| Year and Month | October 2013 (26th and 27th) |
| Number of Days | Two Day Trip |
| Crew | 05 (Ashan, Wuminda, Amila, Sunjaya and myself) |
| Accommodation | Corbet’s view at Koboneela T.P-0112560450 / 0777411339 |
| Transport | By bus, three wheeler, walking and climbing |
| Activities | Mountain climbing, Sightseeing and Photography |
| Weather | Excellent |
| Route | Colombo -> Hunnasgiriya -> Deanstone -> Koboneela -> Corbet’s gap -> Dehigolla > Back to Loolwaththa -> Hunnasgiriya -> Colombo |
| Tips, Notes and Special remark |
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| Related Resources | |
| Author | Niroshan |
| Comments | Discuss this trip report, provide feedback or make suggestions at Lakdasun Forum on the thread |
Within one month of my journey to Kehelpothdoruwegala I needed to revisit at Knuckles mountain range from Deanstone (ඩීන්ස්ටන්) area. We gathered at Hunnasgiriya town (Three from Colombo and two from Moneragala) started our journey from there. Loolwaththa (ලූල්වත්ත) CTB bus reached at Deanstone Conservation Center around 9am. After having brief visit at DCC we headed to Dothalugala (දෝතලුගල) trail.
 Peaks of Knuckles massif. Taken from http://www.knucklesrange.org/sef.html. |
 Loolwaththa bus is ready for the journey at Hunnasgiriya. |
 Medamahanuwara (මැදමහනුවර) rock. |
 Nawanagala (නෑවෙනගල/ නාවනගල) – 1487m |
 Heading to Dothalugala trail |
 Dothalugala-1575m |
 Our next two days were full of these kinds of views. |
 Starting of Dothalugala trail. |
 . |
 Walking in the heaven. |
 Peaks of Knuckles missif. |
 Again same peaks in different position. |
 Hotel Dumbanagala Chalet at the base of Dumbanagala. |
 Entering to a forest patch |
 Rathkida-Ulhitiya (රත්කිද-උල්හිටිය) reservoir |
 Getting a bend. |
 Old tree. |
 The moon. |
 Having a rest. |
 Dothalugala forest dormitory. |
 . |
 Dothalugala circular trail starts. Black arrow shows upward journey and red arrow shows return journey. |
 Wuminda is heading…. |
 ? Dark blue tiger |
 Just clicked up….. |
 Knuckles forest is full of Bamboo trees. That’s why it is called “Bata Dandu Wanaya” (බටදඩු වනය) |
 Leaf nose lizard / Horn nosed lizard. |
 So eager to capture him. |
 Foot pathway through the forest. |
 Lakegala (ලකේගල) back. |
 View of Koboneela (කොබෝනීල) |
 The path we came. |
 Landslides. |
 Filtering of sun rays. |
 Dumbanagala. |
 Reached Dothalugala observation point. This is not the summit. |
 White arrow shows the way we came and red arrow shows the path we followed to go down. |
 Dothalugala peak. |
 Dothalugala observation point. |
 View from the observation point. |
The return pathway was more scenic than the previous one. We reached the camp site then and followed the bird watching trek. It goes to the natural pool made by Dothalugala falls. We had a bath at natural pool.
 Snapped in return journey. |
 Small water streams are abundant. |
 Scenic |
 Getting down…But steepness is more in this pathway. |
 Accidentally found. |
 Towards the camp site. |
 Dothalugala camp site. |
 Bird watching track. |
 A fall of Dothalugala waterfalls flows to make a pool. We had a bath in this freezing cold water. |
 Flowers on side of the waterfall |
 Arrows of the junction. |
 A fall of Dothalugala falls. It came across on our way to bird watching desk. Photo was taken from top of the waterfall. |
 On our way to bird watching desk. |
 Bird watching desk. We didn’t try to climb it up as we had an immediate leech attack. |
 Coming out of bird watching track. |
 Nice place to have a chat. |
 Walking back to DCC. |
Our next place of visit was Deanstone mini world’s end which is situated about 1.25km away from DCC. It is also a circular trail first goes along the edge of the pond and then through Pines forest. There are two observation points. Ududumbara (උඩුදුම්බර) town, Kandy-Mahiyangana road, Kalugala (කලුගල) area can be viewed from observation point 1.
Observation point two gives a wide angle view of knuckles massif.
Walk to Mini world’s end
 Directions to Mini world’s end |
 The bridge. |
 Along the edge of the pond. |
 Circular trail starts. |
 The way through Pines trees. |
 Beautiful |
 Snapped up. |
 At observation point 1. |
 Ududumbara town. |
 Kandy-Mahiyangana road in between Ududumbara and hair pins bend. |
 The drop |
 Gedaramada (ගෙදරමඩ ඇල්ල) waterfall |
 Towards observation point 2. |
 Mini world’s end-observation point 2. |
 The drop. |
Different peaks.
Black arrow-Kehelpothdoruwegala.
Red arrow-Knuckles.
Yellow arrow-Sphinx rock.
Blue arrow-Koboneelagala
 Garandi Ella ගැරඩි ඇල්ල |
 Paddy fields. |
 We five. |
 Evening comes. |
 Again Pines trees. |
 Another companion of the tour. We have noticed this monkey travels on the Bus. |
 This monkey has come from Moneragala area for searching a CTB bus driver who has treated him well. That’s why it travels on CTB buses. |
Then we have moved to our place of stay of that night-Corbet’s view at Koboneela. It is situated at Koboneela and surrounding view from Corbet’s view was fantastic. Janaka who is the caretaker of the place is a friendly and knowledgeable person.
 View from Corbet’s view |
 Dumbanagala |
 Balalgira (බලල්ගිර) is shown by circle. Arrow shows the downward view from Balalgira. |
 Balalgira is zoomed. |
 Giant Lizard. |
 Our cottage. |
 Team. Most left hand side person in this picture is Janaka-caretaker of Corbet’s view. |
Day 2
Day 2 plan was to visit at Corbet’s gap. Ashan has noticed a mountain in left hand side of the Corbet’s view, where we assumed as a good view point. Janaka told it as Balalgira (බලල්ගිර) and he gave directions for us. Then Balalgira was added to our next day schedule.
 Sun rise. |
 Sun rise. |
 Sun rise. |
 Colorful |
 Behind the screen. |
 Another snap. |
 Beauty in Dumbanagala side. |
 A place to enjoy the nature |
Corbett’s gap-1127m
We said goodbye to Janaka and travelled towards Corbett’s gap.
Corbett’s gap is a deep valley between Knuckles Mountain range and also a rain shadow area. This area also has a mixture of vegetation types such as wet, dry and montane type. At Corbett’s Gap, there is a high wind blow during some months of the year and the forest trees grown in that area has a special feature, that is stunted and gnarled. Looking towards the Corbet’s gap from Deanstone Mini World’s end will give the visitor the panoramic view of Aliyawatunaela and Kinihirigala mountains to the left and the Dumbanagala Mountain to the right.
Taken from http://www.srilankaview.com/knuckles_range.htm
British surveyor-Corbett who has done the mapping of this area in 19th century has lived here. Therefore this gap is called Corbett’s gap.
 Just before Corbett’s gap. Note the road we came. |
Directions at Corbett’s gap.
 Knuckles range is shown in red arrow and it is covered by mist. The peak shown by black arrow is most probably Aliyawatunaela අලියාවැටුනඇල (1647m). |
 Knuckles range (1864m) covered with mist |
 ? Aliyawatunaela zoomed. |
 Sphinx rock, so called because of ridges of the mountain which has characteristic square shape. Height-1559m |
 View of other part of the mountain range from Corbett’s gap-Koboneelagala and Dothalugala. |
 The road from Loolwaththa. |
 Team again. |
 Dumbanagala-closer and different view. |
 Balalgira-Our next target. |
Our last task of the day was to climb Balalgira. We drove back towards Loolwaththa and came across the road towards Dehigolla (දෙහිගොල්ල). That road is not good and we ended up at Dehigolla lime houses. From there we started to climb up first through Mana bushes and then walked up in Pines patch till we reach the fantastic view point. At this observation point we had a summary of views we watched during this journey.
Balalgira climbing.
 Dehigolla lime houses. |
 Unclear foot pathway. |
 Searching of a route |
 Entering to the Pines patch. |
 Undergrowth of Pines |
 Reaching the peak. |
 Koboneelagala and Dothalugala |
Dothalugala in black star.
Mini world’s end in red star.
 Gedaramada Ella |
 Corbet’s view hotel. Arrow shows the cottage we stayed. Circle shows the bench comes in my sun rise picture. |
 Arrow shows Garandi Ella. |
 Paddy fields. |
 Bed rock has different view here. |
 Identification credit goes to Ashan. |
 Giants of Uva province are in the scene. Identification credit goes to Ashan. |
 On top of Balalgira. |
 Getting down. |
 Garandi Ella framed. |
 Dumbanagala-different view. |
 Balalgira is shown by brown star. |
I came across a statement done by John Davy in 1821 about Knuckles forest in his “An account of the Interior of Ceylon” when I was searching more about Knuckles massif.
“I never saw before so perfect a specimen of forest scenery. Here lie trees of different kind, sizes and ages: Some saplings, some dead and decaying, and some of very great bulk and height towering above the rest in their prime.”
Thanks for reading.