Cascades of Matale-Illukkumbura-Pallegama Road

Matale-Illukkumbura-Pallegama road (B 274) gives access to number of waterfalls and tourist destinations like Riverstone, Pitawala Pathana etc. During this three days journey we covered following waterfalls.

Waterfalls visited during this trip (Order from Matale)

1. Bambarakiri Ella (බඹරකිරි ඇල්ල)
2. Pitawala Pathana Ella-1(පිටවල පතන ඇල්ල-1)
3. Pitawala Pathana Ella-2 (පිටවල පතන ඇල්ල-2)
4. Raththinda cascade (රත්තින්ද ඇල්ල)
5. Wadda Pani Ella (වැද්දා පැනි ඇල්ල)
6. Wambatuhena Ella (වම්බටුහේන ඇල්ල)
7. Bambarungahana Ella (බඹරුන් ගහන ඇල්ල)
8. Sera Ella (සේර ඇල්ල)

Road guide (Waterfalls in bold letters)

Road guide (Waterfalls in bold letters)

Bambarakiri Ella (3m)

This couple of waterfall can be found at Bambarakiri turn of Matale-Illukkumbura road. It is fairly popular place. It has two waterfalls as Maha-Bambarakiri Ella (මහ බඹරකිරි ඇල්ල) 7°29’43.02″N, 80°41’57.01″E and Punchi Bambarakiri Ella 7°29’41.05″N, 80°41’56.76″E (පුoචි බඹරකිරි ඇල්ල).

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Bambarakiri Turn

Maha Bambarakiri Ella

Maha Bambarakiri Ella –Few years ago it had a deep pool. This claimed for so many lives. Following landslides it became shallow

Maha Bambarakiri Ella

Suspension bridge-Have to cross this and take right turn to Punchi Bambarakiri Ella. This bridge to connect Welannwaththa (වෙලන්වත්ත) village

Punchi Bambarakiri Ella

Looked up

Wambatuhena Ella  (7°33’13.46″N, 80°46’4.34″E)

This 10m tall waterfall is situated in left hand side of the road towards

Puwakpitiya from Puwakpitiya junction. The water stream comes from Pathana village (පතන ගම) and later joins with Thelgamu Oya.

Direction at Puwakpitiya junction- White arrow from Matale side, Red arrow to Illukkumbura and Black arrow is to Puwakpitiya. We were stranded there without having a three wheeler

Wambatuhena Ella

Wambatuhena Ella-Different colors

Closer view of Wambatuhena Ella

Bambarungahana Ella (3m) 7°34’40.19″N, 80°44’4.73″E

This beautiful waterfall is situated at Puwakpitiya village. Getting closer to the waterfall is bit challengeable task. You have to get the foot pathway on left hand side of Puwakpitiya temple. Then walk about 1km to reach the waterfall. The origin is Dunumadala Oya (දුනුමඩලා ඔය).

(Villagers of Illukkumbura don’t know about such a waterfall. Always ask from Puwakpitiya village)

Note the direction of the foot pathway closer to the temple

Pitawala Pathana Ella-1 is seen to Puwakpitiya temple

Pitawala pathana

Have to cross the stream

Bit challengeable

Dunumadala Oya. Red star shows the place of the waterfall. It is better go on left hand side of the stream (red arrow)

The beauty

Bambarungahana Ella

Closer view. It is an energetic waterfall

Sera Ella 7°35’17.95″N, 80°45’18.57″E

She is the queen out of these beauties. Sera Ella is situated at Poththatawela (පොත්තටවෙල) village. The origin is Puwakpitiya Oya. It is one of a widest waterfall in Knuckles range (about 35m width). Two waterfalls can be seen here. Sera Ella has an additional feature of a cave which is situated behind the waterfall. A Bird species called “Seru” were here to give the name – Sera Ella.

You can drive up to the foot pathway towards Sera Ella. There is a nice foot pathway to the waterfall. It branches to the base of the waterfall and to the cave of the waterfall.

This is the junction where road divides to Puwakpitiya (black arrow) and Poththatawela (red arrow). Have to drive about 2km to reach the waterfall

Scenic

Road to Poththatawela

Nicely made steps to the waterfall

Getting down

Getting down

Lateral view

Sera Ella

View from the cave. Fantastic experience

Front view

Front view

Naturally made frog face

Walking from Poththatawela to Kambarawa.

This was a reward for us. After visiting Sera Ella we didn’t have a time to catch the bus from Hettipola to Matale at Illukkumbura. The next available option to get a bus is to walk from Sera Ella to Kambarawa.

The total distance was about 5kms and it took 2 hours to reach Kambarawa. There was a mortable road from Kambarawa to Poththatawela a decade ago. But it has been forested and now only a foot pathway can be seen. This was an unexpected beauty. It was nice to walk along this foot pathway which was bordered by the forest.

Road from Sera Ella to Poththatawela village. Well functioning

Road gets narrow after Poththatawela village

“පැල”

Scenic

Nice to walk here

Old “Sapaththu Palama” සපත්තු පාලම

Water streams crossing the road

Flow

Again road gets wider as we are closer to Kambarawa

Reaching to the Village. Border of Mahaweli development area

Kambarawa Village

Greenish

Pitawala Pathana Ella-1 (Approxiamte-7°33’10.46″N, 80°44’26.73″E)

This 75m tall waterfall is situated at Pathana village. Origin is Pathana Dola (පතන දොල). After making Pitawala Pathana Ella-1 and Pitawala Pathana Ella-2 (Unnamed waterfall, we have named as Pitawala Pathana Ella-2) it joins with Puwakpitiya Ganga.

You can observe the full cascade of this waterfall flowing down from Pitawala Pathana at Puwakpitiya village.

Reaching to Pitawala Pathana Ella-1 is not an easy task. First you have to go to the abounded village called “Pathana Gama” පතන ගම and then take the help of the guide called “Ekanayaka Mama.” (Most of the villagers in Pitawala and Illukkumbura are not aware of this waterfall and haven’t visited there.)

Pathana Village and Redbana Company (Narrated by Ekanayaka Mama)

The story of Pathana Village is interesting. This village was established by Redbana Company in 1960-1970 for cultivation of cardamom. Initially it had about 150 families and functioned as a village with a school and a temple. After 10years this cardamom cultivation project was given up by the company. Then villagers moved to their initial residences and village was invaded by the forest. At the moment only two villagers live at this abounded village. Ekanayaka Mama is one of them.

You have to walk about 3km from Red Bana junction of Matale-Pallegama road (after 33km post) to Ekanayaka Mama’s house. Then another 1hour walk to Pitawala Pathana Ella-1. There is no proper foot pathway to the waterfall and leeches are often come across.

Red Bana junction will come across after 33km post of the road. Arrow shows the direction to Pitawala village

Initially it seems as a mortable road

Nice to walk here

Wow

Road divides into two: left one is the correct one

View of Pitawala Pathana Mini World’s end

Note-People at Mini world’s end

Jumping over the Fence of Ekanayaka Mama

Small house and tree hut

Karagahathanna (කරගහතැන්න) (Left) and Riverstone (right)

Ekanayaka Mama -He showed the ruins of houses of the village.

“Wallapatta වල්ලාපට්ටHunters” were there

First view of the waterfall

Climbing up

Pitawala Pathana Ella-1

Lateral view

Another view

After successful journey

Then Ekanayaka Mama accompanied us for another beautiful waterfall made by the same water stream down to Pitawala Pathana Ella-1. This waterfall is bit taller than the previous one and more beautiful than it. I would like to name it as Pitawala Pathana Ella-2 as it is unnamed. Pitawala Pathana Ella-2 is much popular among Puwakpitiya villagers than Pitawala Pathana Ella-1.

Pitawala Pathana Ella-2 (Approxiamte-7°33’15.26″N, 80°44’27.63″E)

Pitawala Pathana Ella-2

Pitawala Pathana Ella -2. Closer view

Pitawala Pathana Ella-2

Summary of the route. Black arrow shows our approach to Ekanayaka Mama’s house. Red arrow shows the direction towards two waterfalls. Picture was taken from Mini World’s End-Pitawala Pathana. You can’t see waterfalls from here

Zoomed view

Raththinda Ella (7°31’24.00″N, 80°44’59.98″E)

This waterfall is situated at Pitawala village. It is a cascade of three parts and clearly visible to surrounding areas like Pitawala Pathana, Maningala. There is a foot pathway towards the middle part of the cascade from Pitawala village. (About 1km journey). Once you come to the middle part you can go to upper and lower parts of the cascades. There is a nice foot pathway which goes along a private land to connect with other side of the waterfall. We followed the first one to reach the waterfall and other one to come down.

Sun rise over Maningala and Thunhisgala (තුන්හිස්ගල) is far away

Riverstone

View of Raththinda Ella from Pitawala village

Land mark we came across on our way to the waterfall

Another land mark is this water tank. Drinking water project of Pitawala village

Middle part of the cascade

You have to cross the middle part and follow the foot pathway on left hand side to reach the upper part. This is upper part

Top of Raththinda waterfall

Beautiful landscapes

Paddy fields of Atanwala village

Follow the foot pathway down to reach the lower part of the cascade. This is the lower part

Side view of lower part

Surrounding view

Another snap

Towards Atanwala village

Good morning

.	A hotel is under construction closer to Rathninda waterfall. Above landscapes were taken at it’s garden

Wedda Pani Ella (7°31’2.08″N, 80°45’21.27″E)

This waterfall is made by Thelgamu Oya when it flows under the bridge connecting Raththinda and Atanwala villages. It is about 6m height waterfall. To get a clear view of the waterfall, you have to get down to Thelgamu Oya. There is another small but beautiful waterfall about 50m down to Wedda Pani Ella.

Due to the death of a Wadda by falling down from this waterfall is the reason for this name.

Thelgamu Oya flows under the bridge. Just before to make the waterfall

Wadda Pani Ella and it’s base pool

Wadda Pani Ella

Complete view of Wedda Pani Ella

Small cascade found down to Wadda Pani Ella. Photo credit goes to Ashan

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