Cocogalla Mini World’s end / Pitamaruwa MWE is a great tourist attraction in these days. When we camped at Cocogalla MWE in 2017 August, it was coupled with another two hikes-before and after the camping. We have hiked Lunubissa / Lunugala peak on the day of camping. Lunubissa peak is situated at Passara-Madolsima road before Madolsima town. DS rock would get attraction of any one who travel to Mini world’s end as it is situated near Cocogalla. After camping, we have done a short hike to DS rock.

Lunubissa / Lunugala Mountain
It is marked at metric map as Lunubissa Mountain, but people call it as Lunugala peak. This peak is clearly visible to Passara bus stand as a mountain with flat summit.

Lunubissa Mountain in metric map. The height is marked in feet. 4396ft. Click image to enlarge.

Lunugala Mountain in Google map. The peak is marked in star. Trail head is shown by the arrow and black line indicates our path.

We have got the first bus to Cocogalla from Passara, which is scheduled at 6.30am. Our starting point was the three way junction at Passara-Madolsima-Madawalagama roads. (At B360 road)
Lunubissa / Lunugala hike is a fairly easy one can be finished in 1-1.5 hours’ time. Basically this mountain has more open areas with short bushes, most probably due to quartz on the floor. Therefore we had beautiful surrounding view since beginning. Loggal Oya valley is always behind us and Namunukula was standing on side of us. Middle of the hike we came across a flat area where main peak was visible on side. Main peak of Lunugala is fairly flat and we have experienced a gusty wind there. Before the main peak there were few false peaks and we had rest over there. When you reached the top you will understand it is a hike along the ridge of the mountain.

Group photo at beginning: Kasun (left), Dimal, Prabath, Keshan and Nalinda (right)

Winding road to Madolsima

Scenic road to Madolsima with tea patches on either side of the road. This Elteb tea estate.

Starting…

Functioning EL-TEB tea factory

Note the trail of Lunubissa Mountain. Basically it is an open trek with small bushes. We had frequent stops for enjoying the surrounding view.

Loggal Oya valley.

Cloud is covering Loggal Oya valley. Madolsima range is seen in far away.

Note the trek…

Mighty Namunukula

Close up…

Hikers…

Namunukula and Lunugala. Passara town is situated in between them. (Can’t see here)

Maragala range and towards Moneragala

This is our path and peak is marked by star

Pre historical???

Manager’s bungalow

It is hard to get lost there…

Moneragala side.

Pink and white quartz with grass

Separation of roads. A5 is the main road with middle white line.

Peak of Lunubissa is seen…

The road goes around the hill

A5 road passing Meedumpitiya

The mountain next to Lunugala

Half way to Lunubissa

Drop on the other side

White and Pink quartz. It make difficult the hike.

As Ashan described in his report, the peak of Lunubissa has 360 degree view including bird’s eye view of Passara town, Namunukula, Maragala range, Moneragala area, Wellawaya area, Wadinahela Mountain, Loggal Oya valley, Ampara area, Govindahela with mountains of Ampara, Bandarawela area etc. The view was not bad though clouds were around. We have spent enough time on top of Lunubissa as our scheduled bus to Cocogalla was around 12.15pm. We made return journey in an hour time to the starting point at Madolsima road (B360).

Reaching the top of Lunubissa

On top of Lunubissa

Passara town, A5 road and play ground

Towards Ampara. Govindahela / West Minister Abbey is seen with it’ unique view.

B306 road.

Namunukula and Passara town is situated at it’s base

Towards Wellawaya: Wadinahela is seen. The lake is in the photo must be Handapanagala lake.

Towards Moneragala: Maragala range is seen

Towards Bandarawela. ? St. Catherine point with towers

The area we passed…. This is the ridge of Lunugala Mountain. We have walked over it.

Greenish… El-Teb tea estate

Team on top

Team on top

Enjoy the video: https://youtu.be/2LC5pKdC6wc

DS rock
This unique shaped rock is seen when we are heading to Cocogalla MWE / Pitamaruwa MWE. As it’s similar to face of Hon. D.S.Senanayake, people called it as D.S Rock. Still I can remember when I saw this rock first time while travelling to Cocogalla MWE in 2012, I asked from Saman (He worked at nearby hospital and was my guide at that time) about how to reach on top of it. He replied villagers usually don’t visit there. Five years later I was able to visit at DS Rock with him.
This hike was done at following day of Cocogalla MWE camping. It was not difficult to map out the path to DS rock. DS rock is situated at a drop of a mountain range which is occupied by a tea estate.
We have walked back from Cocogalla MWE towards Kokagala and got the by road to reach the edge of this mountain range. We have gone through tea estate and reached the end of the range where a summer hut is situated. The top of DS rock is seen to this summer hut. There was a descend from here to the DS rock, through shrubs and no foot pathway.

DS rock

DS rock is situated at end of a range. This picture was taken on our way to mini world’s end.

DS rock

DS rock

Road to Madolsima

Coming back from Cocogalla MWE

Brilliant day

How high it is…

Greenish….

Junction where we followed the by road (left one).

Plucking Jambola

It is not tasty…

.	Scenery on our way to DS rock…..

Cocogalla towers

Line houses…

There was a clear foot path to end of the range…

Here you can see the end of the range where DS rock is situated. The range is covered with tea.

Surrounding view…

Passing the last stretch of tea estate

The top of DS rock is seen to the edge.

The range we have passed

Surrounding view. Note Namunukula is covered with cloud cap…

This is how DS rock is seen at the end.

Once we reached the end of this shrub area, we have realized it is not possible to reach the most top part of DS rock. It has certain bouldering arrangement which made difficult to go around the rock. There was another flat rock which is situated closer to DS rock. It was a nice place to stay (only suits for one or two people) and can enjoy the surrounding view. Matigahathenna and Bakinilanda area were seen at the drop.

Cross section of DS rock

This is the highest point of the rock we were able to reach. (Shown by arrow)

Top part of DS rock….

It is not possible to go around it

Drop is seen at DS rock-Matigahathenna and Bakinilanda  area

Drop is seen at DS rock- Matigahathenna and Bakinilanda area

Paddies at Matigahathenna

Surrounding view….

Paddies at Matigahathenna

Surrounding view.

After spend time at DS rock we tried to get down to other side of the range where we can easily access to a main road. We were able to reach Kuruwigolla junction (කුරුවිගොල්ල හන්දිය) at the end to get the bus to Passara.

Coming back

Now we are at the other side of the range

We were on top of this range

Multi colours

Nice place to have a church

This shows our path

Thanks for reading