Lakdasun Trip Reports Archive » The Hike in Valentine day-Alagalla (1148m)

Year and Month	2016 February 14th
Number of Days	one day
Crew	03-Indranatha, Nuwan and My self
Accommodation	Not applicable
Transport	Bus, Train and Climbing
Activities	Mountain climbing, Sightseeing and photography
Weather	Excellent
Route	Polonnaruwa->Kandy->Poththapitiya (පොත්තපිටිය)->Alagalla (අලගල්ල) ->Gangoda (ගoගොඩ) ->Ihala Kotte (ඉහළ කෝට්ටේ)-> Kandy->Polonnaruwa
Tips, Notes and Special remark	Start the journey in early morning. Then you can avoid afternoon heat Carry at least 1liter for one person. No water sources in the mountain after last water resource. There is no water at Pooja Gala (පූජා ගල) in dry season. If you are camping on top the mountain, then need more. This is a moderate strenuous climb. There is a clear foot pathway till the peak of Katusu Kanda (කටුසු කන්ද). Last part of Katusu Kanda till the flag is bit rock climbing. Must be careful. There is another section when you go from Katusu Kanda to Pooja Gala, have to climb down carefully with an assistance of a rope. There is an alternative road to avoid this rock climbing part and roping section to Pooja Gala. Alagalla to be climbed after February 4th. It gives few advantages: Locals climb Alagalla on Independent day to celebrate it. They will clear the foot pathway. They will fix a rope to get down from Katusu Kanda to Pooja Gala. Usually February month is dry. Therefore no/less leeches. If you go on rainy day or soon after rain, be prepared with leeches. It is well reputed place with leeches. I still can remember in my first visit some of us abounded the journey because of leeches. Don’t pollute the area with plastic items. We have noticed large amount of polythene and garbage on the way to Pooja Gala. Think about this if you are camping there. There are several routes to climb it: We started from Poththatapitiya. That pathway is a continuous ascend till the peak but less slippery. We got Poththapitiya bus from Kandy Good Shed stand. There are enough buses and it is about 45minutes to 1hour journey. If you come by train, can get down at Ihala Kotte station and join with the same route at Alagalla tea factory. This route first direct to Alagalla peak (Katusu Kanda) and then to Pooja Gala. Other way is to start from Gangoda station. (A substation in between Ihala Kotte and Kadigamuwa) It is also continuous ascend with more steepness. There are some sections of concrete steps. In dry season it is bit slippery due to dust. This pathway directs to Pooja Gala.
Related Resources	Trip reports on Alagalla
Author	Niroshan
Comments	Discuss this trip report, provide feedback or make suggestions at Lakdasun Forum on the thread The Hike in Valentine day-Alagalla (1148m)

“If you have fallen love with mountains, you have to celebrate valentine day by climbing a mountain”

Where Alagalla is situated

Red circle shows Alagalla peak and black circle shows Pooja Gala (it is mentioned as Ingurugala in the map. Green star shows the Poththapitiya junction where we started the climbing. Yellow arrow shows Ihala Kotte station. Note both Ihala Kotte and Poththapitiya are closer to Alagalla peak not to Pooja Gala. Red star shows the approximate place of Gangoda substation. (As it is a substation, it is not shown in the map). Pooja Gala is closer to Gangoda station. click image to enlarge

Different phases of Alagalla

View of Alagalla from Balana fort

View of Alagalla from Kandy railway line

View of Alagalla from Kadigamuwa railway station

We got Poththapitiya bus from Kandy Good shed bus stand and reached Poththapitiya around 8.15 am. There was a well paved concrete road starting from Poththapitiya junction towards Alagalla tea factory. We got right hand side road at Alagalla tea factory which winds through Alagalla tea estate and line houses. The left hand side foot pathway at Alagalla tea factory is towards Ihala Kotte.
As it was a Sunday, numbers of locals were starting to climb Alagalla. They mainly targeted the Pooja Gala. It was nice to see even old ladies and small kids. The road got narrow and became a foot pathway which goes through the forest patch initially.
Then we came to a Mana patch which was half burned by a fire made by someone’s careless work.
When we were climbing the mana patch, the peak of Alagalla was noticed with it’s waving flag. There was a foot pathway to Pooja gall with bypassing the peak.
At the end of the mana patch rock climbing part was started and it ended at the highest point of Alagalla. It was time around 10.15 am.

Well paved concrete road towards Alagalla tea factory

Alagalla tea factory. Locals called it as “store” ස්ටෝරුව

පුළුන්

Walking along estate road

The last drinkable water source

Estate road in a brighten day

Kind of a junction, turn to left hand side

The crowd….

Through Alagalla tea estate

Road becomes foot pathway and entering to the forest patch

It was a continuous ascend

Starting of Mana patch

Climbing through mana patch. Foot pathway was well clear after mass hike on independent day

The view when we looked down

Surrounding view…

Half burned mana patch

Majestic view of the peak

Alagalla peak

This boy was carrying his sister all the way to the peak

Smile of young hiker

Starting of minor rock climbing part

This is the way….

Window view

Summit of Alagalla with the flag

Majority bypasses the peak and going to Pooja Gala

Railway line and road

Standing Buddha statue with temple which come across along the way from Mawanella to Rambukkana

Garbage disposal area at Alagalla

Alagalla tea factory

Hatharaliyadda-හතරලියද්ද town

Another nearby temple at Gangoda

Vandalism

Macro view…

I am at the peak….

The team on top of Alagalla

Alagalla peak provides a good view towards Poththapitiya, Mawanella, Rambukkana, Hatharaliyadda and Ihala Kotte. Then we continued towards
Pooja Gala. The drop between Alagalla and Pooja Gala was connected by the slippery rock. After getting down along slippery rock, we entered another forest patch where we found two or three camp sites.

Rest of Alagalla range

Other part of Alagalla range where Pooja Gala is situated

Reaching slippery rock

Iron road embedded in the rock

Getting down along slippery rock. It was around 10-15m long

Getting down along slippery rock

Entering to the forest patch

First camp site we noticed

Going through forest patch

Pooja Gala with pagoda

Pooja Gala is situated at other end of Alagalla range. There is a newly built Stupa, small pond and sacred foot print. This is the main attraction of Alagalla these days. Pooja Gala was crowded and we spend a little time there. Then we started to get down towards Gangoda side. Unfortunately we missed foot print and pond.
The pathway was slippery due to dust and sand. We reached Gangoda station by 12.45 pm and got into Kandy train to reach Ihala Kotte.

Have to remove shoes before enter

Starting of the foot path way to Gangoda

The pagoda

Buddha statue was inside the pagoda

.	Getting down towards Gangoda side

Getting down towards Gangoda side

The view

Intermittent concrete steps

The view when we were coming down

They requested to have a snap

View of Pooja Gala

Uthuwan Kanda-උතුවන්කන්ද

Fainted view of Bathalegala -බතලේගල and Ura Kanda -ඌරා කන්ද

The train

The pathway closer to the rock

It was recently built

Better to keep in mind

The shrine

Reaching Gangoda station

Our next objective is to visit Dekinda Falls (දෙකිද ඇල්ල) which is situated closer to Ihala Kotte station. There are two ways to reach Dekinda Falls. One is follow the foot pathway towards Poththapitiya and reach the top of the fall. According to the person who described it is bit long.
There is a separate pathway to reach the base of the fall. We followed that and had a quick dip from the fall. Dekinda fall was fairly dry these days.
It ended up a good day of travelling.

White arrow shows the foot pathway to Alagalla. You can reach the top of Dekinda Falls by that. Red arrow shows the pathway to base of the fall.

Dekinda Falls
This 30m tall waterfall situated closer to Ihala Kotte, inside Alagalla forest reserve. It has upper part and lower part.

Dekinda Falls

Dekinda Falls-lower part

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