A Lull in Extreme Travelling – Pic Journey 6…

Just after Hari’s Doowili Eli Hike, I received a call asking if I’d like to join him for a leisure journey as he felt he deserved a break after the mighty hike. I too didn’t mind one so long as it met my expectations. Fortunately, Hari managed to convince Sanketha too to join and we decided to go to Elpitiya where one of the least heard and explored Andahelena Falls is located.

He’d come across Malaka’s Trip Report about this waterfall and the nearby Monastery, Diwankaralena and we thought it’d be a good opportunity for us to visit them at a snail’s speed. He set the date for 15 May and it turned out I will of course not have a break as Tony and I were to visit waterfalls in Ratnapura and Deraniyagala on 13 and 14 May.

We set off around 6.30am on the 15th May in Sanketha’s car and I was grateful for that coz 550+km on two consecutive days sitting on the back of Tony’s old bike had taken its toll on me.

Tour Highlights:

1. Andahelena Falls, Pituwala

2. Diwankaralena Hermitage, Pituwala

3. Wathurawila Monastery, Wathurawila

Andahelena Falls

Take the Elpitiya-Pituwala-Kahaduwa till you reach Pituwala Village. Just before the village you’ll see a sign giving you the directions to Diwankaralena Hermitage to the left. Take this road about half a km till you reach a small restaurant-cum-hotel to the right. Remember if you go by a car, this is where you’ll have to leave it as the road is not good for low clearance vehicles. You’ll anyway have to pay for parking but we couldn’t get the hang of how they charge. We had to pay Rs. 140/- as we left our car and the bike which Hari’s two friends came by.

The falls and the hermitage are located inside “Beraliya Mukalana”. From this hotel, walk downhill (to the left) and you’ll come to a junction where the road forks into two. The left one will take you to the falls about half a km walk through the forest crossing a couple of water streams while the right (rather straight one) will take you to the hermitage about 300-400m away. Both the falls and hermitage are located close to each other.

Andahelena Ella is created by the Andahelena Dola, probably giving her the name.

Where we parked the vehicle but he was barely out of the bed

Just look at this

Emerald dove on the hunt

It really was a treat to walk under this

The first stream

Very little water despite heavy rains in the last week

Gayan, Pubudu and our team walking along

Tea plantations at the edge of the forest

Second stream

Long toes

There she is, very little water to speak of

Up close

Closer

Side view

Nothing much in the base pool for Hari’s disappointment

You can see the railing to the top left where you can climb to the top. That’s how they got up there

From the top

Water going down

We kept going further up

Another pool wide enough for a bath but was heavily littered

Further uphill but the same story, plenty of garbage left by the idiotic travelers

On our way back

Diwankaralena Hermitage

At the entrance

She was very suspicious

Here’s the main complex

Steps to go up

Closer

Rocky cave

Looks pretty big

Inside and as usual paintings on the rocky ceiling

Closer

Sadu! Sadu!! Sadu!!!

One of my favorite ones

Lovable

Bunch of them at the small hotel I mentioned

He was at the hotel while we had some snacks

Wathurawila Monastery

Continue along the Kahaduwa Road till you reach Kahaduwa Junction and from there go further towards Wathuruwila where this is located.

We were very fortunate to see Sacred Relics of Lord Buddha at the Wathurawila Temple. We didn’t even have to wait in a queue as they must’ve been on display for Vesak Poya.

The main entrance

You can see Gayan and Pubudu walking along this shady path which is very cool

It felt like Bandarawela in this stretch, must be due to the plenty of trees on either side.

The trees keep the scorching heat away

Not a real one

Going uphill

Ariel view

Giant Buddha statue being carved on the rock

Up close

Looks amazingly beautiful

This is being used to carry stuff to where the statue is being carved

Another cave now heavily modified

They were picture crazy

Here’s what it was

From the Wathurawila Monastery, we went to Gayan’s Uncle’s place where we had our packed lunch sponsored by Gayan’s parents. His uncle is also a very knowledgeable person and we enjoyed a nice little chat with him about Meemure (see she seems to follow me everywhere) as he’d been in Loolwatte a long time ago.

Afterwards, we tried to visit a place called Kaludiya Pokuna but got the news that it was swarming with people so had to abandon the idea. Later we went to another popular bathing area but it too was no exception. Plenty of people were drinking and bathing and I decided to go upstream looking for a calm and quiet place which we finally found about 200m away from the mayhem.

Deep but plenty of drunkards hanging around

Tiny cascade

Going upstream looking for a quiet place

Finally got one

Here it is

We lied along this giving a water message

He was wondering if Hari had never seen water before

Looks like black tea

Ciao

After a nice cool splash in the water we returned to Colombo well before darkness, a rare feat. This could be one of my smallest trip reports and I wasn’t planning on writing this in the first place but under a lot of pressure from Sanketha and Hari, I was forced to do so.

Hope you guys enjoyed it and found this very little known beauty is worth a visit.

Take care and keep travelling.

Sri…