Batulu Oya Water Fall Trail, A New Trail to Climb Sri Pada (Adams Peak)

Introduction

Trails to Adams Peak

Most people know that there are 6 trails to climb Adams Peak. Out of these 6trails 3trails are most commonly used by pilgrims,

1. Hatton/Nallathanni Trail
2. Kuruwita/Erathna Trail
3. Rathnapura/Palabaddala Trail

The other 3 trails are less frequented by pilgrims as they are just footpaths in the jungle

4. Deraniyagala/Uda Maliboda Trail
5. Murraywatte/Rajamale/Sandagalathenna Trail
6.  Hapugastenne/Mookuwatte Trail

But what I’m going to tell you is that there are 2 new possible trails that can be used, these 2 are,

7. Batulu Oya Paradise Trail
8. Batulu Oya Waterfall Trail

Idea of this trail & plan
Around 10yeas back a friend of mine showed me a paper article which had a brief description of the lesser known trails to Adams peak. Ever since reading that article I wanted to explore these trails but due to lack of information and other restrictions it wasn’t possible. However in September 2010 along with a few others whom I met online we did the Sandagalathenna trail and in the following year (i.e. 2011) some ware around January we did the Uda Maliboda Trail and in February of 2012 the Hapugastenne (Mookuwatte) Trail.

By February of 2012 I had climbed Adams peak 6tims using all 6trails. Since my initial plan was to complete all 6trails and once this objective was achieved I decided to retire from climbing this peak. But this decision to retire only lasted a few days because as soon as I downloaded my GPS data of the Hapugastenne trail to my computer I found out that there are 2more possible trails that could be done.

One which I call the “Batulu Oya Paradise Trail” and the other which I called the “Batulu Oya Waterfall Trail”

Hapugastenne Trail (Marked in Red) Waterfall Trail (Marked in Blue) Paradise Trail (Marked in Yellow)

The Batulu Oya Paradise Trail

Anyone familiar with the Hapugastenne trail may remember a place called “Paradise” This name was given to this place by Hiruna and his team. As the name suggests it’s a beautiful place with a stream and a water fall.

But the interesting part was not the beauty of the place, but the stream. The stream that flows form there ends up at Fishing Huts. This became evident when I downloaded the data from my GPS. This trail seams very straight forward all you had to do was to hike up from Fishing huts along the Batulu Oya and then the stream splits in 2, take the left hand stream and continue up stream and after passing a few waterfalls you come to the place called Paradise form their onwards continue on the Hapugastenne trail till you reach the Peak. This stream is even visible on Google earth and navigating this in the dry season will not pose too many complications. (Just a word of caution, travelling up a stream that has a few waterfalls could be very dangers even for seasoned hikers so take care if you plan to do this)

But this trail seams too simple and for more than half of the trail up to the peak you will be travelling along the Hapugastenne trail which did not impress me that much.

Batulu Oya Waterfall Trail

But when I started analysing the Hapugastenne trail in detail I noticed that I have marked a small stream at the base of Adams peak. This stream seems to be flowing in to a valley and the opposite end of the valley is close to Fishing Huts which led me to believe that this stream that flows in to the valley also has to exit at this point. Since Batulu Oya (the river that flows in front of Fishing Huts) is known to be the main river in the area the logical conclusion was that this stream joins Batulu Oya or even may be the source of Batulu Oya. Further analysing of Google earth and the meter map confirmed my belief.

But one problem with this trail was that we would not be able to start from Fishing Huts and continue to climb because once we reach the top part of the stream we may not be able to find the correct branch of the stream that crosses the Hapugastenne trail so if we were to do this we needed to climb Adams peak from Hatton and then descend down to Fishing huts.

Of the 2optios available the Batulu Oya Waterfall Trail seemed like the better option as most of the trail has never been explored before.

Please note that all photographs published in this trip report were taken by Kasun and full credit should go to him for photo documenting this trip.

The Trip 

Even though this idea came to me in February of 2012 due to many reasons the trip was put on hold. However this year I made a firm commitment to myself that I will do this trail. Doing this trail off season is simply out of the question as the water level in the stream and any waterfalls that we may encounter will be dangerously high and there is also the high risk of flash floods.

So the dates were set but a few last minute cancelations by a few members of the team left us with only 3people to go on this hike. Ideally I would have preferred some ware around 6people to be part of the team but postponing was also not an option because the Peak Wilderness has been having a severe drought and doing this trail before the rains start was one of the key safety plans in our hike.

On Thursday (27/02/2014) Myself Kasun and Uditha met at the Pettah privet bus stand and took the 7oclock bus to Hatton the bus reached Hatton by 11.15am and we were dropped at the main bust stand. We then walked up to the Hatton station as the busses to Nallathanni were usually parked there. As expected there were several busses to Nallathanni parked there because of the season and we got in to one of the buses.  However this bus did not leave till 2.30am as it was waiting for the night mail from Colombo to arrive. As soon as the people from the night mail got in the bus departed and arrived in Nallathanni around 4am on Friday (28/02/2014).

The Hatton Trail

Sun Rise on the Way Up

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Since we were in no hurry we climbed it slowly but steadily and reached the peak around 9am. After spending a short time at the peak we started our decent on the Rathnapura trail till we reached the start of the Hapugastenne trail. Then it was sharp decent of around 1km to the base of Adams Peak. Once we reached the base it was time to bid farewell to the Hapugastenne trail and follow the stream in to an uncharted area of the peak wilderness which was later named as the “Valley of Waterfalls”.

The Valley of Waterfalls as seen from the Peak

Descent

Entering in to the Jungle (Hapugastenne Trail Starting Point)

Descending along the Hapugastenne Trail

Pointing Out the Valley of Waterfalls

.	Hapugastenne Trail falling on to the Small Stream that Leads to the Valley of Waterfalls

The water level of the stream (a branch of the Batulu Oya) was low because of the drought and following it wasn’t a problem. Less than 100M in to valley we came to our first obstacle!! It was a small waterfall which did not pose too many complications in getting down.
Uditha and for reasons known only to him wanted to call this waterfall “Sumudu Ella” so we all agreed and named it as Sumudu Ella.
After passing Sumudu Ella and a few small cascades we came to our second obstacle!! Which was less than 50M from the previous waterfall. Descending this falls looked a bit dangerous so we decided to climb down through the jungle till we reached the base of the fall and continued on our journey passing several cascades till we reached another waterfall and then another. Waterfalls seem endless and since we were deep in a valley even my high sensitivity GPS had problems locking on to satellites. We opted for a slow and steady phase mainly because the risks involved were too grate and making a mistake in this valley could be fatal. Our plan was to travel till 3pm and then find a suitable campsite to camp for the night.
3pm came and we still did not come across any site even remotely suitable to pitching a tent. Around 4pm we were on top of another set of waterfalls (3waterfalls close together) and found a slab of small stone on top of the first waterfall. Uditha and I thought its best we spend the night on this rock since it would keep us safe from any flash floods. But the downside was that this rock was too small to pitch our small 2man tent so we would have to use the tent as a blanket and spend an uncomfortable night on top of an uneven rock.
Kasun (the official photographer) volunteered to descend the 3waterfalls and find a better suited place and thanks to his efforts a much better place was found to set up camp. The site was along the banks of a small tributary to the mainstream that we were following.
Uditha set about clearing the site for the tent and I went about gathering firewood and at the same time clearing a path for us to escape just in case the water level increased and we had to abandon the camp.
We skipped lunch because our progress was so slow and so the supper was to be a grand affair. While Kasun was preparing our supper Uditha and I were busy pitching the tent and even before we could get our flysheet up the havens opened and it rained cats and dogs and pretty soon the tent was flooded with rain water.
After having noodles straight from the pot in the pouring rain we decided to stay inside the tent till the rain stopped. By this time the tent was full of water and was better suited for fish than for us but fortunately the rains stopped 1hour later and we set about mopping up the water in the tent with our T-shirts. By this time the water level in the stream has risen considerably and was flowing if furiously.
Since the tent was a 2person tent fitting 3 people it to it was a challenge and our backpacks were put inside garbage bags and were left outside the tent for the night.

The Easy Part

On Top of the First Waterfall (Sumudu Ella)

Planning our Descent Down Sumudu Ella

The Descent

The Trail

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The 2nd Waterfall

Descending Through the Jungle

Trying not to get wet

The Trail Continues

Descending Down Small Cascades

And Another Fall

Reaching the bottom

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.	On Top of Another One

.	More Trouble Ahead

Not Sure How We Got Down But We Did

At the Base of Yet Another One

Finding our way down

Going Down Yet Another Waterfall

Looks Like another Water Fall Ahead

At the Base of a Waterfall

Clearing for the tent

It was a sleepless night spent mostly worrying about the water levels in the stream and trying to keep warm inside our damp tent. Next day morning at sharp 6am we decided step out of the tent and have a look around.
The stream was back to its normal flow and the flash flood that we experienced the previous night has washed away one of our pots along with a few other small items that we could not bring up to higher ground.
By 7.20 we were ready to leave, by my calculations if we continue encounter waterfalls like the previous day we would have to spend an additional night in the forest which none of us wanted.
We maintained a slow and steady pace by this time the vegetation in the jungle has changed indicating that we had come down in altitude considerably and it looked as if we would not be encountering too many waterfalls.
But our hopes were shattered when we started coming across one waterfall after another. Kasun had a very simple approach to descending waterfalls he would always insist on taking the shortest path to the bottom!! Sure footed as a mountain goat he would descend down slippery waterfalls with ease. Being the oldest in the team and carrying the responsibility for the safety of the other 2, I wasn’t at all happy about Kasun’s methods but thanks to his high risk unorthodox method we did manage to save a lot of time.
By 1pm we managed to reach the place where the 2 streams meet and the sight of it gave us such relief because we knew that fishing huts were just a hop skip and a jump away and that we have completed the most dangerous and risky part of the trail.
From there it took us another 1 1/2hours to reach the Fishing Huts mainly because we were in no hurry.

Our Camp Site

A beautiful Day

.	Our Pot was found a long way down stream form our campsite

Do we use the Para cord or not?

Sending the bags down using the Para Cord

Slippery

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Yet another waterfall

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Now What !!

Long Way Down

Made it to the Bottom

and another one

Only Option is to Jump??

Too Deep to Cross

It’s Time to Get Wet (swimming across)

Brunch

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Sending the Bags First

This slippery log fallen across the waterfall helped us to descend to the base

Another small log which helped us

The 2 Streams Joining

The Peak

The Team

A walk in the park

Entering Moray Estate (near Fishing Huts)

The care taker of Hut no 1 was very helpful and offered us lunch and since we politely refused his offer he made us tea and served it with some biscuits. The care taker arranged a three wheeler for us to get to Nallathanni and form thereon we took a bus to Hatton and form Hatton to Colombo by train. Thus ending a highly adventures and high risk trip.