This was also one of our dream hikes that we had to postpone several times because of the rain. But finally we had some fine weather and we decided to do it. But it was the starting day of a long weekend and the queues for the buses were miles long. We got into a Badulla bus after a one and a half hour wait in the queue. It was 2 am in the morning. After a four hour ride we reached Belihul Oya around 6 in the morning. Although we couldn’t take a good sleep previous night we were eager to start the hike. We had our breakfast there and took two three wheelers to reach the trail head.

We were heading Lulkandura / Loolecondera Estate, the first commercial tea plantation of Sri Lanka, which was located in a distance of 35km from Peradeniya. Just after the University premises, the climb was began. The road was bit narrow but had been maintained well. It was nice scenery of hilltops at Gampola area visible in our right hand side, especially the Govijana Seya of Ambuluwawa. The road was run through natural rain forests, pathana and pines lands.

We stopped at a night hotel somewhere near Nittambuwa as two of my friends were out of dinner and drove up to Dambulla without stopping. We re-fueled from Damdulla around 3.00 am and drove to Pallegama. We stopped in a night tea shop somewhere near Pallegama to have a cup of tea. We arrived at the Park Entrance at around 5.45 am and proceeded to the bungalow after completing the formalities at the entrance office.

Knuckles mountain range has been a paradise for me since the first time I visited there via Deanston in 2009. The breathtaking surroundings, strong cool winds and challenging hikes had been tempting me to visit there again and as a result I decided to visit Knuckles again in the following year from Illukkumbura side. The story of our unforgettable journey is as follows

We left around morning 6.00 from Dehiwala with Bopath Ella to be our 1st sighting in mind. We reached Kuruwita around 8.00 – 8.30 and from Kuruwita took a left turn and travelled about 3kms to a village called Agalwatta where the fall is located. It was interesting to see that the area surrounding the fall has changed a lot from my last visit for this fall in 1996. Then as per our agenda it was Doovili falls in Kalthota, so we made a move towards Balangoda. After passing Pelmadulla town we were lucky enough to spot Kirindi Ella in distance from the main road (although I have seen images of this waterfall had no idea where it is located exactly). So we have to come back towards Pelmadulla town and took a right turn in Kuttapitiya road.