Excursion to the Lifeline of Hasalaka – Rathna Ella

Hasalaka = Elephant Pass

Ring any bells? How about this formula then?

Hasalaka + Gamini = Elephant Pass

That should certainly look familiar coz those are inseparable names in our recent history and it would only be infants or very young children who haven’t heard this war hero Corp. Gamini Kularathna. I actually had to change the name of my report from “Pride of Hasalaka” to “Lifeline of Hasalaka” coz Hasalaka Gamini is the Pride of Hasalaka.

So here I’m again with the continuation of my fairy tale from breath-taking Meemure and hope you’ve read it and enjoyed it as much as I did (Jaunting off to the Most Beautiful Village on Earth – Meemure).

This banner is at diplay at Elephant Pass, I took this pic in Apr 2011…

This is the destroyed bull dozer at Elephant pass

I left you guys at Hunnasgiriya after our morning snack of sponge cake, banana and what keeps me going Coffee… We had to wait at Hunnasgiriya for a Mahiyanganaya bus longer than I liked due to 25 April being a Poya day.

Finally around 8.15am, there was a CTB bus and we gladly got into it. However, to my utmost amazement, after about 600m, it stopped for tea. Would you believe it, you wait about 40mins for a bus and then it stops for tea as soon as you get into it  I realized they usually stop at that particular place not far from Hunnasgiriya town for a break. I was anyway in a very happy mood coz Meemure was magnificent and everything went according to plan. After another 10mins we were finally on our way, passing Dumbara mountain range.

You gotta see them to believe it. Such beautiful unending, misty mountains, glinting in the morning sun like diamonds, gosh, I was speechless and the bus driver wasn’t kind enough to stop for a quick snap We then reached the newly laid 18-bends and it’s been ages since I last was here and I’d practically forgotten all about it till recent hullabaloo of widening the road. It really is great that they’ve widened and carpeted that bit coz it’d been very difficult for vehicles, especially for buses and Lorries, to maneuver around, causing long tail backs.

They even have put up mirrors at the bends so that you can see the opposite end, I guess this helps when it’s misty and you can see the reflection of headlights of other vehicles coming up or down. Again, the driver won’t have any of my pleas for a quick stopover

Lemme tell you something very interesting happened in the bus. There was this fellow (later he said his name Asela, if I’m not mistaken) and started, I guessed, a typical bus talk and I simply ignored him. However, after sometime, I realized that he was actually talking about preserving the nature and giving us advice what we should and could do. Unfortunately, when I realized this, he was at the end of his speech and requested all the mothers to pack their husbands’, sons’ or daughters’ lunch into a container, not to use polythene covers. Well I felt ashamed of not listening to him properly:-(

His parting words were these: “We don’t own this Mother Nature. We just belong there”. What a remarkable saying it really is. He even sold a tiny booklet of his ideas and things we should do for Rs. 10/- and let me tell you, by the time he reached the back of the bus, every one of them was sold out. It shows that our people really do care about this world, what they need is some good advice delivered nicely and practically. I hope Asela would forgive me for thinking as if he was just another nuisance in the bus. (Hope one day he will get to know this

We reached Hasalaka around 9.30am and went in search of a tuk-tuk. However, I went and spoke to a fruit vendor and asked the directions to Rathna Ella rather than speaking directly to a tuk-tuk and my tact worked. He then pointed at a certain tuk-tuk and said he’d know where to go. He’s been called by his buddies “Deyya” and he asked for Rs. 400/- for the trail head and promised to take us right up and show how to get to Rathna Ella.

We happily got in and went past the Statue of Hasalaka Gamini and turned to our right (coming from Hasalaka town) along the road to Wasgamuwa. After about 1km passing the main bridge across Hasalaka tank, we turned left to Sri Dammananda road which too has a narrow (passable by a small vehicle like a Dimo Batta or tuk-tuk) iron bridge. You can’t miss it

From there, difficult go get the directions, but you just have to follow you nose and ask the villages if you travel by your own vehicle. In about 20mins, we reached the end of our journey by tuk-tuk and I asked Deyya if we could leave our baggage somewhere. He then took us to this Weda Mama’s place (Ashan had used the same place when he went to see Rathna Ella) and got the permission to keep our baggage there. Unfortunately, Weda Mama wasn’t at home but his wife was very kind.

Through his garden, we had to climb (about 10ft) up to the channel which is about 4-5ft in width. Along it, they had built a bunt and we just had to follow it to the Rathna Ella. (Walk in the park compared to what we did in Meemure, but not even close when compared to the surroundings).

Sometimes, the path is too narrow, you gotta be very careful as there’s a steep downhill on the left. We walked and walked thanking the thick forest patch on the right above us sheltering the path from scorching sun. This channel carries water to the paddy fields down hill and the farmers plough and harvest 3 seasons (other areas only two, Yala and Maha) and Deyya mentioned that the water levels don’t get completely dried up. Hasalaka Oya keeps the water levels sufficient enough for those people to farm.

We passed about 3 falls below, which can only be heard and barely seen due to thick grown trees on the downhill below. It’d be really challenging to get down through all that. I though it’d be more feasible coming down from Rathna Ella along Hasalaka Oya as the water levels were not at an alarmingly high. There’s another famous water fall called “Kaluwa Wetuna Ella” before the Rathna Ella. Unfortunately we couldn’t get down to her even though we heard her clear enough. However, there was another beautiful fall considerably high about 150m from the base of Rathna Ella and I’m not sure if it has a name.

The Statue at Hasalaka, behind is the road towards Wasgamuwa

One of the greatest heroes of our recent past….

This is the narrow iron bridge I mentioned about… I’m watching if a vehicle is coming coz you can’t be on the bridge when one does

Haslaka Tank

I love this pic

Along the way, they are getting ready of another ploughing

Up there is the main road but you can’t really see it through the trees

Resting place at the paddy field

Ok, just got on to the bunt and away we went

Some tricky passes (you gotta jump from one to the other or get into the channel )

Shady all the way

This water is precious for those farmers

The first glimpse was through the forest patch above a paddy field and many millions of wows were started there. She was so rich and beautiful and I was staring at her in a trance till my friend reminded me that we could of course get nearer to her I felt very silly.

Then there was the talking rather communicating bull (again you heard it right) and here’s what happened. He was huge and pitch black fellow and my friend asked if the falls is near from him and to my disbelief, he actually nodded not just once but twice. (Reminds you of fairy tales of Andare, right?). My friend too was flabbergasted and he then asked if we’d have any difficulties getting to the falls. Guess what happened? He simply shook his head, twice again as if to say “No, there won’t be any trouble”:-) :-) :-)

I decided not to burden him with further questions and went happily and at a quicker face to reach my beloved Rathna Ella ASAP. We first saw the cascade I mentioned above and she too was about 20-30ft in height. Even though it was considerably dry, the water levels were great and helped us get closer without any trouble. Rathna Ella was like a mother to many falls. If you look closely, she resembles Baker’s falls a bit, like a stretched version of Baker’s falls. (I simply don’t like to use that name as it’s a name of a killer of many Elephants, but what choice do I have?

There’s a path you have to take to get to the base of Rathna Ella, but it’s really difficult to get very close as the water is fiercely coming down with billions of water droplets covering the whole area. You’re bound to get wet completely in seconds. We stayed as close as possible about half hour and then came back to the first cascade and got this urge to go for a cool dip. It’s very dangerous to go for a swim in the base pool, so we chose a harmless, innocuous rock pool and had nice cool dip and it really refreshed us.

After about another half hour, around 11.30am, we left, sadly though, and reached Weda Mama’s place around 12.30pm. On the way back, we met about 2-3 groups of people carrying bottles and food to the falls and felt very annoyed. Hopefully, they didn’t abuse her that much. We reached Weda Mama’s house and there was a nice cocoa tree which donated us one of her juicy cocoa which we devoured after a tiring walk.

Deyya was waiting and we said our thanks to Weda Mama’s wife and departed for Hasalaka town. On our way back, we paid our respects to one of the greatest heroes of our recent history, Hasalaka Gamini, who made the supreme sacrifice for this country. He’ll forever be remembered.

Then Deyya showed us the place called “Ambula” (right in front of Hasalaka Police station) for lunch. They served us a very delicious meal of Carrot, Polos (my favorite), Mallung, Papadam (full vegetarion coz it was the Poya) and I simply loved it. The price was too very cheap and we then crossed the road and waited for a Kandy bus.

On our way along 18-bends, we could see miles into Mahiyanganaya area, Hasalaka Oya was clearly visible and I suppose the bigger one beyond that was the famous Sora Bora Wewa. It’d’ve been grand to go for a walk along the 18-bends in the early morning coz you can see the sun rising and the surrounding mountains will be simply amazing to watch.

We reached Kandy around 3.55pm and had nightmarish incident with the Kandy station officers those who were extremely rude and impolite. We then were forced to take the 4.06pm Podimenike instead of the Intercity at 5.10pm or 5.30pm and reached Fort around 7.30pm.

That’s the end of my fairy tale of Rathna Ella, Sri de Hasalaka…. What an unforgettable journey it turned out to be coz Rathna Ella came into my radar very unexpectedly and since then I wanted to go see her.

Hope you guys enjoyed my vivid fairy tale

Cheers… now to the most amazing pic story.

There She issssssssssss

Getting closer, zooming in

Up close, such a beauty

All done and dusted

Grand place to spend a night, complete isolation

Giving them a hand

Talking Bull posing for a pic

Need to wait a bit more

The cascade just before the Mother Rathna Ella

You can see they’ve built a wall and made a small reservoir like

Above the trees, very near

The small cascade flows down

Not overflowing but enough to retain the beauty

.

Steep climb to reach the Rathna Ella

Rock boulders

Some more, apparently in high season, water flows clean above these

Finally full face… she’s a Queen

Breath-taking and majestic

Wish I could hug you

When the water levels are very high, it would be the sight

Wasps’ honey (Bambara Wada)

Curd and Honey??? gorgeous mushrooms

Well….

Tiny falls just below

Mother is watching over her daughter

Had a dip in a shallow rock pool

Bidding farewell

Where did she come from?

Pair of them

Awesome

See you lady, and we gonna badly miss you

“We don’t own this Mother Nature; We simply belong there. We depend on her. So we have no right to abuse her in any way. Protect her by all means…. “