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

Read More

Kirigalpotta - Kings of the Night Mail

Rockland Old Arrack can do wonderful things. Over two bottles of premium Sri Lankan liquid, we planned a hike to Sri Lanka’s second highest mountain – Kirigalpotta, on one fine evening in October. Surprisingly, come morning, we were still able to recollect the trip plans and were still brazen enough to attempt it the week after. This speaks more about Sri Lankan alcohol than it does of our passion for the great outdoors.

We concluded the hike to Kirigalpotta a couple of weeks ago. So thankfully, each detail is still very vivid in memory unlike in my previous posts. So if I ramble on like a Sunil Gavaskar on Sachin Tendulkar, skip to the last parts of this post.

The planning

Unlike the previous times, Prishan, Indika and I had some initial logistics to iron out. First, we had to get a

camping permit from the Department of Wildlife Conservation. The trail to Kirigalpotta starts from inside

Horton Plains and you are not allowed to camp at the summit. So you need to come down and camp at one of the 3 campsites at Horton Plains. A permit for an overnight camping stay costs just over 2500/- bucks. But you also need to have luck on your side. Only one party is allowed at a camping site. And we were lucky.  

Next came the route mapping. We had two options. We could have taken the Night Mail to Badulla and gotten off at Pattipola or we could’ve gotten off at Ohiya. Either way, we had about 10 Kms from each station to the World’s End entrance / Visitor’s Centre at Horton Plains. We chose the Ohiya route since it was a kilometre or two lesser than from Pattipola.

The journey

My girlfriend offered to entertain our spirit for the outdoors and did her part by dropping us at the Fort train station. Our plan was to take the 8pm Night Mail train leaving to Badulla. However, it was a Friday and getting a seat to plant our backsides on was absolutely impossible. Another commuter facing our same plight enlightened us to the fact that the train usually gets filled up at the Maradana station itself. I’m not sure about the accuracy of this piece of information but judging by the immediate circumstances, he couldn’t have been that far off.

It was an uncomfortable journey in the 3^rd class box which was packed to the rafters with people going home for the weekend. However, by the time we reached Kadugannawa, we managed to muscle out a couple of seats and by Nawalapitiya there were a few empty spots here and there for the taking. We tried our best to dose off with partial success.

We reached Ohiya at about 4am. It was bitterly cold and I felt as if my teeth had developed an entire nervous system of its own. We filled our bottles of water at the station and got ready for the long trek to the World’s End entrance. 10 kilometers is not easy. Especially at that altitude since our lungs are not used to lessened oxygen in the air. But this was Ohiya – our ‘hood’ so to speak. So we trudged along like champions.

The ‘batta’ ride

A couple of kilometres into the trek and a Dimo Batta pulls up behind us and offered a ride. He was a

professional transporter who transports groups to and from Horton Plains and was on the way to pick up a group from the Horton Plains Visitor’s Centre. We hitched a ride with him after negotiating a small sum of cash.

This was when we got our first taste of what’s to come. The ride was rocky and the driver seemed to have been a dropout from pilot school. He manoeuvred the small and flimsy vehicle precariously close to the road edges at breakneck speed. However the view that we saw during these 20 minutes or so was just mind blowing. The sun was just starting to rise over the mountainside and the first rays of the morning enveloped us with its golden beauty. The Plains itself seemed to magically wake up and transform colour under this beautiful light – waking up animals, tress and other living beings to another beautiful day at Horton Plains.

Once at the Visitor’s Centre, we had a quick breakfast from the tinned food that we brought along with us. At this time of the day, Horton Plains simply beckons for a photo shoot. And we gladly obliged.

After an extended photo session, we walked towards the Visitor’s Centre to produce our permit. You don’t need to buy day passes to Horton Plains if you’ve already got a camping permit. Make sure that you carry no plastic items since they will all be confiscated or removed at the park entry point. Another point you should keep in mind is that campfires are not allowed at Horton Plains. You need to carry a small gas stove or an equivalent if you plan to cook food or stay warm.

The trail

Of all the hikes we’ve done in this area, this hike proved to be the one hike which was done in picture perfect weather. The sun was out in all its glory. The skies were absolutely clear and there was not a hint of mist or wind. It was like doing a hike in Colombo with the only difference being the drop in temperature. The trail is clearly marked and directed. It starts from behind the Horton Plains Visitor’s Centre. We started the

hike at around 7am. It was an amazing treat to the senses. The morning dew, the smells and sounds of the plains and the breathtaking scenery around us made us thank the two bottle of Rockland Old Arrack from days ago.

The first part of the trail runs through the plains itself. The trail is pretty flat and is not tiring in the least. After about half an hour of hiking you will come across a stream that is about 10 to 15 feet wide. This is the start of Belihul Oya – one of the 4 major rivers in this country. We dropped our bags, freshened ourselves up and had some refreshments before getting back on our feet.

Once you cross the stream, the trail winds into a thick dense forest. Before you reach the forest you need to navigate through some dead trees and short bamboo. We were able to navigate this part of the trail without much fuss.

At this point our luck turned for the better. ‘Nelu’ is a range of seasonal flowers which is said to be indigenous to the Horton Plains region. We were smack in the middle of the blooming season and the sight of pretty pink, purple and blue flowers stretched for as far as the eye could see through the trail in front of us. It was like we were transported to the set of a fantasy movie. After coming back to Colombo we found out that this is the first time in 12 years that Horton Plains had seen such a strident ‘Nelu’ season.

Once we navigated through the forest we reached a relatively open area at which we again dropped our sacks and had some refreshments. We took stock of the scenery around us and were able to see around 5 or 6 mountain ranges one after the other in the distance thanks to the lack of mist. This also made us realize that we were at a very very very high place at the time - literally and metaphorically.

The summit

The final push was now upon us. The scenery reduced in quality and the ascent grew harder. We lugged our

massive backpacks and manoeuvred through thick undergrowth, rocks and precarious edges to reach a vantage point we had researched about before we go. This was supposed to be the best observation point at Kirigalpotta. And it did not disappoint. Our view was undisturbed for MILES AND MILES on a minimum 270 degree circle. We were at a rocky landing just below the summit and the drop below us at this point was easily close to ninety degrees. We lied flat on the ground and carefully peered over the edge. The drop was just massive. But the view was nothing short of sensational. I’ve never seen anything of the sort before. But of course, we were very careful since there was no room for complacency.

A hundred meters more and we would be at the second highest place in Sri Lanka. But getting there was not easy. The only feasible way to reach the summit was to navigate a rocky ledge which had just enough foot space if we kept one foot in front of the other. And the undergrowth on the left of the ledge seemed strong and well rooted enough to be used as a guardrail. We debated a bit amongst ourselves to assess whether it was worth the risk. There was absolutely no wind, the plants seemed strong and we were in pretty good shape. Furthermore, we had the opportunity to leave our sacks and tents on the ledge we were currently on. Not like anyone’s going to come and steal them.

Prishan went first. Indika and I followed and slowly but surely, we went to the very top. The feeling was unexplainable. The view was not as great as from the ledge below. But the elevation was enough cause for celebration. We spent about 15 minutes at the top, chilling and taking in the scenery. Then we commenced our precarious descent back to the Visitor’s Center.

The Bees - aka f***ing party poopers

Our luck was so good that it was bound to turn at some point. And it did when on our way back. While we were lucky to see the beautiful bloom of Nelu flowers in perfect weather conditions, it also brought about an inherent risk that we didn’t account for – Honey bees.

While on our way up, we did hear the ominous buzz of bees that were collecting pollen from the newly

bloomed Nelu flowers. At times the buzz grew louder and I was feeling a little uneasy all throughout. But we figured that if we walked silently and made no sudden sounds, we should be able to go through safely. And it worked on the way up. So we adopted the same principle on our way back.

However, this is when we found out that there was a flaw in our approach. Obviously being silent and discreet is not enough to satisfy the queen bee and her henchmen that they’re safe from human invasion. We were walking in single file through the Nelu forest. Prishan at the front, myself in middle and Indika bringing up the rear – when suddenly I heard a multitude of loud bee sounds right in my ear.

At first I just heard the very loud buzz and a split second later, I felt it. I don’t know how many, but a group of bees stung me on my neck. Instinctively I flayed my arms all over and covered my face while shouting a warning to Prishan and Indika. But the buzz kept getting stronger and the stings kept getting faster. By now my entire back and neck area was under attack. We tried to brush them off and continue on the hike but that proved to be futile. Finally Indika suggested that we make a run for it. There was no time to weigh in the risks or the difficulty of such an action. There was so much more to go and the end of the forest was also somewhat distant. We took a split second to hitch up our gear and made an absolute complete mad dash for the exit from this bee infested forest. Mind you, we were not in the best of physical shape by this time. The backpacks were heavy and were weighing us down considerably. But the love of life and the reluctance to have our cause of death etched as ‘stung to death by bees’ on our gravestones gave us new found adrenaline. We panted, shouted, fumbled in the mud and ran for dear lives. At one point my foot got completely entrenched in a strong blob of mud and I couldn’t take my foot out. The bees seemed to realise that I was unable to move and caught up to unleash their finest stings. I remember shouting out some of the choicest words in my vocabulary through sheer pain, anger and fear. I tossed my camera to Prishan, removed my foot off my shoe, took the shoe out of the mud and forced my foot back into the shoe – all the time being stung by angry bees.

We reached the end of the first stretch of the forest and came to the plains. I don’t know what we did to anger the bees so much so that they felt that adequate retribution was not unleashed yet on the three of us. They circled and stung us all along the plains as well. At this point I removed my T shirt and started waving it around like a South American footballer who just scored the winning goal. This was a win-lose approach. I was able to swat away some of them, but it left my body exposed to more and more bee stings. Then somehow, this image of 13 cricketers and two umpires lying flat along the ground while a sea of bees flew above them came into my mind (Thanks ESPN!). Immediately I shouted the instruction to Prishan and Indika and laid flat across the ground. They followed suit.That didn’t work either. The bees found it easier to move down on the stationery figures lying down on the ground – and I still I had my t-shirt off. Eventually we said ‘F*** this! Let’s make a run for it!’

I managed to put my T-shirt back on and we ran. We ran and ran and ran until we could run no more. Then it seemed that we had actually outrun the bees. We had to sacrifice all our energy reserves in the process – but we were safe and alive.

By now we had almost reached the Belihul Oya stream that we crossed on our way up. We paused for a moment to get our bearings and breath back. The backpack seemed heavier than ever and my legs were killing me. Muscles that I never knew existed were screaming for attention. Add to that the little boils that were popping up all over our bodies and we looked as if we just made a run for freedom from Alcatraz. It took us four hours to get to the top. We came down in one and a half.

Without dwelling on the incident further, we mustered up the little strength we had and made our way to the Visitor’s Centre. Once at the Visitor’s Centre, we took stock of our damage. Prishan took out a couple of stingers from my skin and Indika took out about 20 stingers from his T Shirt. Thankfully we were fully clothed at the time with very little skin exposed. For a good 10 minutes or so we just sat and recounted what just happened and we all agreed that we had a lucky break. They were Honey bees – not the Wasps that kill people in Sigiriya. But nevertheless that was not pleasant. I’m blogging two weeks after the incident. The boils have almost disappeared and we’ve had absolutely no side effects. To this day we don’t know what made the bees believe we were Americans trying to take over their hive. But it’s a thing of the past now and an experience of a lifetime. (Man! Do we have some good stories for our grand kids!)

The campsite

After sufficient recovery, we gathered our belongings and made our way to the World’s End entrance gate. We got the permit to camp in Campsite 2 and it was about a kilometre up the World’s End trail. Nature has

a way of paying back what it takes from us. So we were elated to find out that our Campsite was right beside the renowned Chimney Pool – a branch of Belihul Oya which has been designed by engineers to form a combination of a small waterfall/pool. The time must’ve been just past 3pm or so. No better time to shun our clothes and dip into the ice cool waters of Belihul Oya. Now that was certainly refreshing. I, the one who normally cannot stand cold water was unable to make up my mind to come out of the pool. It was that good.

Evening came. Still no mist and we were pretty pleased about it. The lack of mist meant that our visibility was increased many fold and that allowed us to take in the breathtaking landscape that we have now become addicted to. We pitched up our tent and settled into rest and relax. Our bodies needed it after the eventful afternoon.

As night fell we were rested and back to our usual spirits. But as usual, the nights at this elevation turn very chilly very fast. We zipped ourselves inside our tent and had some dinner. Then we had an enjoyable chat till we all felt sleepy enough. At one point we heard a noise outside our tent. So we opened up one side – torches in hand.

And there it was. The most beautiful night sky I had seen in a long long time. We were on Horton Plains – no buildings or massive structures around us. Just the plain flat land. So you can imagine the amount of sky that we were able to see. We saw the ENTIRE sky at 360 degrees, riddled with pearl like glowing stars strewn haphazardly across a black blanket. The North Star shone bright and shiny right above and in front of us. At that point I realised how lucky some of us are to be able to witness the amazing artistry that nature has to offer and how some of us spend our entire years not realising what they’re missing by never going outdoors.

The return

Apart from the occasional sound of an Elk very close to our tent the night was uneventful. We woke up at about 5.30 in the morning. The journey back is long. 11 kilometers to Pattipola to catch the 11.30 or 1 pm train back to Colombo. So we packed up fast and walked back to the Visitor’s Centre. We downed a hot plain tea from the canteen, had some breakfast that we brought along and at about 8 am started the trek back to Pattipola on the World’s End – Pattipola road.

We initially had plans to summit Thotupala Kanda as well. It was a pretty short and easy hike from the road we were on and we could still be back in time to catch the 1 pm train. We reached the turnoff to Thotupala Kanda and we could see the beautiful Nelu flowers lining the little trail on both sides. For some reason, I saw an uncanny resemblance in this image to the scenes of ‘The Last Samurai’. It was that beautiful. But as the age old saying goes ‘Once bitten, twice shy’. Literally that made sense. We could hear the faint buzz of the honey bees in the distance. We decided to skip Thotupala Kanda for another day and continued on our way to the station uneventfully.

And thus ended one of the most memorable hikes we’ve ever done. Bee attack or not, our love for nature and hiking was cemented even stronger and we hope to do another one before much time elapses. Pictures of this hike can be found on my Flickr profile right here or on Prishan’sFlickr profile here. I can be reached on ceylontripper@gmail.com  if you need more info on anything relevant.

Until the next time then.

Travel well, travel safe

Read More

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

Read More