Corbet's gap to Meemure

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.

After travelling for around 15Kms (Distances in the sign board are not really accurate), we came to the place where the trail head to the Nitro Cave starts. It is a foot path (other than the first one or two Kilometers) to the right side of the Hunnasgiriya-Meemure road, so we asked the van guy to stay and wait for us till we come back. The total trail is about 6Kms, where last 4Kms is falling through a forest and a steep mountain. After a couple of hours of a tiring hike, we eventually reach the Nitro cave. All along the way, there were wasps flying around. So we made sure to not to panic them by making any loud noises.

We headed back to the van after staying there for about an hour. Not much longer after we left the cave, one of our friends got attacked by a wasp. We all got away from the place as quickly as we can. But the bite of the wasp was bringing him a lot of pain.

We came back to the van, and continued the journey to the meemure on that hard road. About 4KMs prior to the Meemure village, there is a Bridge and a lovely water stream pass ing underneath. At this point, we got down from the van and loaded-off our bagages and sent the van back. Our plan was to have a bath from the water stream and walk down the remaining 4Kms.

After being refreshed from the bath from the fresh water stream, we continued heading towards the village, on foot. We arrived the village as the sun was going beyond the horizon.

The villager who was at the shop near the famous Nuga tree in the village warmly welcomed us. He showed us a place on a paddy field, where we could use as our campsite. It was an ideal place for camping as there was a water stream flowing right next to it. This water stream full-filled all our water-needs for the next three days. Without wasting much time, we pitched our tents, as it was getting dark.

Next day morning we were able to witness some breath taking scenes around our camp, featuring the mighty Lakegala standing tall behind. After getting ready, we headed-off for the ultimate goal of this trip: climbing to the peak.

Camping under the Mountain

The place where we camped

Starting the hike to Lakegala

Scenic view of the paddy field

Sooner we entered a jungle area full of dense bushes and trees. The steep climb for the most parts of the trek made it more difficult.

As we were trekking through the jungle suddenly we faced with an unexpected situation. A bunch of wasps came from no where and attacked us in a matter of seconds. We forgot everything and ran away from the place as fast as we can, only to stop once we realize the danger was gone. But by the time, one of our friends had got bitten by 4-5 wasps, and three of us, including my self, had got bitten by one per each. It was a pain I would never forget. The one who got attacked by multiple wasps didn't seem to be going that well. He was suffering from serious pain. I could imaging his pain, knowing how it felt like by getting bitten only by one wasp. Baring the pain, we continued forward after having a bit of a rest.

At one place we came across a carcass which seemed to be of a cow, hunted by some predator. This reminded us we should get off from the jungle before sun goes down, or else even we would ended up like that.

After passing through the shady forest for hours, we reach an area with a dry surrounding. This is the top part of the Lakegala. Ground was mostly made up of rocks, and hardly had any soil. Due to the same reason, trees were very short and had been adapted to the dry and rocky environment. At the same time, the slope was getting very steep in this section.

We moved further up for another hour. By the time, it was around 1-2pm afternoon and we had only one bottle of water remaining for all of us. The person who got attacked by wasps was suffering from the pain, and he couldn't go any further. Every fact was standing against us and hence we decided to turn around. Even though we were slightly disapointed, we had come almost to the top. The top most part is not possible to cross, as it needed to climb a vertical rock, which we had decided not to climb, even before the journey.

So we turned back. Deep within, we were also glad to leave behind that dry deserted area, which was burning in the sun. On the way back, we tried to preserve the only remaining water bottle.

We managed return to the village a lot quicker than we expected, as we only had to kept descending all the way. After a slight rest we pitched up the tents yet again and started preparing the meals. Meanwhile the one who got attacked by wasps was starting to have fever. We were afraid to let him stay that way, so my self and another friend went searching someone who could do some treatments, as there were no doctors in that rural village. After hours of wondering across the village in the night, we managed to find such a person called "ලොකු වෙදමහත්තයා". We took our friend to him, and got him some treatments. That වෙදමහත්තයා told us some herbal plants to find and the method to prepare, to give our friend as a pain killer and a cure. We were so great-full to him and left his house mentioning our gratitude towards him.

Meanwhile, some elderly villager had come to our camping site to away his boredom and spend the evening with us sharing memories. He helped us finding the herbal plants as well. We invited him to have the dinner with us, which he warmly accepted. He told historic stories attached to the village and the Lakegala, including some interesting one about the King Rawana, who believed to have hide his sword in the peak Lakegala.

We finished our meals and we said good bye to the villager, and went to sleep as we had to catch the morning van which leaves Meemure at 6am.



Third day morning, we woke up early and got ourselves ready in hurry, and came near to the Nuga tree, where the van (local transport service) starts. The van was already parked even when we arrive there, and left Meemure sharp on time. From Hunnasgiriya, we managed to catch a bus to Kandy. We took our breakfast at  Kandy, and got on to a Colombo bus, to head back home.