech protection methods to be followed. Road conditions from Thawalanthenna (තවලන්තැන්න) to Pundalu Oya (පුන්ඩලු ඔය) is good. From Pundalu Oya to Choice Watta (චොයිසි වත්ත) there are some bad sections. But can manage with low ground vehicle like car. Pundalu Oya to Choice Watta road is scenic. Carry at least 1-1.5l drinking water per person for Karunagala hike. No water source we found on our way to up. Get directions from Locals and follow Google map. Karunagala hike is an easy one spends only 1.5-2 hours to reach the top. Pundalu Oya to Nuwera Eliya via Dunshinae road is terrible and narrow at some points. Road condition to Shanthi Pura temple is good. It is terrible after the temple up to Kikiliyamana towers. Better if you can park the vehicle near temple and walk along the road from temple. It’s not clear whether it needs official permission to visit at Police communication towers at Kikiliyamana. But you can have a reasonable view at entrance gate except Piduruthalagala side. As Choice Line houses are situated at 1300m, attitude gain is around 350m in Karunagala hike. Many Thanks go to Shashi for his adequate information about Karunagala hike. And his face book album stimulated me to this.
Related Resources	Trip reports : Kikiliamana
Author	Niroshan
Comments	Discuss this trip report, provide feedback or make suggestions at Lakdasun Forum on the thread Karunagala-කරුණාගල (1668m) and Kikiliyamana-කිකිළියාමාන (2240m) Two ends of Kikiliyamana FR

Kikiliyamana forest reserve which is situated at Nuwera Eliya district bordered by A5 road, Thawalanthenna-Pundalu Oya road, Nuwera Eliya town and Pundalu Oya area. Karunagala and Kikiliyamana are two hiking points of this forest reserve.

Kikiliyamana Forest Reserve. Karunagala is mentioned as Katterawella in metric map. Katterawella is circled. Rest of the forest reserve with Kikiliyamana peak is in other picture.

Kikiliamana (2240m) at Kikiliyamana forest reserve. Saman Eliya and Pundalu Oya-Nuwera Eliya road separate this part from rest of forest reserve.

Karunagala (black star) and Kikiliyamana (red star)-Google map

Satellite view of Kikiliyamana forest reserve.

Kikiliyamana is the 6th highest mountain of Sri Lanka and some transmission towers situated on top of it. Kikiliyamana is situated closer to the highest village of Sri Lanka-Shanthipura.
Katterawella is locally known as Karunagala, another end of Kikiliyamana forest reserve. I never knew about this trekking peak till I watched Shashi’s face book album. After getting enough information from Shashi we decided to hike Karunagala.

We departed from Colombo and followed A5 road to reach Karunagala. We had breakfast on our way at Pussellawa and got turn to Pundalu Oya from Thawalanthenna. Karunagala was seen when we passed Thawalanthenna town. After following B412 road-Thawalanthenna-Thalawakele road we have reached Pundalu Oya town. Actually our next turn was to left, just before Pundalu Oya SLTB depot and Pundalu Oya town. This narrow road (called North Pundalu Oya road) ascends through greenish tea estates and passed few line houses. Our destination was Choice Watta line houses where trail to Karunagala / Katterawella started. After parking our vehicle there we got information from locals to how to get on top of Karunagala.
It was a straightforward hike towards the peak and almost clear foot path was there up to the peak. First we hiked parallel to the tea estate and then entered the area with short bushes at the end of tea estate. We came across enough Guava trees with Guava seems nobody has touched them for a long time. There were multiple viewpoints situated at the edge of Karunagala. We have reached one of them on our way to the peak through Bamboo bushes. It provided good view towards Kotmale reservoir and surrounding area. We didn’t have more distance view due to upcoming

View of Karunagala / Kattarawala at Thawalanthenna

Closer view of Karunagala from Thawalanthenna

The team except Sanjeewa. We stopped for a snap on our way.

Closer view of Pundalu Oya town

Vegetable beds

Reaching Choice Watta where trail starts.

Young vs. Old

Along the tea estate

Peak of Karunagala and it extends with Kikiliyamana forest reserve.

Multiple view points of Karunagala

Line houses of Choice Watta

The road we followed to teach Choice Watta. Sinha Sanasa home stay is situated at the edge of this mountain.

පේර

උගුරැස්ස

“ කඩදාසි මල් ”

Reaching one of the view points of Karunagala.

Reaching one of the view points of Karunagala

Another view point of Karunagala. We didn’t try to reach there.

Hedunawewa area and Nilapiyasapura village.

Kotmale reservoir

Mahaweli Maha Seya-Kotmale

Sinha-Sanasa hotel, Choice Watta line house and tea estate

Branched Kotmale reservoir. Thawalanthenna-Thalawakele road and VT manufacturing factory are also seen.

Paddies at Kotmale area

Then we came back to the foot path to the top of Karunagala. Rest of the path lies within the area of short bushes and we have reached the peak where surveyor’s mark is placed. It took about 1.5- 2hours to reach the top of Karunagala from Choice Watta. Unfortunately there was no clear view from the top at that time as mist was around. The foot path extends to some extent into the forest reserve and there were some points higher than the place of surveyor’s mark. We have walked into the forest for another 500-750m and returned to the peak. Rest of the forest were full of Bamboo and Nelu bushes but walking was not difficult. In a clear day you can view Kotmale Valley, Peacock hills, Dolosbage range, Kotagala, Hanthana range, Kotmale reservoir, Piduruthalagala range, Dewathura Falls from top of Karunagala. (I have noted from Shashi’s album)

Back to the trek

There were only short bushes with shrubs up to the peak of Karunagala.

මීවන

මහ රත්මල්

Close up

Surveyor’s mark on top of Karunagala.

We five have reached the top of Karunagala

The team on top of Karunagala.

?? සුදු බිනර

Into the forest

Another view point of Karunagala. This place must be higher than the peak with surveyor’s mark.

Nelu….

Shined by Deer or Elk

The place of Choice line houses, first view point of Karunagala and peak of Karunagala (black star). Our path is marked by red.

Seems it is not getting clear we have decided to get down from Karunagala. On our way back we have noted number of cascades flowing from Karunagala range. (Some of might be seasonal or getting active after the rain) We had a bath after passing the bridge following Choice estate.

Getting down…

Kotmale reservoir through mist

Kotmale Oya

The area we passed…

Begonia

We were there….

Back to tea estate

කරුණාගලින් ඇදහැලෙන දිය ඇලි

Cascade flowing from Karunagala

කරුණාගලින් ඇදහැලෙන දිය ඇලි

The place we had a bath

Scenic road to Choice Watta

Our next stop was Pundalu Oya town where we had late lunch after the hike. As rain started we decided to reach our accommodation at Kuda Oya-Nuwera Eliya along Pundalu Oya-Dunshinae-Nuwera Eliya road. Though this road is blessed with number of waterfalls we were not able to reach some of them as rain disturbed us. But there were some cascades I have not been before. It was around 6pm when we reached our accommodation.

This waterfall can be seen behind the Tamil school at Kurunji.

Ready to transport

Scenic Pundalu Oya- Nuwera Eliya road.

?? North Pundalu Oya Falls

Breathtaking view

Passing Dunshinae

View of Karunagala

This waterfall is plunging out at road side. It is having 5-6 segments.

Closer view of the cascade.

Day 02
It was a fresh sunny day following rainy end of yesterday. I was tempted to visit at Kikiliyamana peak to enjoy the view. The view was crystal clear and we got turn to Shanthipura (ශාන්තිපුර) just before Nuwera Eliya town. (We drove from Kuda Oya). We drove up to Shanthipura and got right turn to Shanthipura temple which is considered as the highest temple of Sri Lanka. (BW the temple situated at top of Piduruthalagala is also mentioned as highest temple of SL) After passing the temple, the road to Kikiliyamana starts with utterly bad condition. Though the distance from there to Kikiliyamana is less it took about 45minutes to reach the entrance of Police towers. There was a clear view just before the entrance of Police towers. But you can’t get the view of Piduruthalagala from here and have to go to the highest place.
There are about six towers situated on top of Kikiliyamana. Police communication towers are situated at higher point than private TV channel communication towers. There is a non mortable road from the gate of Police towers to private communication towers. We drove along the proper road and reached the highest point of Kikiliyamana where Police communication towers and their mess are situated. It is a good view point with 270 degree view. We were able to identify Piduruthalagala range with towers, Sri Pada, other end of Kikiliyamana-Karunagala, Great Western, Uda Radella, Kotmale Valley, Mahaweli Maha Seya, Moneragala/ Peacock Hills, Ambuluwawa, Rilagala / Pasmale range, Kabaragala, Raxawagala, Seven Virgin Hills, Bathalegala, Ura Kanda, Samasara kanda etc.

It was pleasant to see this early morning.

Kikiliyamana towers from Kuda Oya

Kikiliyamana towers-These are private communication towers belong to TV channels. Police towers can be seen in left side of these towers.

Zoomed view of communication towers at Kikiliyamana.

Flowering….

View towards Nuwera Eliya

Hakgala

Scenic road to Kikiliyamana

Flowering Nelu….

Entrance to Kikiliyamana Police Towers. There is a separate path to private communication towers from here. (Seen here)

View from the entrance of Police towers. This include Kotmale Maha Seya, Rilagala / Pasmale range, and Great Western range. Even Seven Virgin Hills can be seen.