| Year and Month | September , 2019 |
| Number of Days | 3 |
| Crew | 6 (between 23-24 years of age) |
| Accommodation | Camping |
| Transport | Colombo to Kandy , Kandy to Waththegama and Waththegama to Y junction by bus
Y junction to Lebonan Estate by foot |
| Activities | Wildlife, Photography, Water Fall Hunting , Hiking |
| Weather | Sunny at the most of the time , but in the last part there was a little rain |
| Route | Colombo -> Kandy -> Y junction (2 km before Gomara Bridge) -> Gomara Bridge -> Lebonan Estate -> Lebonan Estate Waterfall 01 -> KMP Wadiya -> Thunhisgala -> Duwili Eli Top -> Duwili Eli -> Infinity Pool -> Dumbara Ella -> Waddahena Junction -> Rambukkoluwa -> Laggala -> Dambulla -> Colombo |
| Tips, Notes and Special remark |
|
| Related Resources | Trip report : Knuckles Duwili ella
You tube video: link |
| Author | Inoj |
| Comments | Discuss this trip report, provide feedback or make suggestions at Lakdasun Forum on the thread
|
Again here , it is me with another trip report . In this story again Aluva (Aluvihare) , my friend plays the major role. Aluva and me always needed to hike Thunhisgala down since we covered beautiful Kotaganga Cascades and Alugal-Lena during our last visit to knuckles mountain range. Our intention was to cover Thunhisgala and Duwili Eli via KMP Wadiya and end up in Ranamure. Aluva collected relevant information for the hike including a .kmz file of the trail. Furthermore , having Shamal who followed the same trail earlier in our team was a bonus. Since this trail cannot be covered within two days , we had to find a long weekend (weekend with a holiday). Since all of us were in our training at different places , we had to wait until a public holiday reaches. Finally , we fixed 13th , 14th and 15th of September for the hike since the 13th Friday was Binara Full Moon Poya Day.
Five members of our team (except me) started the journey from Katubedda while I started mine from Minuwangoda. Since there was no point in joining with them at Nittabuwa (Nearest town to Kandy Road) on 13th early morning , I decided to reach Peradeniya on 12th night , stay in the “Jennings Hostel” with my Pera friends and join my team at Kandy on 13th morning. As planned, I left to Peradeniya around 7 pm from Minuwangoda and it was around 11.30 pm when I reached the hostel. Then I got bit chatty with my friends and slept around 12.30 am , since I had to meet my team at 6 am. I woke up around 5 am and left to Kandy after saying good bye to my Pera friends. It was around 5.45 am when I reached Kandy and my team didn’t arrive yet. It was around 6.15 am when they reached and the journey from Moratuwa to Kandy wasn’t a good one for them. Since they had to wait in the long queue to catch a bus where they could stay seated until Kandy , they decided to take the Mahiyanganaya Semi Luxury bus which was bit more crowded in order to reach Kandy on time.
We took a bus to Waththegama from Kandy and reached Waththegama around 7.30 am. Unfortunately we missed early morning bus to Bambarella and the next bus to Bambarella was at 8.45 am from Waththegama. Since we had plenty of time , we decided to take breakfast from the restaurant which was next to the bus stand. It took another half an hour to complete our breakfast. We were totally ready for the journey when it was 8.15 am. But the problem was , we had to wait another half an hour for a bus. But the conductor of Gomara bus which left Waththegama around 8.15 am told us that we could use Gomara bus until Y junction which was 2 km before Gomara bridge and it was half an hour walk to Lebonan Estate from there onwards. We decided to do as he told. We reached the Y junction after an hour and 15 minutes and walked towards Lebonan Estate along the road which provided us so many scenery views until Gomara Bridge. According to my memory it was around 10 am when we reached Lebonan Estate which was next to Gomara bridge. We saw some vehicles were passing us to the direction where we came and that caused us to decide that there were some groups at the lead. Since this was a long holiday as mentioned before , that wasn’t a surprise. But the regret of KMP Wadiya will be crowded , haunted in our minds. Anyway , we went to see the beauty of the Lebonan Estate waterfall 01 and started our hiking journey around 10.45 am. As all the beginnings of my hikes , this was also became difficult , but after hiking another half an hour I got into to my hiking mode. Technically , it took half an hour for my body to enable hiking mode. After that , it was just a normal hike. We reached the Rathnagiriya peak area around 12 noon and we took our lunch there , which was bread and onion sambol prepared by Vinu’s Mom. It was really delicious and because of that it got finished in few minutes. After that we started our journey again around 12.20 pm. Since we were late , we hurried up and reached KMP Wadiya around 5 pm.
 On the way to Lebonan Estate |
 Lebonan Estate Fall no.1 |
 Crew at the waterfall – Random |
 On the way to KMP Wadiya – The crew at Dalu Maduwa |
 On the way to KMP Wadiya – Somewhere in Knuckles range |
 On the way to KMP Wadiya – Near Rathnagiriya Peak |
 On the way to KMP Wadiya – A delicious lunch |
 On the way to KMP Wadiya |
 On the way to KMP Wadiya – Too much green |
As we assumed before , KMP Wadiya was crowded. We were disappointed and searched for a place to set up our tents. Finally , we set up tents near the narrow passage in front of the front door of KMP Wadiya. Three of us went to prepare the dinner while other three were setting the tents. Unfortunately , tents were not in a good condition to sleep. There were some mud inside the tents and we had to clean those as well. After cleaning all those , we three joined with other three and hurried up preparing noodles and tinned salmon for the dinner. We mixed both and ate it with another onion sambol packet brought by Vinu. We finished our dinner quickly and got into the tents to have a discussion about the next day plan because we heard a rumor about an event. They told us that there will be an event near Duwili Eli and the organizers may bring 50+ people for camping there. According to my knowledge , it was impossible to camp 50+ people near Duwili Eli. Although we went there , there was a risk of losing a place to camp. But in the other hand there was huge chance of becoming that rumor a lie. But without taking any risk , we decided to just hike the Thunhisgala down and returned to homes. After finalizing the decision , we felt into a deep sleep inside our tents.
I suddenly woke up hearing some dew drops on to the tent. I looked at my phone and it was around 5.30 am. Still the darkness and the mist ruled. I got out of the tent in order to see this darkness and mist mixture which gave me a mysterious feeling. When I woke up , most members of other groups had already woken up. They were packing their stuff since they were willing to go to Duwili Eli. I found a friendly guy there and had a little chat with him about that rumor we heard. Unfortunately , he hadn’t any idea about that too. But he told me that if we were able to get down to the Dumbara Ella , we may find a place to camp. That was true. If there will be an event in Duwili Eli , they should reach there within 2 days. Because of that it may be possible to find a place near Dumbara Ella. I was motivated and with that motivation I woke up all my team and told them the story. After having a quick chat , we all decided to go to Duwili Eli. We prepared green gram for the breakfast and lunch and packed our stuff in a hurry. But it took us bit more time to packed our stuff. Because of that , we left KMP Wadiya around 7.30 am. We hid our stuff near the junction where we took right path to Thunhisgala and the left path led to Duwili Eli. After a serious hike we reached the Thunhisgala peak and that was wonderful. We were able to see most of famous areas in knuckles mountain range from there since Thunghisgala is situated in the middle of the range. We stayed another half an hour at the peak and returned back to the place where we hid our stuff.
 At the KMP Wadiya – Where we set our tents |
 At the KMP Wadiya – Posing the famous photo |
 On the way to Thunhisgala – Through cardamom bushes |
 On the way to Thunhisgala – View point before Thunhisgala peak |
 On the way to Thunhisgala – Gan bokka |
 On the way to Thunhisgala – Perfect views over Knuckles Range |
 On the way to Thunhisgala – Perfect views over Knuckles Range |
 On the way to Thunhisgala |
 On the way to Thunhisgala – View of the Thunhisgala peak from the view point before Thunhisgala |
 On the way to Thunhisgala |
 On the way to Thunhisgala – Few meters away from Thunhisgala peak |
 On the way to Thunhisgala – Few meters away from the peak |
 On the way to Thunhisgala – Perfect views |
 On the way to Thunhisgala – Perfect views over Knuckles Range |
 On the way to Thunhisgala – Vinu pointing at Thunhisgala peak |
 At Thunhisgala peak with a guide uncle who came with another group |
It was around 10.30 am when we got on to the path which led to Duwili Eli. On our way , we took our lunch and hiked in a hurry. Actually , there wasn’t a clear foot path to Duwili Eli from Thunhisgala junction. Because of that we followed the GPS trail we had. The trail wasn’t hard , it was just a walk most of the time. We knew that it was unable to reach Dumbara Ella with the time we started. On our way , we decided to reach the top of the Duwili Eli cascade no. 1 cave and camp there. After some serious walk and sometimes a hike , we ended up at the top of the cave around 6 pm where we wondered since it was completely dried. There was a very little water drop to the left corner when we stood up facing the Duwli Eli drop. We hurried up to set our tents and started to cook noodles and tinned salmon for the dinner. After taking our dinner we had a chat for a while about the calmness in this place and then went to sleep.
As usual I was the one who woke up early and it was around 5.30 am. I got off from the tent and watched around. But it was only darkness around me. Slowly the sun rose and that sun rising was one of the memorable sun rising I have ever seen. Then I woke others up. From yesterday evening onwards , I felt like a little shivering and the morning I confirmed that I had fever. So , I took some medicine in order to complete the journey. Then we prepared green gram for breakfast and lunch and packed our stuff to leave this beautiful place. After having some memorable photographs , we left top of the cave and got in to a serious descend to the Duwili Eli cascade no.1 Cave and other cascades (since the cave was just under us , first we had to got down a bit more away from the cave and hike a bit to reach the cave).
 On the way to Duwili Eli – Filling the water bottles |
 On the way to Duwili Eli |
 On the way to Duwili Eli – At an abandoned Wadiya |
 On the way to Duwili Eli – Near an abandoned Wadiya / Perfect view of Thunhisgala at the background |
 At the top of the Duwili Eli |
 At the top of the Duwili Eli – A group photo |
 At the top of the Duwili Eli – A group photo |
 At the top of the Duwili Eli – Rainbow over the Knuckles Range |
 At the top of the Duwili Eli – A camp fire |
 At the top of the Duwili Eli – Morning view |
 At the top of the Duwili Eli – Morning view of the camp |
 At the top of the Duwili Eli – Night cooking (Tinned Salmon) |
 At the top of the Duwili Eli – Breakfast (Green gram + Onion sambol) |
 On the way to Dumbara Ella – At the base of the Duwili Eli cascade no.1 (cave can also be seen at the up right corner) |
After passing few cascades of Duwili Eli , we reached the famous Infinity Pool. Since Infinity Pool was supplied water by another water ways there were some water. After spending another few minutes there , we started to descend to Dumbara Ella. We were in a hurry since there was a little rain which haunts for half an hour and we ran out of time. After reaching Dumbara Ella we spent another 15 minutes there and descended to the Waddahena quickly. It was around 3 pm when we reached Waddahena (Waddahena is a junction where foot paths from Etanwala and Rambukolowa get combined in to one foot path which leads to Duwili Eli). We got our lunch there and some of us had a bath there too. We took Rambukoluwa path from Waddahena and reached Rambukoluwa around 5 pm (Rambukoluwa is a moved village due to Kalu Ganga water supply project , if you choose Rambukoluwa road , I recommend you to reach Rambukoluwa as early as possible since there can be elephants when it is getting dark). We hired two three wheelers from Rambukoluwa which we accidentally met while we were walking towards Hettipola Road. We reached Laggala by those three wheelers and we got our dinner from a restaurant there. After that we were dropped by a Dimo Batta Lorry which was another accidental meeting. From Dambulla we took a Colombo bus and ended our journey by adding another successful hike for the list.
 On the way to Dumbara Ella – At the famous infinity pool |
 At the Dumbara Ella base |
 At the Dumbara Ella base – A group photo |
 At Waddahena Junction – Having a quick bath |
 On the way to Rambukkoluwa |
Last part of this report doesn’t include much detail since it was about Duwili Eli. Anyone who is interested in reading more about Duwili Eli , I recommend you the report by Ashan ayya. And another point , I want to mention is that be careful when you choosing food for camping journeys. According to me the reason that I suffered from fever in the hike was eating too much green gram. As we all know it is a cold food. If you take that type of a food more times in more capacity , there is a probability to get suffered from fever. That’s all and here I am ending my report mentioning leave only footprints not plastics. Thanks for reading.
 Summary of the trail we followed |