Lankagama Waterfalls was in my to-do list for a long time and last year we went all the way up to Kosmulla Duwili Ella at Neluwa but couldn’t proceed beyond due to lack of time. (My Trip Report : Scenic Rakwana Mountains and Kanneliya Forest)

It’d been a long time since Harinda and I’d gone on a journey together and when he said that he was gonna get 6 days straight off, I decided to reap the benefits. Hari’s initial plan to visit “Eli Hatha” in Maliboda had to be called off due to intermittent rains and falling on a sudden plan B (in fact it’d been nagging at me for the past year or so), I suggested we visit Pitadeniya searching for some more waterfalls (possibly following Niroshana’s Steps) in and around Neluwa, Lankagama and Pitadeniya. As per Niro’s report, he’d mentioned about Wedan Ella (unfortunately not been able to visit her) on Neluwa-Thawalama Road. When I mentioned this to Hari, he said that one of his friends, Gabriel is from Thawalama and I prompted him to get the info about this Wedan Ella.

Waterfalls of southern border of Sinharaja rain forest and Neluwa can be classified as follows Waterfalls in Neluwa (4) – Thapolena Ella 1, Thapolena Ella 2, Neluwa/Kosmulla Duwili Ella, Thambalagama Duwili Falls, Waterfalls in Warukandeniya (3) – Aliboda Falls, Ratawal dola Ella (? Beraliyadola Ella), Beraliya Galanda Ella, Waterfalls in Lankagama (6) – Classic five waterfalls and Hathbinna Ella, Waterfalls in Pitadeniya (3)-Malmora Ella, Pathan Oya Ella/Wathugala Ella and Kakuna Ella.

I have to do a confession before writing this trip report. This trip was arranged by Sri with Some other lakdasun members on 23rd Saturday using Sri’s old Strategy, Face book conversations. I had notified my absence In advance as I had to report duty on Saturday. But I was free on 22nd Friday. Due to various reasons most of the other members also confirmed their absence expect the little boy Tony. So that trip was postponed.

We came through Southern Highway and turned from Baddegama out. Then we came to Neluwa through Nagoda, Udugama, Hiniduma and Thawalama. From Neluwa you have to drive another16 KM on an extremely narrow road, through Kosmulla.

කඹුරුපිටියෙන් උදේ 7ට පමණ ගමන් ආරම්භ කර අනෙක් සාමාජිකයින් 5 දෙනා සමග අකුරැස්ස, උඩුගම හරහා නෙලුව බලා ගමන් ගත් අතර මංජු සහ ජයනෙත්ති පිලියන්දලින් ගමන් ආරම්භ කර දක්ෂිණ අධීවේගී මාර්ගයේ වැලිපැන්න පිවිසුමෙන් පැමිණ පැලවත්ත හරහා නෙලුවට පැමිණ අප හා එක්විය. නෙලුවෙන් අවශ්ය ආහාර ද්රාව්ය හා අනෙකුත් භාණ්ඩ මිලදී ගැනීමෙන් පසු අප පලමුවෙන්ම නෙලුව ලංකගම මාර්ගයේ නෙලුවේ සිට 7km ක් පමණ දුරින් පිහිටි කොස්මුල්ල දුවිලි ඇල්ල නැරඹීම සඳහා ගියෙමු.

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

Just to get away from our hectic work pattern, me and a few of my colleagues try to utilize every opportunity that comes by, by going out of the city. Every time, we try to select a place that fulfills our passion of being close to nature, which not only gives us plenty of fresh breath but also goes easy on the wallet. So it was Sinharaja this time.

We started form the Galle at about 5.00 in the morning. The crew was eight in a hired high roof Dolphin van.
The first stop of us was a beautiful waterfall called Ethamala ella situated near by Morawaka town.
You have to turn right 1km before the town and have to travel along NilElla estate about 1.5km. Our next stop at Hathmale ella near by Pallegama city.

Lankagama is known as an isolated village in the Southern Province. It had no proper access road could not be reached without a tough 4×4 vehicle (until the first quarter of 2010). The village borders the Sinharaja rainforest & the Gin River. It is also the home for a complex of 5 ever young waterfalls within an area less than 1 Sqkm, known as “Hariyawa Dola” waterfall complex. By 9.00 am we were at Neluwa. The jeep ran & turned to a by road near the school at Happitiya village. There was an iron bridge over the Gin Ganga (river), established recently known as Mandugeta bridge

This was a trip we went to see the waterfalls near Sinharaja border. The crew is consisting of different age groups. We leave Colombo in morning and reach Neluwa in afternoon. First we went to see the “Kosmulla Dhuwili Ella”. For this you have to take left turn at bridge over Gin River about a kilometer before Neluwa town. This waterfall has three levels and there are steps leading to top of the waterfall. So we climbed to the top.