Rail Hike : Pattipola to Haputale

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. 

The surrounding looked typical in the morning, with the mist and the cold. Slight drizzles were always coming and easing time to time, but never turned to be heavy, luckily for us.

Soon after in about 30 minutes from the Pattipola station, we came to the highest point on rail tack in Sri Lanka, which had been marked by two sign boards. The whole surrounding was covered with mist was freezing as well. Everything looked like so mystic and spooky, like we've seen in movies.

On the way we had to pass number of tunnels. There are 18 tunnels to be precise, from Pattipola to Haputale, inclus=ding the longest rail way tunnel in Sri Lanka. We had brought torches, which became really helpfull while crossing these tunnels. We even facedd an unexpected situation at one point, as while we were crossing one of the longer tunnels, suddenly we heard the noise of a train. We all got somewhat frightened, and hold our grounds and payed attentions. It took only couple of seconds to the train to appear in our sight on the far end of the tunnel. We were almost in the middle of the tunnel, so all we could do was to get to a side of the tunnel and stay aligned with the tunnel walls. Our hearts were beating fast, but as the train passes us, everyone was very a relieved as we felt safe finally. It was a on life experience that we still remind and laugh, after years later.

As the day progress, the misty cold condition eased away, but was never really sunny. Other than the train we came to face with inside the tunnel, there were a few other trains as well that we met on the way. Eventhough trains does not operate frequently in this track, its always advisable to keep one year on the sound of a train, and always stay awake. Because in some of the sections in the rail track, there was nothing much of a space along sides to get off from a track in case a train comes. Therefore, wanted to avoid those sections as much as we can when facing a train.

After hours of walking, we finally reached Haputale around 4.30-5.00 pm. Everyone was pretty much limping because of the stiffed legs, after being walking for 25Kms. One other reason for this was due to the fact that we were walking on the sleepers, of which the length between two sleepers are not exactly the same length as the distance between two foot steps of a person. This made it difficult to walk on sleepers, than walking on a flat surface, as we had to forcefully control each step, which finally resulted us ending up with stiffed leg-muscles. Our train to Colombo was due to arrive at 8.30pm. Since we had a lot of time to spare, we went to the Hapiutale town and had our dinner from a decent enough place we could find. Once we came back to the station, we heard the bad news we really didn't want to hear, which was, that the train would be delayed around one hour. Since there was nothing we could do about it, we waited and finally it arrived around 9.30pm. After getting in to the train, all we know is waking up after some hours, due to the tiredness.