Duwili Ella at Knuckles Mountain Range. 20Kms through a dense forest. Takes more than one day (a 14 hours hike) to reach the Waterfall with the cave.
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| Date | Friday, 3rd April, 2015 |
| Crew | Six people (Age of 25-27) |
| Days | Two Days (Two Nights). |
| Route | Colombo Fort → Kandy → Rangala → Thangappuwa → Alugal-Lena → Knuckles Peak → Thangappuwa → Rangala → Kandy → Colombo. |
| Transport | Bus Colombo Fort to Kandy. Hired a van from Kandy to Thangappuwa. And similar on the way back. |
| Accommodation | Camping |
| Remarks | Following are the rough destances and time taken by us, to trak down each section of the trail.
Please note that the time taken to go from Y junction to the peak is lesser compared to the other sections, because during that part we traveled without any backpacks at all, and all the remaining section we traveled with extremely heavy backpacks, which slowed us down big time.
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| Date | Tuesday, 11th of September, 2012 |
| Crew | Eight people (Age of 22-25) |
| Days | Three Days (Two Nights). |
| Route | Colombo Fort → Kandy → Hunnasgiriya → Corbet's Gap → Nitro Caves→ Meemure → Corbet's Gap → Hunnasgiriya → Kandy → Colombo Fort. |
| Transport | Bus Colombo Fort to Kandy. Hired a van from Kandy to Meemure. On the way back, took the local transport van from Meemure to Hunnasgiriya. Then by Bus from Hunnasgiriya to Kandy and from kandy to Colombo. |
| Accommodation | Camping |
| Remarks | There are two vans operate (a local transport service) between Meemure and Hunassgiriya. By that time (in 2012), it operated only twice per day, once in morning, and once in the evening, to either sides. There's a bus operates from Hunnasgiriya to Loolwatte too, but Loolwatte is like the half way point. |
As usual we left colombo at midnight taking a bus to Kandy. Reached Kandy early in the around 4am. We had arranged a van to pick up from the bus stand, which he did. Then we headed off to the beautiful village of Meemure, through Hunassgiriya and Corbet's gap.
| Date | Friday, 11th of October, 2013 |
| Crew | Ten people (Age of 23-26) |
| Days | Two Days (Two Nights). |
| Route | Colombo Fort → Nuwara Eliya → Pattipola → Ohiya → Idalgashinna → Haputale → Colombo Fort. |
| Transport | Bus from Colombo Fort to Nuwara Eliya, and hired a van from there onwards to Pattipola. Took train on the way back from Haputale to Colombo Fort . |
| Accommodation | None - Since we traveled at night, Spent both nights in the bus and train respectively. |
| Remarks | Total distance from Patiipola to Haputale via the railway track is 25Km. |
We were planing to take the Night mail train from Fort to Pattipola. But by the time we went to reserve the tickets, all of them had been sold out. Thus decided to take a bus from Pettah to Nuwara Eliya, and hire a van from there onwards to Pattipola, as there were no other solution. We started the journey close to 10pm, and managed to catch a long distance bus from pettah bus stand without much trouble since it was a working day.
We were all sleeping on the way, but at one point I suddenly woke up from an unexpected slap on the face exactly at midnight. While I was trying figure out whats going on, everyone (our team) were around me and started to sing Happy B'day song inside the crowded bus. Took a while to realize the surprise celebrations, which was due my birth day, and turned out to be one of the most unforgettable ones in my life :).
We reached Nuwara Eliya around 4am. As we get off from the bus, it was really misty around damn cold that all of us started to shiver. I have been there on Nuwara Eliya on a number of occasions, even when there are snowing, but that morning was the coldest I've ever experienced at Nuwara Eliya in my life. We had arranged a friend's place to stay for a few hours till the van comes. So we hurried to their place, as no one could bare the coldness. There we had some tea, got refreshed our selves. Finally around 6, our van guy came and we took off to Pattipola Railway station. Reached their round about 7 am. A slight drizzle started to threaten our hike, but it didn't last long. Finally we started the 25Km walk.
| Date | Wednesday, 25th of July, 2012 |
| Crew | Ten people (Age of 22-25) |
| Days | Two Days (One Night) : But we traveled at night thus technically it was three nights, over four days. |
| Route | Colombo Fort → Ohiya Station → Horton Plains Ohiya Entrance → Camp Site 01 → Worlds End → Horton Plains Ohiya Entrance → Ohiya Station → Colombo Fort. |
| Transport | Train from Colombo Fort to Ohiya and back. |
| Accommodation | Horton Plains Camp Site 01 |
| Remarks | Camp sites can be reserved from Battaramulla office of Department of Wild Life. |
This was the first of our hiking and camping streaks. As it is mentioned above, eventhough we camped only for one night, we traveled at night to save the time. Therefore, we have technically spent three nights for this trip. Other thing is, we originally planned this as a two-night-camping, but ended-up with staying only one night due to the bad weather.
We started from Colombo Fort Railway station on Wednesday night, and took the Badulla-Night-Mail express which left Fort at 8.05 pm. Some of us got to the train from Ragama, Veyangoda, and Ambepussa railway stations respectively, but we had reserved the ticket before hand. We had reserved seats from the sleeperette compartment, and spent the night in the train. Finally we arrived Ohiya station in the morning around 4-5 am next day (Thursday). It was all dark around and was pretty cold along with the breeze. So we decided to wait till the sun comes out before start on the hike. There the station-master was kind enough let us stay in the guests room at the station, and have our breakfast, which we had brought. Then we had a warm coffee from the only shop near by, and was ideal for the cold.
Once there is enough light in surrounding, we start off our hike. There are 11 km from the Ohiya station to the Horton Plains entrance. There was a van belongs to a villager we could hire from the Ohiya station, but since the whole point of our journey was to hike and camp, we decided to walk all the way. But we took his contact number, thinking that we could hire him on the way back. We took the usual pawed road, but every now and then we went off from the road and took shortcuts as the road was windy, and we could track it down going on a straight line rather than going around along with the pawed road. Well, some of the shortcuts ended up being a lot tougher, despite the shorter distance.
We started from Colombo Fort Railway station on Wednesday night, and took the Badulla-Night-Mail express which left Fort at 8.05 pm. Some of us got to the train from Ragama, Veyangoda, and Ambepussa railway stations respectively, but we had reserved the ticket before hand. We had reserved seats from the sleeperette compartment, and spent the night in the train. Finally we arrived Ohiya station in the morning around 4-5 am next day (Thursday). It was all dark around and was pretty cold along with the breeze. So we decided to wait till the sun comes out before start on the hike. There the station-master was kind enough let us stay in the guests room at the station, and have our breakfast, which we had brought. Then we had a warm coffee from the only shop near by, and was ideal for the cold.
Once there is enough light in surrounding, we start off our hike. There are 11 km from the Ohiya station to the Horton Plains entrance. There was a van belongs to a villager we could hire from the Ohiya station, but since the whole point of our journey was to hike and camp, we decided to walk all the way. But we took his contact number, thinking that we could hire him on the way back. We took the usual pawed road, but every now and then we went off from the road and took shortcuts as the road was windy, and we could track it down going on a straight line rather than going around along with the pawed road. Well, some of the shortcuts ended up being a lot tougher, despite the shorter distance.
 |
| On the way to the Horton Plains entrance from Ohiya |
 |
| Went off the roads at times |
| Date | Thursday, 6th of November, 2014 |
| Crew | Six people (Age of 25-27) |
| Days | Three Days (Two Nights) |
| Route | Colombo → Tissamaharama → Yala Entrance → Thalgasmankada Camp Site → Yala Entrance → Tissamaharama → Colombo |
| Transport | Public bus from Colombo to Tissamaharama and a Safari Jeep from there onwards to the camp site |
| Accomadation | Thalgasmankada Camp Site |
| Remarks | Yala Block 1 has four camp-sites, namely Varahana, Kosgasmankada, Thalgasmankada and Jamburagala. Varahana camp site needs to be reserved from the Yala wildlife center, while other three can be reserved from the Battaramulla Department of Wildlife office. |
The story leading to this journey is somewhat weird. Our original plan was to go on a hike to the highest peak of the Knuckles mountain range. But as the weather reported to be worst in the area due to heavy rains and also, due to the famous 'Koslanda land slide' occurred just a few days earlier, we decided to change our plans with one-and-half weeks prior to this date and go on camping at Wilpattu. But as we were preparing stuff for the journey, the news we got from a few people in the area was again disappointing, as the weather of the Wilpattu area also had gotten worse with the rain. Thus, we had to change our plans once more, with just three days to go, and finally decided to go on camping at Yala. But by the time, all the other campsite at Yala Block-1 had been reserved, so we had to go for the remaining one, which turned out to be pretty awesome in the end.
Day 1
We started our journey from Colombo and the bus left Pettah around 6.20 am. We didn't have to reserve the seats even though it was a Poya day, since the next day was a working day, and hence the bus was pretty much empty by the time it starts off (We had this confirmed in an earlier day, just to make sure we wont ended up having to travel with no available seats. Its better to reserve seats, if it's a weekend). After a long and tiring journey of 6.30 hours by bus, we reached Tissamaharama at around 1.00 pm.
We took our lunch from a near by restaurant at Tissamaharama. Once done with the last 'decent' meal for the next three days to come, we called the safari jeep which we had arranged earlier, who showed up in 10 mins or so. Then we started heading off to Yala, for two days of a complete experience of wilderness. We reached Thalgasmankada campsite around 4.30pm, and the location looked fabulous, having the Manik-river flowing alongside.
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| The camp site |
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| Pitching the tents |
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