Best Hike Ever in the Knuckles Range.

What I found in my camping journeys’ wonderful is digging around the knuckles. It was two times I was in the range and I found a guy who explored knuckles about 11 times. Then I realized that how less I know about this famous mysterious mountain range in Sri Lanka. There is no point in describing about the knuckles name and about the range since you can find so many resources which describes the range better than me. Aluwa , one of my friend invited me for this hike and he is another person who is greedy than me in exploring the areas which are difficult to trek. We gathered Colombo fort private bus stand around 2 am on a Friday to catch the Mahiyanganaya Bus which started the journey at 2.45 am. We got tickets to Teldeniya and everyone felt sleep after half and hour except Aluwa  (He has an issue with sleeping in moving buses). When we reached Teldeniya it was around 7 am. Then we took a Rangala bus from Teldeniya and reached Rangala around 8.15 am.

Reached Rangala Area

After that , we asked some one in the Threewheel park about the Kotaganga bus which we got to know left Rangala around 9.15 am to Kotaganga Village. But unfortunately he said that bus is not working these days due to an engine trouble. Then we asked him whether he can drop us at Kotaganga Village. But , because of the lack of threewheelers for our crew and due to the damages in the road he rejected our offer. But he said that it was just 4km and we can go on our foot. Finally we  decided to add extra 4km to our journey. We took our breakfast from the SHARMCA CAFE  Rangala (076-8815703) which gave us a kick start. And we bought some bread , dhal curry and onion sambal for lunch from that restaurant. Then we left Rangala around 9.15 am and started our journey.

On our way from Rangala to Kotaganga

Seeing Kotaganga Falls while we are on our way to Kotaganga Village

Walking along the Kotaganga River

Since we don’t have any trail map from kotaganga village to kotaganga plain , Kasun started to record the trail for future benefits. But Aluwa asked from some of his friends who followed the same trail and had collected some information early. There is a clear path from Rangala to Kotaganga Village , but starting from Kotaganga Village we decided to go along the Kotaganga river.

Seeing Kotaganga Falls while walking along the river

Obstacles we met on the river

We went around 2 hours along the river by passing different obstacles along the river but unfortunately reached to a location which we felt lost and were unable to go beyond that. But luckily we saw a little foot pathway from there onwards along the mountain side and we entered to that path. That path was not easy to follow since it has around 70 or 80 degree elevation at some points , but after some effort finally we reached the 7th fall. What a happy. We took our lunch there and it was around 12.30 pm when we finished the lunch. After taking some photos we started our hike again towards the Kotaganga Plain. We reached all the seven falls and finally it was around 2pm when we reached the top ( Kotaganga Plain).

Seventh Fall – Where we took our lunch

Shan was feeling the seventh fall

Vinu was feeling one of the scenery edges

Third Fall

Second Fall

Beauty of the second fall

Kotaganga Village seeing from the top

We ate some chocolates at the top , take a little rest and had some discussion about whether going to Alugallena or not. Since we are short of 2 hours as we planned ( we planned to reached the top around 12 pm) , there was a risk of following the trail which leads to Alugallena since it might take another 3 hours to reach there. So it will be around 5pm and if there will be mist around us , following the trail can be difficult. But finally we took that decision , whatever happened we will go to Alugallena. We started that speedy part of the journey around 2.30 pm. There was a little rain but we don’t care that at all. When we reached the junction where paths are divided towards peaks and Alugallena , it was around 3.15 pm. We were hurried up and finally reached Alugallena around 5.30 pm and it was really thick mist around us on our way but the trail was visible fortunately. And I should mentioned that most of our crew were brutally attacked by the leeches and they were bleeding a lot. But thanks to a person in Rangala we brought some Dettol mixed with water to act against the leeches. Though we use that we were brutally attacked and also some of our members fell down several times during the hike and they were wounded. But not severely.

Marching through Kotaganga Plain

Group photo at the Kotaganga Plain

Random at Kotaganga Plain

Partial group selfy on the main trail

Trekking through the mist

Beauty created by nature and the mist

Beauty created by nature and the mist

Beauty created by nature and the mist

Green wet lands

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Trekking through mist

Some pure water source on the trail – Drunk by Aluwa

After seen that magical camping spot all our tiredness got vanished. We quickly setup our tents , had a wash and get ready to cook. Me and Aluwa had a bath at the place which situated at an elevated place along the rock and Aluwa named it as a bathroom. Since we had water near , it didn’t take much time to cook noodles. We ate noodles as our dinner. During the dinner we talked about what we do tomorrow. Some needed to hike 5 peaks and reach Bambarella and some needed to have bath in the Kotaganga fall no 1 or 2 and reach Thangappuwa. Thangappuwa side is easy to trek and Bambarella side is bit lengthy and have to trek more. Since some of our members injured a bit we decided to follow Thangappuwa trail. After taking our dinner all of us felt asleep soon. I woke up around 6am and searched for others. But they were still sleeping. I went out of the tent slowly and watched the sun rise and it is really beautiful and fresh. One by one started to wakeup after that and we cooked noodles for the breakfast too. Then we had a wash , ate noodles , packed up our goods and took some photos.

Cooking at Alugallena

Full view of Alugallena

Attractive group photo of our tents at night – captured by Aluwa

Selfy at Alugallena

Morning view at Alugallena

Random at Alguallena

Group photo at Alugallena

After that we started our return journey at 9am which we estimated to reach Thangappuwa around 2pm. We came back on our trail faster than the previous day. When we reached Kotaganga Plain unexpected thing happened. A heavy rain was started by destroying our plan of having a bath in Kotaganga Fall. So , what to do. We follow trail which led to Thangappuwa in the rain instead of bathing in the fall.

On our way to Thangappuwa

Nice view

Just few meters away from Thangappuwa (Land Mark)

Almost there

Finally we reached Thangappuwa around 2.45pm and took our bus to Teldeniya which left Thangappuwa at 4 pm. Since we ate some biscuits on our way to Thangappuwa , we were able to bear our hunger. We reached Teldeniya around 5pm and took a bus to Kandy and reached Kandy around 6.30pm and took our dinner there and got into a Colombo bus. It was around 10pm when we reached Colombo Fort and marked the ending of the best crowded hike I have ever been.

Finally I have to mention few things about Alugallena Camping place. It is the best camping place I have ever been and people who read this report and willing to go there has to keep in their minds that when we reached there and left there , it was a very clean place. Please do not harm that cleanliness. Bring back what you are taking there please. Thank you all for reading my report.