A Long Way Back

Hiking Kirigalpoththa Mountain and the Bridle Trail This hike consisted of two trails: Kirigalpoththa, the famous nature trail, which is also the second highest mountain in Sri Lanka with an altitude of  2388m above mean sea level and the Bridle Trail, which is also famous among hikers and has a history dating back to the colonial era. (Special Permission from the Department of Wildlife is needed to do the bridle trail.) The crew consisted of me and three of my friends. We left Colombo on the night mail train to Badhulla, which leaves at 8 p.m. from Colombo Fort and arrived at Ohiya at 5 a.m. the next morning. From there, we hired a van to go to Horton Plains visitors' center. It was early in the morning, actually we were the ones who woke up the officer at Horton Plains entrance :D We knew that the earlier you go to Horton Plains, the more sambar deer you get to see and of course we did. After passing the entrance, we saw hundreds of sambar deer roaming the plains. Even though

It's too late. The hiking-mania has already carved itself into our minds and this hike was like one of our dreams come true, so without any goofing off, here's our next hike, to Horton Plains from Belihuloya, Ihalagalagama. With a crew of 4, we arrived at the Colombo Fort bus station to catch the Badulla bus (route no. 99). It was around 1.00 am and the bus left at 1.45 am from Fort. After a journey of 4 hours, we got off right in front of Belihuloya Rest and you can see the road to Ihalagalagama running uphill. It was exactly 5.58 am when our hike began. The plan was to go across Nonperial Estate-Nagarak division to Horton Plains through World's End observation point to Ohiya and catch the night mail train back to Colombo. This hike is considered to be one of the toughest in Sri Lanka, so we had be more cautious than our previous ones and also this trail is prohibited after 2006 and a special permit must be obtained from the department of wildlife to do this hike and also

Continuing from  Hike to Uthuwankanda and Bathalegala- part 1 We came back to Mawanella town, had our lunch and luckily after getting some directions, we could catch the bus to Bathalegala junction when it was just about to leave. There was only one bus for a few hours on that route, otherwise, you had to get off at Gevilipitiya junction and travel 4 km to Bathalegala junction, which we had to do after returning. From the Bathalegala junction, it was 2.5km to the trail head. It was a small, concrete paved way and starting from the junction, it was one continuous climb. The concrete paved way A glimpse at our destination Bathalegala, also known as Bible Rock, is 798m in height above mean sea level and it's way taller than Uthuwankanda, which is less than 400m in height. It had been rainy and overcast since the time we descended Uthuwankanda, but as we climbed, we

After the off-season journey to Sri Pada  this is our next hike, climbing Uthuwankanda and Bathalegala (aka Bible Rock). Our first destination, Uthuwankanda: this is famous for a hide-out used by a local hero named Deekirikevage Saradiel better known as Utuwankande Sura Saradiel who fought bravely against British colonialism. Actually, our destination was Saradiel Rock, located in the Uthuwankanda area. So it was 7 in the morning when we got off the bus at Mawanella with a crew of three, had our breakfast and hired a three wheeler to Uthuwankanda junction (1.5km from Mawanella), turning right at the junction to Uthuwam Mawatha. It is possible to travel in a vehicle along this road to get closer to the destination, but since we needed to see the surroundings, we started our journey on foot from the junction. After about 1 km turned left onto a concrete paved road that was heading toward Saradiel Rock and about 500m ahead, we found the trail head. The trail was through a small