Existence of nine peaks was caused to name the range as Namunu- Kula. It was the 12th highest mountain in SL. The highest peak out of 9 was climbed by many hikers each year; but from Spring Valley side which was considered as the formal path. Our ambition was to explore the whole 9 peaks from Passara side which was not popular trail and even done by nobody in popular travel forums.

A long time back, while talking to some one at the Horton Plains office to get directions to Kirigalpoththa, we learnt that there is a bridle trail to Bogawantalawa which branches off from Kirigalpoththa trail (Kirigalpoththa trail wasn’t clearly marked then as it is now; and GPS for hiking was not even heard of!). Since then it was in my list of “to do trails” but I never had enough information to plan the walk.

After spending some time at the Adisham we hit the road again towards Ohiya. Road was not in the best condition, so it took us some time. After the Ohiya Railway station the road condition was good and started to be scenic. It was around 5.30 pm when we reached the turnoff to the Hill Safari’s gravel road. We were mesmerized by the stunning view and simply forgot to proceed towards the Hill safari.

It was one of my dream journeys which I had waited for a long time to accomplished. Finally that day came.We departure from colombo on 4th of September by 12.45AM Ampara bus to go to the ancient Memure village.We arrived Hunnasgiriya at about 5.30 AM and get breakfast from there. We went to Loolwatta by a van which leaves at 8.00 AM from Hunnasgiriya. After that, there was no public transport vehicle on that road until 1.30 PM. After scenic drive along the Hunnasgiriya-Loolwatta road we came to the destination at about 9.00AM.From there we started our long walk towards Meemure.

Originally we planned this trip to visit the waterfalls in Ginigathhena and Hatton area, but since we were able to reach Ginigathhene before 7, made a sudden change of plans and decided to hike the Thotupola kanda. As I mentioned earlier the climate was really cool and the roads were all covered in mist.

This is the first time we visited to Riverseturn. That was windy season for Riverstone and best time to visit. The breathtaking surroundings, strong cool winds and challenging hikes. But the pitawala pathana was very dry at that time. According to the local persons, they didn’t get rain from 2-3 months. You can see how dry it was. We visited to Thelgamuwa oya for bath but we saw not enough water for that. Then we visited to Sera fall. We didn’t see large and beautiful water fall because of lack of rain.

A 3 day visit to northern part of Knuckles range, called Knuckles due to its mountains appearance similarity to a knuckles. Once we reached Rattota around 1.30pm. There wasn’t any bus to at least somewhere near to Riverstone. Three wheel and Van fares are very high. In Rattota town they were well organized and they asked same fare. I suggest using hired vehicle from home town or Matale would be a better idea. We finally got a bus from Matale to Puwakpitiya.

We were gathered into Colombo private bus stand on Friday night @ about 10.15pm to catch 11.45Pm Mahiyangana bus. Since it was a long weekend huge crowd was there. But we were lucky enough to get seats in 10.45 Bibila bus which was came unexpectedly late. Therefore it is better if you can reserve seats in advanced if you plan to go by Bus. We get off at the Gurulupotha rest house at about 5 am. There is a water stream, which is a branch of a Hasalaka oya is flow across Mahiyanganaya road. We had ‘Roti’ for the breakfast from a small hotel at Gurulupotha

It was around 9.30 when we reach Bambarakanda Rest. I should mention again that the owning lady of Bambarakanda Rest Mrs. Sera Mayakaduwa was truly a very helpful person. Since we didn’t have a guide she gave us all the information about the trails and even drew us a rough sketch of the area.

The route was from Galle to Lankagama via Wanduramba, Udugama and Neluwa. The road conditions up to Neluwa was good but after that the road was extremely narrow and in many areas was in pretty abd shape. A special note is that the bridge over the Gin ganga is very narrow. If your vehicle is wide, you should use the route via Kosmulla from Neluwa. This route joins the shorter route just after the bridge. All in all it took about 2-2.5 hours to get to Lankagama from Galle

The bus terminated at Pamunupura junction. Then we have to turn left and continue the journey by foot. The sight of Yahangala too away our tiredness all the time. It brought ice cool to our eyes. We stopped briefly at a point where a small water stream crosses the road and fall over cliff on the other side of the road. After 15 mins we restarted the journey. It was a heavy climb thereafter and after 200m we reached the Grama niladari office of the village. It was closed and we got some more rest there. The concreted road ended there and a foot path began.

Afterwards we proceeded to Hunnasgiriya Town, from where we took the road to Loolwatta. The Deanston Conservation Centre is located about 8km away on this road.

The place is accessible by bus. To reach Hunnasgiriya either the Colombo to Kandy, Kandy to Mahiyangana bus combination or the Colombo to Mahiyangana bus should be taken. After getting down at Hunnasgiriya 616 Hunnasgiriya – Loolwatta bus must be taken. However this bus only operates. It leaves the Teldeniya depot at 12.30pm each day (Information can be obtained by calling the teldeniya depot).