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Horton Plains to Bambarakanda on foot – a never-to-miss experience for a Hiker |
We started at Peradeniya at 5.00 am and reached the trail head, which was about 9 km from the Visitor Centre at Horton Plains towards Ohiya, at 11.00 am. I know six hours to do a distance that was just a little over 100 km was totally unacceptable considering the facts our hired van was so… good, the driver was so… cool, road was so… private, and what was more, we all wanted to get to the trail head as early as possible.
Fascinating Alagalla (1148m) & Dekinda Falls(30m) |
Alagalla hike was a hike I was looking forward to do since last year but always the weather condition was the limiting factor. I left early morning from Yakkala and arrived at Mawanella. Guess what! as I got off the bus straight away I saw the gigantic mountain covered with a veil of mist which is a peculiar sight. I decided to do the hike from the Ihala Kotte station because that was the route that I was aware about but the easiest way would be taking a Kandy-Poththepitiya bus from Pilimathalawa.
In search of “Soora Saradiel’s” hide out and Bo Ella |
I left Colombo and reached a small town just before Mawanella called Utuwankanda where you can find the road which leads you to Saradiels rock (Utuwan mawatha). After walking about 1Km I came across a small road branching off towards the Saradiels rock towards the left. I travelled uphill until I met some locals where I asked for directions, they said take the path which goes uphill so at one point I entered another path which branched out to the left trough a small rubber estate. The path was there until the last bit, it was a steep climb on the slippery muddy track.
Sripada via Deraniyagala, Uda-Maliboda Trail |
After completing the three most traveled trails (Hatton-Nallathanni, Rathnapura-Palabaddhala and Kuruwita-Erathna) to SriPada my focus shifted towards the lesser known ones. The Uda-Maliboda trail from Deraniyagala was on the top of that list. I was looking out for more details on this trail and that is when the topic came in to discussion on the forum in the threads – Trail to Sri Pada from Uda Maliboda, Deraniyagala and Trail to sri pada to udamaliboda – Thanks to the discussions there I got all the information required and was wating to find some time to do the walk.
Four day journey to upcountry, explore nature & Heritage from Badulla to Haputale. |
Few of my friends decided to go on a trip to Badulla by train, in December 2008. We had to travel by the night mail train because we were not enough lucky to reserve tickets for an early one. We got into the train at Veyangoda station at about 9.15 pm on 19/12/2008.
It was 6.00 am the following day when we reached Pattipola which was the most elevated railway station from the sea level, in Sri Lanka.
“Duvili Ali” through Manigala & Walpolamulla |
We started our journey from Katubedda at about 11.30 in the night. The crew was six. We came Colombo fort at 12.30 am from bus. Because of four day vacation there were huge crowd in the Kandy busses. We found group of boys and girls who go Knuckles range also. We set with them and hired a van to go Matale. At 3.30 am we came from Colombo. At 7.30 am we arrived to Matale. We got the Matale -> Riverston -> Illukkmbura -> Pallegama -> Narangamuwa CTB bus and came to Rathninda.(If u want Matale CTB depot no: 0662222281)
Knuckles – Doovili Eli – Kalupahana 2010 |
Started from Colombo fort at 6.00 a.m. but got into a Kandy bus around 8.30 a.m. as it was the start of the ‘Wesak weekend ’. From Kandy to Wattegama around 1 hour in the bus and the last bus from Wattegama to Bambarella at 7.15 p.m.
There are enough buses on normal days to Bambarella from Wattegama. Even from Kandy there are few. Total distance from Kandy to Bambarella – 38km.
Aberdeen – The most beautiful location in the valley of Kehelgamuwa oya |
Our van moved slowly since the road was narrow and hilly. The condition of the road was un-expectably good. (It seemed to be repaired recently). The sky was covered with crowns of wet zoned trees. We had moved more than 3km. along a by road starting from Ginigathhena. In the next moment, we were free from the shades of trees and came to an open area surrounded by a tea plantation. Then we notice a silver string laying on black dress in a distance. That was the Aberdeen fall; the most beautiful place in the Kehelgamuwa River
Heaven On Earth (Knuckles – Illukkumbura, Reverstan) |
I was bit worried because I couldn’t do a trip to knuckles but luck was on my side our guys decided to go on a trip & asked me a place to go ! After doing the reservations from Baththaramulla we left on an early morning from Colombo to reach Mathale at around 10a.m where we bought all the stuff we needed & lunch packets. We then continued our journey towards Rattota in search of Bambarakiri Falls (fed by water streams of knuckles mountain range).
Bandarawela to Kurunegala and back – The Looooong Cut |
This was not one of those planned trips. It was to be just a visit to a relatives place at Kurunegala (and of-course we had to get back home). BUT, there was no way that I/we could just sit around at home in Kurunegala knowing that there are lots and lots of places to see while on the road.
