| Year and Month | April, 2014 (15th, 16th) |
| Number of Days | Two Day Trip |
| Crew | One |
| Accommodation | Cook’s room of a guest house  |
| Transport | Bus, Tuk Tuk |
| Activities | Trekking, Hiking, Photography |
| Weather | Sunny |
| Route | Maharagama -> Galle -> Hiyare -> Kottawa -> Kanneliya -> Udugama -> Yatalamatta -> Galle -> Maharagama |
| Tips, Notes and Special remark |
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| Related Resources | Trail Guide: Kabbale Mountain and Anagimale Falls Circular Trail – Kanneliya Rain Forest |
| Author | Dhamz |
| Comments | Discuss this trip report, provide feedback or make suggestions at Lakdasun Forum on the thread |
The initial plan was to travel somewhere around Mathale and Reversten, with a bunch of officemates. But everyone seemed to be busy, visiting relatives for the new year. Knowing that it would be a crime to spend the holidays at home, I decided to visit Hiyare, Kottawa, and Kanneliya. This is my 1st ever solo travel experience
On 15th morning, I left home and arrived Maharagama around 7am. Took the bus via expressway and arrived at 8.30am in Galle. From there, I got into Galle-Udugama (#377) bus which left around 9.20am. It took roughly 40mins to arrive at Hiyare junction. Alternatively, you can take Colombo-Udugama (#393/1 ?) bus from Pettah.
From Hiyare junction, you have to take the road towards right. Landmarks at the junction are a set of shops and, “Nigrodaramaya” temple. Estimated distance from the junction to Hiyare forest reserve is 4KMs. The sun was up and with the amount of trekking to be done in two days, I was hesitant to take a walk to the gate. The tuk tuk guy quoted Rs.150/= and without having 2nd thoughts, I got in. Once you go along the way, there’s a bridge. As soon as you pass, take the dirt road on the left side. You will arrive at the gate in about 100Ms.
Bad news! The gate is locked! The security guy told that the forest reserve is closed. Hiyare was a must-do-trail as I was longing to photograph snakes. With a bit of disappointment, I got into tuk tuk and headed towards Kottawa (If you are traveling via bus/car, continue through Udugama road. After passing 13KM post, you will see the Kottawa information center -you are supposed to buy tickets from here. Further along the road before the 14 km post, is the entrance on the left side with a large yellow sign board “Kottawa Arboretum Wet Evergreen Forest Kottawa Khombala”. You can enter the forest from here)
Kottawa information center is also closed!! Since the entrance to the forest is located separately, I took a chance and went further. My luck is working! The gate is not locked. So I got down from the tuk tuk and entered the forest (the driver asked for 650/= which seemed to be too much).
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 Otocryptis wiegmanni Wagler, 1830; Sri Lanka Kangaroo Lizard (E); Pinum Katussa (S) Endemic |
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Inside the Kottawa forest, there’s a main trail and few by-trails. You can easily navigate alone but do remember the landmarks especially if you opt to deviate from the main trail. I was trekking through one of the by-trails and then navigating along a small waterway, and with the excitement from seeing endemic fish, I forgot to take a note on the trail. Took awhile to figure out how to get back on track
After spending about 2 hours in the forest, took a Galle-Dellawa (#358) bus and headed towards Kanneliya.
Kanneliiya
There’s a huge board of one of the lodges (Kanneliya Forest Resort?) at the base of the road. You have to take the road on the right, which goes up to the mountain. Busses won’t travel in this route. Estimated distance is 700M-1KM from the base to Kanneliya gate. At 500M, you will find Kanneliya Forest Resort on the right side, and few more resorts on both sides when you travel further.
It was around 3-4PM when I arrived at Kanneliya. My initial plan was to spend the night at a temple, and explore the forest on the following day (16th). Apparently, there are no temples around Kanneliya. Options I had were, either to travel back to Udugama, or move further towards Dellawa. (All the resorts at Kanneliya were closed due to new year holidays). Since traveling back would take a considerable amount of time, I was tapping into houses and asked them whether there is any place that I could spend the night. One lady said she would have taken me in, if not for the visits she had planned to see the relatives 
Another old couple told me to travel straight and get inside the gate (ie Kanneliya forest).
So I got inside and asked from guides about accommodation. Bad news! All the places are booked. I kept on emphasizing that it is just for me, and I only need space to sleep. Suddenly, one guide said that they were informed from a nearby house that a solo traveler is looking for a place, and asked whether it is me. I nodded. Then he said that there’s a possibility, but doubt whether I would like it. Now luck is turning my way. I agreed to check out the place, and we went to a guest house which is just outside the gate. The place was occupied, but the cook offered me his room to spend the night, which was a gem at that point! (the room is an elevated cottage-like, which they will offer soon to solo travelers and couples, thanks to me
I started the trek, via Kabbale trail at 7am with Nilantha (who opted to guide me. Apparently, he’s the 2nd in command of the guides). We’ve also covered about 2KMs of the main trail at the end. Sharp at 2.15PM, we finished the journey. Below are some pics.
 Rana temporalis (Günther, 1864) Endemic |
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 Eutropis floweri Taylor, 1950; Taylor’s skink (E); Taylorge hikanala (S) Endemic |
 Dendrelaphis caudolineolatus, Gunther’s Bronze-Back. Endemic |
 Anagimale falls |
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 Iru Raja (Zeuxine regia) -An endemic and endangered ground orchid that grows in lowland wet zone and sub montane zone forests of Sri Lanka. Most of the time it grows on leaf litter. It is used in traditional medicine for treating snake bites. |
 A ground orchid species |
 Ceratophora aspera Günther, 1864; Rough-horn Lizard (E); Ralu-ang Katussa (S) Endemic |
 Otocryptis nigristigma Bahir & Silva, 2005; Lowland Kangaroo Lizard (E); Pahatharata Pinum Katussa (S) Endemic |
After the journey, I quickly had a dip in Gin ganga and headed towards Kanneliya junction to catch a Udugama bus. From Udugama, there were no buses to Galle (probably because it’s the late evening. Est around 5PM). So I took a bus (can’t remember the destination) and got down from Yatalamatta. There are buses passing Yatalamatta frequently to Galle. Got to one of them and headed back home