We got back to rail track before about 500m to Idalgashinna Station and walked towards the station along the track. We had out snacks at the Station and started the restof the journey at about 4.00pm from there. (Advisable to walk in an average speed from haputale to idalgashinna part as you will miss the beauty from idalgashinna to ohiya if it gets darker. Some How We Managed our walking pace for the next part)

Even though we have had so many ordinary trips none of them have not given an experience like this one. Yes, we just finished a 20km hike from Ohiya to Bambarakanda.

As per my experience, Devil’s Staircase road is the most hardest, dangerous and beautiful road in Sri Lanka. I knew about this on 2012 and I was lucky to visit there at the beginning of 2013.

In 2013 we camped at Hortain plains for the first time , since the day we left that place we were missing that place this is the second night we stayed up there .

The constant rains made it pretty awkward for us but it wasn’t going to hold us back. So finally as usual we set off on our journey in the dawn of 16 Oct. The topic of the day was based on the wildlife in Borneo such as Bearded Pigs, Orang-Utans, etc. We stopped at our usual place at the Devon Viewing Point. As usual she was in full flow making my heart leap in joy. She also made my hopes soar high in anticipation of seeing my beloved St. Claire in full flow. “Dear god, please let her be in full flow even if you have to blast the darn sluice gates of the wretched Upper Kotmale”, I prayed while we took our breakfast baskets of Seeni Sambol and Egg Sandwiches. I’m sure you would wanna see some pictures of the surrounding and it is my pleasure to oblige.

බි‍්‍රතාන්‍ය පාලන සමයේ ලංකාවේ විවිධාකාර සංවර්ධන ක‍්‍රියාවලි සිදුවිය. ඒ සියල්ලම ඔවුන්ගේ පහසුව වෙනුවෙන් සිදුවූ ඒවාය. ඒ අතර අදටත් අප භාවිත කරන විශ්මයජනක කර්තව්‍යය වනුයේ උඩරට දුම්රිය මාර්ගයයි. කිලෝමීටර 292 ක් දිග කොළඹ-බදුල්ල දුම්රිය මාර්ගයේ පිහිටි බිංගෙවල් ගණන 43 කි. අද අපේ ක‍්‍රියාදාමය නම් කි.මී. 9 ක් දුරැති ඔහිය-ඉදල්ගස්හින්න දුම්රිය මගේ චාරිකාවක් යමින් බිංගෙවල් 14 ක් හරහා යාම සහ දෙමෝදර ආරුක්කු නවයේ ඓතිහාසික පාලම යටට ගමන් කිරීමයි.

Previously I did hike from Kalupahana to Ohiya on foot and I wanted to do this on my jeep but I never planned to attempt this in 2015. All started when my friend Dharshana called me and said “machan must go somewhere because I haven’t been anywhere in 8 months”. He had been stuck with his PG degree so was desperate and this was the main reason why we did this plus Amila also joined us on the last moment.

Year and Month Jun, 2015 Number of Days 2 Crew Ana, Atha, Prasa, D and Me Accommodation Bambarakanda Rest Transport By Train, on foot and by Van Activities Hiking, Photography, Relaxing, etc… Weather Excellent (Gloomy towards the evening) Route Colombo->Ohiya by Night Mail. Ohiya->Bambarakanda on foot. Bambarakanda->Ohiya by Van. Ohiya->Colombo by Train. Tips, Notes and […]

I just checked out the time table of trains so that it’d give us a sense of times so that we could take precautions. These new Chinese trains are very quiet compared to the grumbling old German ladies. However I don’t think when it comes to performance, technology and endurance, the Chinese can come anywhere near. I’ve seen how they operate in my Exclusive Journey on the S12 some time ago. Hasi took over the meals with the help of his wife. Even though she wanted to join us, a sudden illness confined her to the house. We were very excited, especially Hasi as this was going to be his first ever rail hike. I could imagine how he felt coz it was the same when I was getting ready for my first rail hike.

Lahiru joined me at Fort railway station around 7.15 p.m. on Friday evening and waited till Badulla bound night mail train arrives to the flat foam. Soon after the train came around 7.30 p.m. we got in and were able to grab 2 seats. Being at the railway station in advance allowed us not to experience the difficulty of going standing specially in the night for long time. The train left Colombo at 8.15 p.m. and reached Haputale around 6.00 in the morning. After having a rest for a few minutes, we headed towards Ohiya.

The famous scenic hike from Kalupahana to Ohiya was one I wanted to do for a while and as usual this was decided within few hours. On the previous day we hiked Gommolliya and were spending the night at Bambarakanda rest relaxing and watching the football world cup. Since our Sunday plan was to return back to our homes we decided to alter it and do this hike. Bambarakanda rest which is managed by Mrs. Mayakaduwa is located 4km’s from Kalupahana so we had 20 more Km’s to get to Ohiya.

Year and Month March, 2014 (30th) Number of Days One Day Trip Crew 2 (between 24-25 years of age), Me and my friend Accommodation N/A Transport From Polgahawela to Ohiya by night mail train, From Ohiya to Kalupahana on foot, Came back from Kalupahana across Rathnapura & Kegalle by bus. Activities Hiking & Trekking, Photography, […]