Thotupola Kanda to Namunukula - a hiker's dream.

The train ride to Pattipola

It’s been over 3 months since we did our bike ride around the country. We’ve had enough time to recover and think about another adventure. One thing was for sure. We’re not going to do that bike ride again for a really really long time to come.

So after much deliberation, we finally decided to climb Mount Namunukula – a mountain range with nine peaks towards Badulla in Sri Lanka. If you had read my posts earlier, you would recall that we were attacked by bees during our ascent to Mount Kirigalpotta and hence discouraged us from climbing Thotupola Kanda, which was just a stone’s throw away. Well, the bee season was over, so what better time to squeeze in the third highest mountain of LK other than now?

Itinerary made, we got back to waddling through the days leading up to the hike. Two days before the hike, the railway locomotive drivers decided to call a union action. This put us in a spot of bother as the train was a key component of our itinerary. We made it onto the Pettah railway station on the 13^th of February only to find that the whole o Colombo was waiting to get onto the Badulla night mail train. There were fewer trains running and a lot more people trying to get to their homes out of Colombo for the long weekend – a really bad equation for a hiker carrying a backpack weighing over 10kgs and a tent to boot.

We had no option. We HAD to get on this train. The train was about half an hour late and this added to the tension on the platform. Security was lax and there were fights breaking up in small pockets across the entire station. It resembled one of those D-Day movies where everyone was trying to get to safety at all costs. The train arrives. And the mad dash began. I remember using strength that I never knew I had to push and force my way into the compartment. There were swears and curses by angry commuters thanks to my 10kg backpack, but I had to ignore. The objective was to find two feet of space and an empty space in the overhead rack to push the tent in. With much difficulty, all three of us were successful – albeit in different corners of the compartment. We didn’t worry much about it – it’s a 6 hour train ride. Although we had no space, we had plenty of time.

After a couple of hours, the traffic subsided considerable and we were able to breathe freely again. We even managed to find a space to sit and we took turns giving our legs a much needed rest. The compartment that we were in was occupied by a group of cadets from Nalanda College going for a training camp in Diyathalawa. Those boys were fun. They kept the entire compartment entertained with their light hearted banter and merry singing – which I might add, was rarely on key J

Before we knew it, we were at Pattipola. This must be about the 4^th time that we’ve come to the highest station in Sri Lanka. We’ve always had good memories associated with it. And we were hoping that this would be no different.

The hike to Thotupola Kanda

Our first milestone was to reach Thotupola Kanda – the 3^rd highest mountain in Sri Lanka. We had plans to do this the last time we were in Horton Plains about 5 months back. But the timing was really bad since we went smack in the middle of the blooming season. You can read about that here. However, we were determined to do it this time – bee stories or not.

There were about 5 and a half kilometres from the station to the Horton Plains – Pattipola entrance gate. We were fresh enough and keen. So we were able to reach the gate by about 6am – just as the gate was opened for visitors. We purchased a ticket to the Plains and made the short hike to the entrance turnoff to Thotupola Kanda. This proved to be a pretty easy hike since we had to do just about 1.5 kilometres to reach the summit. We stopped for a break and a customary photo and then began climbing the mountain. On our way we could see the remains from the blooming season. The Nelu flowers were pretty much dead and there were no bees. It was like walking through a destroyed and forgotten city since we knew how thriving this area was not more than 5 months ago. Half an hour more and the scenery changed magically. We were confronted by the all too familiar greenery which can only be found on uninhabited mountain tops and the familiar smells of morning dew and fresh flowers. The sun was blazing down by this time and the lack of mist made it easier to see for miles and miles over the mountain range. This is what you’re missing by sitting in front of your laptop reading this J

Before long – there we were. On the top of Thotupola Kanda. There was a small radio tower, a shack and some solar panels on the summit. I don’t know whether this is currently in service or not. But the radio tower provided one of the most beautiful views I have ever seen. We were so high up we could see mountain ranges covered in mist sprawling as far as the eye can see. It was like a scene from a fantasy movie. We clicked enough pictures and took in all our eyes could take in before reluctantly deciding to make our way back. It was about 7.15 am. We’ve made good time and the rest of the itinerary was open before us. Also, we couldn’t get a proper sleep on the train since there were no seats. So on our way down, we put our bags down on a flat piece of land surrounded by nothing on 3 sides to have power nap. There can never be anything better than chilling and having a bit of rest on top of the world with the entire countryside visible below you, can there?

Fresh and rested, we woke up at about 7.45 and picked up our bags and the tent to make our way down to the Horton Plains entrance gate again. Our next connection was a train to Demodara from Pattipola at 1.10 pm. So we had plenty of time. But to our mild amusement, we descended the mountain in about 15 to 20 minutes.

Milestone achieved, we started our hike back to Pattipola through the same route we came.

Spring Valley – the lost gem of Badulla

The railway strike was in full force. Upon reaching Pattipola, the station master told us the 10.15 am train was cancelled and that the 1.15 train will also be late about an hour. Our hiking was done for day one anyway. So we didn’t really mind as long as the train did come. Our plan was to make it towards Spring Valley (which was on the foot of the Namunukula mountain range) on the Demodara – Badulla road and then camp there somewhere overnight. Tomorrow morning we would make beeline from Spring Valley to the highest peak in the Namunukula range. Since we had lots of time to kill, we decided to take a small nap in the station and then left the station towards Pattipola town to have some good lunch.

Fish is a luxury when you’re this high up in the mountains. So the choices were limited when it came to rice and curry. However, we were hungry enough to devour half of Pattipola. So we helped ourselves to some salmon rice and plain tea and walked back to the station in expectation of the train. Again, we dozed off slightly till the train arrived. We were in luck. The train did come at about 2pm and we were able to get on without much of a hassle. The train wound its way through some utterly, stupendously beautiful countryside. If I could do this or a living I would jump at the chance. The waterfalls, the tea estates, the winding rail tracks, the mountains etc would be a sight for any Colombo dweller. We passed over the world famous Demodara Bridge within a couple of hours and I cursed myself for having the camera safely tucked away in the camera bag.

Within minutes we arrived at the Demodara station and caught a tuk tuk to take us to Spring Valley and the legendary Black Pool. It was a little further than we expected. We had to travel about 10 kilometres till we finally reached the pool. We had to walk through a precarious man made bridge and reach the Kovil in Spring Valley. The pool was right behind it. This was a welcome break. There was no one else in the pool and we had it all to ourselves. So we shed our clothes and took a dip on the shallow side. The deep side should be avoided at all costs – just so you know. After a refreshing dip, we got dressed again and made our way to the Kovil. The next step was to find a campsite.

Through numerous nights spent on mountain tops, we knew by experience that Spring Valley in itself was the ideal location to camp. It was surrounded by mountains, the breeze was pretty low and it wasn’t as cold. Also, a stream running parallel to the Kovil, which provided us with a water source to fuel up tomorrow early morning. And we saw the ideal spot too – right in the corner of the Kovil premises. We asked around from the estate workers about whom we should speak to in order to get permission.  We were directed to a house a little further away on the hill where the ‘leader’ of the estate resided. I can’t quite recall his name and he wasn’t home either. But another fellow in the household spoke to him on the phone and he gave us the green light.

Night was falling fast. Without wasting much time we unravelled our trusted tent and set up camp in the Kovil premises. This was smack in the middle of an estate, so the entire tea estate civilization along with its ‘line’ houses was around us. And the inhabitants were very accommodative. They popped into the kovil premises from time to time as they passed by to see if we were okay and if we needed anything. We assured them we were and by 7pm, we had had a bit of dinner and settled into sleep. We were extremely tired after that sleepless night mail train ride. And before long all three of us were snoring away.

The climb to Namunukula

We were up by 6am. We were enlightened about the many trails to the top of Namunukula the day before. But since we were not locals, we were told that the best way to the top is to take the bus to Nallamalai from Spring Valley and start our hike from there. There were only two buses on this road. And they weren’t very frequent. If we were lucky there was might be a bus at 6.30 am. But we weren’t. So we had to wait for the CTB bus that was supposed to come at 8am.

This is when our luck started to run out. That bus never came. The estate workers were confident that CTB fellows faked a breakdown since it was a Saturday (This is apparently known to happen in the CTB). We waited till about 9am with no luck and so we finally decided to hire a tuk tuk to Nallamalai. By 9.30 am we were in Nallamalai. The tuk tuk driver showed us the start of the trail. The start of the trail was through some civilization. And this is by far not the shortest route to the top. But since we were foreigners in this land, we had to stick to the known trail. The villagers at the bottom elevated our tension a bit when they said that there was no clear path to the top. The villagers had peeled a little bit of the bark off trees along the trail in order to make sure that they did not get lost. All we had to do was follow these marked trees through to the Turpentine tree forest and then through dense jungle to the top. Pretty easy right? I laugh now about our naivety.

Until we reached the mountain turn-off to Passara, there were a couple of locals on the trail. We were still at the bottom of the mountain so to speak. We had to ask directions till we reached this point. Thereafter we were on our own. The trail was pretty clear until reached a little stream. We freshened up and filled our bottles at this point and crossed the stream. This was when things got complicated. The first couple of trees had marks leading to two different trails. Indika and I kept our trees with Prishan and went along the two different paths to do some scouting. Indika’s trail had marks to a considerable distance while mine had none. So the rational decision was to follow the trail to the left.

We did so, and we were getting increasingly unsure about the route we were taking. There were no signs of a trail and it hardly looked used. But the good thing was, we were going up. So we had to end up somewhere. Prishan’s GPS tracker was on and it was tracking the path we were taking too. The incline was pretty steep. And we were getting tired and dehydrated faster. But finally, we saw the starting patch of the Turpentine forest. We gratefully stumbled into the forest and took a much needed break to account for our faculties.

Although the incline was steep, the path ahead was clear. When you’re this tired and hiking, that gives you a lot of confidence. We could even see the peaks from here. But there was some way to go before we reached the top. We navigated through the Turpentine trees and finally reached the end of its patch – to be confronted with a dense forest. The tree marks were still visible. But this was unlike any other hike, we’ve done before. We had hiked through forests before, but then again there was a trail. Here there was none. We just had the tree marks to guide us and the forest was getting thicker and harder to navigate with each step. We didn’t think it was safe to stop in one place for long because we had no idea what kind of animal was watching our every move. So, with the hot sun blaring down on us, we trudged through the mountainous forest with the little energy we had.

After an hour or so, the forest didn’t seem to get any clearer and we could not see the end of the tree line. It was past 1pm and our confidence was beginning to drop. I had doubts about the route we were taking. But Prishan convinced me that we were still going up, and we had the marks on the trees at reasonable intervals. So it had to mean we were on the right track. We turned and looked back at the path that we had come through. There was no sign of a trail at all and we wondered how we would’ve gotten back if it wasn’t for Prishan’s GPS tracker. Either way, we were smack in the middle of one of the thickest jungles we’ve been in.  

Half an hour more and even the tree marks disappeared. The area was now relatively thinly spread, so we had more visibility but still we couldn’t see the end of the tree line. Indika volunteered to go up a bit and scout for a trail. I remember him shouting from the top saying that he has encountered a large rock and that he couldn’t see anything beyond it. He came down to where we were and we sat down to have a break and decide upon the next course of action.

This is when we had a stroke of luck. We heard voices from the bottom. It appeared that we were not the only ones summiting Namunukula that day. We shouted and did the customary ‘Hoowa’ to get a response. But at that altitude, the voice carries farther than necessary and we weren’t really sure whether the voices were coming from above or below. But after a while, we heard a response ‘hoowa’ from the other party. We were silently overjoyed. The voice that responded was that of a little boy. We finally figured out that the voice was coming from above us. We shouted and asked for directions. And we followed the voices to the top. We avoided the rock and beat a path through a side and climbed with a reinvigorated spirit. A few more steps and the landscape changed completely. The tree line magically disappeared and we were now on what appeared to be a familiar landscape – that of a mountain top.

We waded through the chest high undergrowth with a new lease of life and saw the other party a little further away. And that was it. We were right on the top after the most difficult hike we’ve ever done. We almost gave up under the big rock thinking we were lost. Only to realise later that the summit was right above it. That was a life lesson learnt on the mountains.

The other party was a bunch of locals from Namunukula town who had come to the summit for a day out with some friends. Before long, other people also joined that party and now they were 20 strong. While they went about exploring the summit, we too did the rounds and saw the Hindu and Buddhist shrines at the top.

After spending some time snapping some pictures, we were finally ready to descend. But we weren’t really looking forward to going down that same route we came. The locals on top asked us to follow them to our relief. So we joined the back of the pack and walked down with them. However, the route was not less hard. The declines were steeper and our propensity to topple over was far greater. But we were less apprehensive because we were with experienced people who knew the route.

We walked and descended over a stream and finally reached the Turpentine tree forest. After a small break, the younger natives raced down the hill to the point from which we started the hike – The Passara turnoff. We took our own time since we were straddled with 10kgs each. Upon reaching the bottom, an elderly gentleman invited us to have lunch with them at a waterfall nearby and offered to drop us off at the bus to Passara. We tried to decline his offer politely because we did not want to burden them anymore. But they were insistent. At the waterfall on the road to Passara, we all stopped and he gave us a massive lunch packet which we gobbled down heartily after thanking him and his daughter profusely. After lunch, the group broke off into three sub groups. We followed the elderly man and he guided us onto the main road through a variety of shortcuts across the estates. We got to know that he was a native from Namunukula town and that he was a farmer. He even showed us his paddy fields from the point where we were at.

Evening was falling fast and we were making good ground through the estates at record speed thanks to ‘Uncle’s expert local knowledge. Luck was on our side because as soon as we reached the main road, the bus to Passara ambled on down from the mountain. He stopped the bus for us and the younger folk of his clan instructed the conductor to drop us off at the tenth milepost – from where we took a bus to Badulla town and subsequently, a bus to Colombo.

And thus finished one of the toughest hikes yet. We came back home thinking about the wonderful escape, the adrenaline rush and the absolutely amazing people we met on top of a mountain. Hopefully we can keep doing this in time to come.

You can find pictures of this hike on my Flickr profile right here. So until the next hike then - travel well, travel safe.

Miranga

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