Belihuloya to Pattipola on foot : Hiking 101

Team of 7 (Aged under 30)

1 Day in April 2012 (Avoid Monsoon and rainy seasons)

By Foot (Bus and Train at start and completion)

A hike is more often than not, one of those things that the heart wants but the body cannot handle.  This was one of those hikes.It was close to 30kms in length altogether and done in one single day. As insane as it may sound, it was an experience of a lifetime and there are a couple of things you can take away from the experiences we gathered. So read carefully J
We were a group of seven guys all under the age of 30. I thought of mentioning this at the outset since in retrospect, given that we weren’t skilled hikers, I believe this played a major part. We left Nawala at about 6 am and made our way to Pettah by bus. We took the bus to Belihuloya and arrived at our first destination – The Belihul Oya Rest House, about 2 hours later. It’s a 145 km journey. So if you didn’t get enough sleep the previous night, there is no better time than these two hours. After a quick breakfast we got ready to start the hike. One can obviously come prepared with state-of-the-art hiking gear but this is not mandatory. Here is a list of things that we found necessary and handy during the entirety of the hike. 

•  Leach socks/Lots of Sidhdhalepa or any other leach repellant
• Biker gloves/Full-finger gloves (Optional)
• Thick cotton socks
• Flexible, used yet good-soled shoes
• Light and preferably used cotton trousers
• Water and snacks such as biscuits, chocolates etc
• Woolly warm clothing and thick skull caps
• A GPS Device

There is a road called ‘Non Pereil Estate Road’ right next to the Rest House. You may or may not have ‘bokkuwa’ harboring fresh spring water. The locals assured us the water was good enough to drink. But we still had lots of water left within our supplies. So we resorted to just freshening up and re-vitalizing ourselves before the steep climb that is now in front of us.

noticed that as soon as you enter, to yout right at the entrance is a by road of about 10 feet in width going up towards the mountains. This is the ‘Non Pereil Estate Road’ which leads to the Non-Pereil Estate. Key point to note here is that you must always try to travel as light as possible. It is also important that you distribute the weight across group members so that the chances of people falling behind are minimized. The road is almost a main road with a bus service as well so there isn’t any GPS tracking to do yet. Lakdasun.com can give you the detailed GPS co-ordinates which we found quite useful. Once you walk about 3kms up, the road takes a natural turn to your left with a little by road leading you straight into the paddy fields. You can of course take the main road which will lead you straight to the estate, but we decided to take the shorter, harder and much much more scenic route through the paddy fields. At the end of this paddy field there is a local village-type

From the bokkuwa is a foot path leading up towards the pine forest. If you know how to read your co-ordinates correctly, you can come to a place on this path where you can cut across the pine forest and hike through the fallen the pine cones and branches.

The pine forest was a sight for sore eyes and a treat to all senses. The smell of fresh pine was so refreshing and the breeze was not too cold and not too hot against our skin. But the climb is as steep as it can get and before long, we were all out of breath and pausing every 50 meters to re-affirm our bearings. A hike like this can truly make you understand how much of a ‘Kolamba Kakka’ you actually are. An elderly lady from the estate came walking down through the forest and we chatted with her for a bit. She must have been about 70 years old but was as fit as a fiddle. The rest of the way we hiked through some absolutely gorgeous mountains with low lying greenery that allowed us to see the entire Sabaragamuwa province from a bird’s eye view. Personally I came to the realization that a hike is the best way to see the beauty of Sri Lanka J. This area is known as the ‘Ihala-Galagama’ area. Although not advisable, we did this hike during the monsoon season and were mortally afraid that the rain would pour down increasing the ‘degree of difficulty’ (I’ve always been fascinated by that term). But we were fortunate enough to experience only a very slight drizzle which faded away as fast as a teenage boy-band. Leeches did make their presence felt. But there were no severe attacks in any way and we were prepared with salt water and sidhdhalepa to repel the fellows.Some of us who were wearing pants found it more practical to tuck our pants into our socks so that leaches became visible.

Halfway through this leg we ran out of water. But there were enough fresh water streams and rock mountain drips with clean rain water. So we had no problem in improvising a bit and filling our containers. Further down our short-cut we arrived on the outskirts of the Non-Pareil Estate. It is a Tea Estate owned by Stassen’s. We cut across this and came across some ‘line’ houses which housed the estate workers. Since we were travelling light and was on a hike, we did not load our equipment with cooking utensils and rations for lunch. So we were banking on us being able to sweet talk one of these line houses to rustling up a meal for a few bucks. After numerous inquiries the family that was talking care of the estate bungalow agreed to heed our request. For 2000 Rupees, all 7 of us were fed with a hot meal consisting of some superlative ‘pol-sambol’, cabbage, salmon and another vegetable which I cannot remember now. We were also given a freshly made pot of hot plain-tea which was like Scotch Whiskey for us given that the temperatures had dropped greatly by this time. There was a summer hut at the bungalow which we used to chill and rest for a bit before starting on the second leg of the journey.

Lesson number one was learnt at this point. No matter how physically strong you are, you can never compete with Mother Nature. If you have Asthma or any other breath and lung related condition, its best if you come extra prepared for a hike like this and there is no shame in pulling out and going home when you find it difficult. One of our team members conceded that the high altitudes were proving a bit difficult for his asthma and he decided it was time to bail out. Along with him, another member of the team who was feeling the physical pains of the strenuous climb also decided to pull out since he was not confident of completing the hike. In such a situation, it is advisable to let the individuals pull out, keeping aside the moral intention of finishing the hike together. Health and Safety always comes first. Better to die in Colombo than on an exposed mountain J

The other mistake we did was trying to do such a long and strenuous hike in one day. Ideally if we had brought along camping gear, we could’ve camped at the estate with prior approval. But we threw caution to the wind and began the second phase of our hike at about 5.30 pm. This phase upon completion would land us right at the famed World’s End. However, the trail was overgrown and unused for the better part of the year and was almost non-existent. Not to mention the added factor of animals coming out in the night. This is when the GPS device came to our rescue. We were able to point mark the coordinates and walk through the jungle paving a path for ourselves. Daylight was receding extremely fast and by 6.30 or 7 pm we were in pitch darkness with only our flashlights and the GPS device to guide us. Although non-existent, the slight markings of a previous trail was visible upon close scrutiny and we stuck to this with four of us taking turns guiding the pack behind us while one guy was permanently allocated to the GPS device. There were massive holes, rock inclines, fallen tress etc. blocking our way and focus on the part of the pack leader became critical. Not to mention the occasional sounds of animals scurrying to safety and alerting each other of our presence. By this time, the enjoyment of taking in the scenery which we had during the morning session had turned to an adrenaline filled adventure ride.

After many twists and turns and a fair share of agitation, we finally reached World’s End. In essence, we reached world’s end through the back entrance. World’s End was no different from the famous pictures appearing all over the internet with the cement and concrete blocks across the floor enabling visitors to take in the experience. And it was indeed a drop. I am naturally scared of heights so this was the equivalent of winning an Olympic medal. The remaining five of us took a much needed breather on the concrete slabs and finally got on our feet to complete the 4 kilometers that we needed to walk to reach the entrance gate to Horton Plains.

Thus came our next mistake. We had followed a travel log appearing in a local travel blog to the letter up to this point. What the blog did not say was that entering Horton Plains through World’s End is illegal since all visitors to Horton Plains must have a ticket. We continued through Horton Plains towards the ‘World’s End Trail Head’ without this knowledge. I must say that Horton Plains is overwhelming even at night. The plains were absolutely massive with no high level trees as far as one could see. We could feel that we were in territory not owned by humans and there was a sense of eerie observation where we could literally feel the animals of this sanctuary watching our every move. However we were too tired to be worried about it and trudged our way to the entrance. Halfway down the ‘World’s End Road’, we were arrested by an officer of the Wildlife Conservation Department. This is the point at which we got to know that we were trespassing and were on the wrong side of the law. A point to note – trespassing at a wildlife sanctuary is a criminal offence since the officers are responsible and have to account for the safety of visitors. Always, always get a pass or prior approval in an instance such as this. However, we were able to make our situation known to the officer who was then nice enough to drop us not at the top of the Trail Head, but at the entrance to the park itself. From here on it was only 5kms to the Pattipola station – which is the end of our hike. A good milestone to keep in mind is that you will have to pass the turn off to Ohiya on to your right. Continue straight on down the Pattipola-Horton Plains road to reach the station.

The time was past 10 in the night. We were exhausted and there was no sign of human life anywhere close by. But animal life was aplenty. We could clearly see yellow bright lights observing us from the trees and bushes above us, moving stealthily. The noises were getting slightly unsettling by this time. So for the first time in the hike a couple of us decided to arm ourselves with a couple of strong and light branches in the form of protection. It was an overwhelming feeling to be surrounded by so much nature, that one can’t help but realize how small a speck of life you are on this gigantic earth.

Pattipola couldn’t come any sooner. The sight of the station was like heaven for the five of us. The schedule showed the next train to Colombo at 6.30 in the morning if I remember correctly. So we all decided to cover up ourselves as much as possible and lie down to get some sleep.

Then came our next challenge. Pattipola was as cold as a refrigerator. We knew that this was the highest station in the country and were ready for some cold weather - but not this cold. Everything was ice cold. A couple of us who were too tired to care just fell asleep on the benches. But the others walked around in as warm clothing as possible looking for a warm enough place to lie down. Needless to say this was not a great experience. Finally we decided to improvise and hop on a train going towards Badulla and jump on the train going to Colombo which will cross us at some station between Pattipola and Badulla. The train was obviously warmer and we were able to get seats. This was one of the best decisions we made and we were asleep and comfortable in no time.

Somewhere around 6 am, we met the train going back towards Colombo, hopped in and settled ourselves on the floor of the canteen carriage for the 12 hour journey back to Colombo. The rest of the passengers were not very happy with us since we were flat bang across the corridor. But they were not privy to the amazing experience we went through and we felt like kings who should not be disturbed J

If you have the physical and mental capacity, by all means do this hike. But my advice is to do it across two days and camp overnight at Non Perail Estate. Also, get the prior approval of the Wildlife Conservation Department to use the back entrance to Horton Plains.

The links to the GPS Coordinates can be found in this webpage at Lakdasun.com. More pictures of beautiful Sri Lanka witnessed in this hike can be found on my Flickr profile.

Travel safe and responsibly. Take nothing but memories and leave nothing but footprints J