It was not easy to give up this beautiful mountain which is situated at center of Kalupahana. Therefore I decided to revisit at Kalupahana after 2 weeks of first visit.
We have followed same basics of previous journey to Kalupahana (කළුපහන) and Thunhisgala side peak at this time also. Here I had new three friends but Eshan has visited at Kalupahana before. As we wanted to catch first Bambaralla bus, we stayed at Kandy previous day night. The only accommodation option I could book was Kandy Down Town hostel via booking.com. It was a nice experience as we were the only locals with 30 foreigners at that hostel on Christmas day night.

Everything happened on time and we were able to reach Malgudi junction /Lebanon estate junction by 7.30am. Weather was perfect and we met Mahathun who is a regular visitor of Kalupahana and KMP Wadiya. But we let him go and climbed with our own phase.

As mentioned in previous journey, we passed beautiful Rathnagiriya estate and then reached Hulang Kanda (හුලo කන්ද). Following that we descended to Kalupahana where KMP Wadiya is situated.

Sceneries when we are at Rathnagiriya Tea Estate

Piduruthalagala Mountain Range

Hanthana Range-most behind one

After having a small break.

Team except me

Rathnagiriya Mountain. Beautiful place for camping.

Hunnasgiriya Mountain is seen as a point.

Beautiful Rathnagiriya Mountain

Sacred Peak

After having lunch at KMP Wadiya we unloaded unnecessary things there.

We followed the same foot pathway from KMP Wadiya like previous time but deviated from foot pathway much earlier. Getting on to the tail of the mountain was the most difficult part. It was bit difficult go through Cardamom bushes. With the help of Geo map and our common sense we could reach the tail of the mountain within 1-1.5 hours from KMP Wadiya. There is a clear foot pathway on the tail of Thunhisgala Mountain. It goes through short bushes most of the time. Therefore you can have a view towards surrounding while climbing on the tail. We had to pass two peaks to reach the actual peak/ highest peak of Thunhisgala. (This is one reason for the name Thunhisgala-Three heads). The journey along the neck was slow due to thick short bushes. This should be bit careful as it’s like walking on a knife edge sometimes.
Knuckles peaks were seen in our right hand side but well covered with mist. Therefore we were not able to see second line peaks beyond Knuckles peaks. There was a sheer drop between Knuckles peaks and Thunhisgala and this is the flow area of Heen Ganga. Kirigalpoththa (කිරිගල්පොත්ත) and Gombaniya (ගොම්බානිය) peaks were situated behind us. Along the line of Kirigalpoththa and Gombaniya we have watched Riverstone, Maningala, Karagahathenna (කරගහතැන්න) and Atanwala (ඇටන්වල) area. Lakegala (ලකේගල), Kehelpothdoruwegala (කෙහෙල්පොත්දොරුවේගල), Yahangala (යහන්ගල) and Meemure area were also seen. This time we had a different view of Lakegala. The line seperates Matale and Kandy distric falls on top of Thunhisgala as well as Lakegala-Narangamuwa peak.

On our way to the tail of Thunhisgala Mountain. This was taken bit close to the tail of the mountain.

Thunhisgala peak is seen. We are at the tail of the mountain.

Debris of Hemachandra Wadiya is seen.

These are the thick short bushes I mentioned. We are at the tail of the mountain.

On tail of Thunhisgala

KMP Wadiya is circled.

Hidden Knuckles peaks

Identify the drop of Duwili Falls and Ginikeliya Pathana (ගිනිකෙලියා පතන). These were our next day targets.

Ginikeliya Pathana. We went there on next day.

Thunhisgala side peak

Having a break

“Nelu”-නෙලු Flowers

Thick short bushes slow our journey.

Well adapted to wind….

Sometimes bushes were beyond my height

Successfully reached the top of Thunhisgala. Team except the photographer.

It took another one hour to reach the top of Thunhisgala from the tail of it. We could clearly understand it is not possible to get on to the peak from other tail. (Where we climbed other day) The foot pathway extends to some distance from the top and we tried to find good view point of Lakegala. Thunhisgala peak is not a good view point as bushes were surrounding it. Journey on the tail is the best way to view surrounding peaks.
Return journey was not difficult as we knew the pathway. We reached KMP Wadiya just before dusk.

Correct peak of Thunhisgala. We walked further down from the peak to search good view point.

Lakegala

This is a view of Lakegala from it’s other side. I have been at both peaks.

View of Yahangala and Kehelpothdoruwegala

Katukithula Kanda-Close neighbor of Thunhisgala.

View of Riverstone

Coming down…..

Summary of our pathway. Other side peak is shown by black star.

Summary of our pathway. Other side peak is shown by black star.

Good bye Thunhisgala.

The point we came across the foot pathway. We put a mark there.

Reached KMP Wadiya.

This time KMP Wadiya was not a strange place for us. With chilling cold we had a bath and Mahathun Ayya has prepared tea for us. We cooked our dinner and served him as well. As it was a tough day we went to sleep early with sweet memories of Thunhisgala.

Serving breakfast

Delicious breakfast in village way

Next day morning. Mahathun ayya in left hand side of the picture.

Different views of Thunhisgala from different places

View of Thunhisgala from Hemachandra Wadiya. It’s side peak is also seen.

View of Thunhisgala from Ginikeliya Pathana.

View of Thunhisgala from Ginikeliya Pathana.

View of Thunhisgala from Lakegala

Three ridges meet together to form Thunhisgala. This is another meaning for Thunhisgala. Photo was taken when we were at Thunhisgala side peak.

View of Thunhisgala from it’s side peak

Screen shot of the work out from KMP Wadiya to Kalupahana/ Thunhisgala. You can see two lines here due to return journey is also recorded.

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