| Year and Month | 2013 October (10th and 11th) |
| Number of Days | Two days |
| Crew | 04 |
| Accommodation | Camping on Kehelpothdoruwegala |
| Transport | By bus, three wheeler, walking and climbing |
| Activities | Mountain climbing, Sightseeing, Camping and Photography |
| Weather | Excellent with very few drizzling |
| Route | Mahiyangana -> Ududumbara (උඩුදුම්බර) -> Kalugala (කලුගල) -> Udailuka (උඩඉලුක) -> Velangolla pathana (වෙලන්ගොල්ල පතන) -> Kehelpothdoruwegala -> Udagaldebokka(උඩගල්දෙබොක්ක) -> Pallegaldebokka (පල්ලෙගල්දෙබොක්ක) -> Udaththawa (උඩත්තාව) -> Uduwela (උඩුවෙල) -> Mahiyangana |
| Tips, Notes and Special remark |
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| Author | Niroshan |
| Comments | Discuss this trip report, provide feedback or make suggestions at Lakdasun Forum on the thread |
The name Kehelpothdoruwegala (Rock shaped like a plantain sheath gutter) came to my knowledge in 2012 February in our Yahangala climbing. We have noticed a giant standing in front of Yahangala (1220m) and got to know it as Kehelpothdoruwegala.
But the day of conquering came after one and half years of Yahangala climbing.
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Image may be NSFW. Clik here to view.  Peaks of Knuckles range. Taken from http://www.knucklesrange.org/sef.html. |
We spent the night at Mahiyangana and reached Ududumbara around 5.30am. Following our short breakfast at a small hotel at Ududumbara we met a three wheel driver to reach Uda iluka.
I have discussed with Heen Banda mama (A villager lives in Kalugala who met during our Yahangala hiking) in previous day of our arrival to get to know the road towards Kehelpothdoruwegala. But he was out of home when we reached there. Then we decided to climb it alone after getting the directions from villagers.
Our plan was to first get on to Velangolla Pathana (Where we camped on Yahangala climbing) and then reach Kehelpothdoruwegala along it’s edge. We started the climbing around 7.30am.
There is a nice foot pathway from Uda iluka to Velangolla Pathana with scenic background. It starts just after the bridge of Uda iluka and first ascends through the village. Then it enters the thick forest and background scenery was so beautiful. Finally it connected with the foot pathway from Udagaldebokka at Dewalaya of Gale Bandara Dewiyo. (ගලේ බණ්ඩාර දෙවියෝ)
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Image may be NSFW. Clik here to view.  Black arrow till green star shows the pathway towards Velangolla Pathana from Kalugala. Then black arrow shows our hiking towards the peak of Kehelpothdoruwegala peak (in red star). Green arrow shows our pathway to Udagaldebokka village. |
The foot pathway on right hand side of this three way junction was the way to Yahangala and we had to go to left hand side to reach Kehelpothdoruwegala.
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Image may be NSFW. Clik here to view.  The road in Uda Iluka. |
Image may be NSFW. Clik here to view.  Foot pathway within the village. |
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Image may be NSFW. Clik here to view.  Scenic view in the back. |
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Image may be NSFW. Clik here to view.  Central Hills. |
Image may be NSFW. Clik here to view.  Southern part of the Knuckles range and the valley where Hasalaka Oya runs. |
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Image may be NSFW. Clik here to view.  Toddy man. We were able to taste “Mee Ra” (මී රා). |
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Image may be NSFW. Clik here to view.  Our bags made climbing difficult. |
Image may be NSFW. Clik here to view.  The foot pathway towards Velangolla pathana. |
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Image may be NSFW. Clik here to view.  Gale Bandara Dewalaya. White arrow shows the direction towards Udagaldebokka. Red one shows the way to Yahangala. Black one is the direction to Kehelpothdoruwegala. |
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Image may be NSFW. Clik here to view.  Mighty Yahangala. |
Image may be NSFW. Clik here to view.  Yahangala and Velangolla Pathana. |
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Image may be NSFW. Clik here to view.  Kehelpothdoruwegala. Star shows the peak and line shows our plan to reach there. |
Time was around 10am. We started the climbing. Climbing along the edge of the mountain to the peak was not easy at all. There was an unclear foot pathway in some area may be due to cattle. It has no forest cover but Mana bushes and thorny bushes were there. Although it was seemed as considerably less distance final one was about 3-4km with ascends and descends. Finally we reached the Kehelpothdoruwegala Mountain around 3pm and climbed it to some extent. According to previous experience of this area we knew mist will come down in another 1-2hours. Therefore we decided to camp there without reaching the peak.
It was difficult to find a flat area to place our tent.
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Image may be NSFW. Clik here to view.  Starting of the journey. Note Mana bushes |
Image may be NSFW. Clik here to view.  Kehelpothdoruwegala and Watabandigala (වැටබැදිගල). Watabandigala looks a small version of Yahangala. |
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Image may be NSFW. Clik here to view.  New appearance of bed rock. (Yahangala) |
Image may be NSFW. Clik here to view.  Surrounding mountains of Knuckles range. |
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Image may be NSFW. Clik here to view.  Creeping….. |
Image may be NSFW. Clik here to view.  Getting on to a peak of the edge…But some more to go. |
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Image may be NSFW. Clik here to view.  Now Kehelpothdoruwegala is bit closer. Note it has a different greenish colour than others. |
Image may be NSFW. Clik here to view.  Black arrow shows the peak of Kehelpothdoruwegala and red arrows show peaks of Lakegala/Galtuna (ලකේගල /ගල්තුන) |
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Image may be NSFW. Clik here to view.  Longest river of Sri Lanka. |
Image may be NSFW. Clik here to view.  Mahiyangana town zoomed. |
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Image may be NSFW. Clik here to view.  Nice place to sleep. |
Image may be NSFW. Clik here to view.  Suddenly met a wide gap |
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Image may be NSFW. Clik here to view.  Only way to getting down and then climbing up. |
Image may be NSFW. Clik here to view.  Peaks we have crossed. |
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Image may be NSFW. Clik here to view.  Final cut down. Now we are about to climb Kehelpothdoruwegala |
Image may be NSFW. Clik here to view.  Going through bushes. |
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Image may be NSFW. Clik here to view.  Rocky part of Kehelpothdoruwegala |
Image may be NSFW. Clik here to view.  Our cooking |
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Image may be NSFW. Clik here to view.  It was difficult to find a place for tenting |
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Image may be NSFW. Clik here to view.  Painting on the sky |
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Image may be NSFW. Clik here to view.  Tomorrow target. Peak of Kehelpothdoruwegala |
Night was so long as usual in other camping experience. We had to battle with cold and wind. We came out of the tent around 5am to set our fire again and had a cup of tea. We were able to reach the peak of the mountain around 7.30am. Surrounding view from top of the mountain was superb. Rest of Knuckles range could be seen here including Lakegala/Galtuna, Thelambugala (තෙලබුගල) and some other peaks much higher than Kehelpothdoruwa.
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Image may be NSFW. Clik here to view.  Early morning sky |
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Image may be NSFW. Clik here to view.  Good morning Yahangala |
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Image may be NSFW. Clik here to view.  Lakegala/Galtuna |
Image may be NSFW. Clik here to view.  Thelambugala (1331m) in black star. Ununugala/Kuwenigala (උනුනුගල/කුවේණි ගල) in black arrow. It has a unique shape similar to Uthuwankanda. Lakegala/Galtuna in red arrow. |
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Image may be NSFW. Clik here to view.  A peak higher than Kehelpothdoruwegala, covering with mist. |
Image may be NSFW. Clik here to view.  Yahangala is bathing with sunrays. Note the peaks we crossed to reach here. |
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Image may be NSFW. Clik here to view.  Another prominent peak |
Image may be NSFW. Clik here to view.  Another prominent peak of knuckles. ? Garandigala (ගැරඩි ගල) according to inch map |
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Image may be NSFW. Clik here to view.  This one is also higher than Kehelpothdoruwegala Mountain |
Image may be NSFW. Clik here to view.  Meemure area zoomed |
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Image may be NSFW. Clik here to view.  The team…on the peak |
We have planned to get down to Udagaldebokka village in our return journey. Then we searched to get down directly from Kehelpothdoruwa peak to Udagaldebokka village but attempt was unsuccessful due to acute angle of the mountain after one level. Only option was to follow our pathway to Velangolla pathana and then go through routine pathway.
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Image may be NSFW. Clik here to view.  Getting down directly to Udagaldebokka village was not easy. Then we gave up it. |
Image may be NSFW. Clik here to view.  Good bye Kehelpothdoruwegala |
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Image may be NSFW. Clik here to view.  Getting down to Udagaldebokka by routine pathway |
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Image may be NSFW. Clik here to view.  Foot pathway was scenic through the forest |
Image may be NSFW. Clik here to view.  No tired at all. |
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Image may be NSFW. Clik here to view.  Notice at Yahangala estate |
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Image may be NSFW. Clik here to view.  One and half years ago this foot pathway was not that much clear. Now it is clear. |
Image may be NSFW. Clik here to view.  First house we met at Udagaldebokka. Last year in our journey we had a warm welcome here by Bandara Mama and his wife. But now this house is abounded and they are living at faraway. |
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Image may be NSFW. Clik here to view.  Unique appearance of Udagaldebokka village |
Once we reached at Udagaldebokka we had a bath from a “Peella” (පීල්ල). Then we walked another 5-6km from this isolated village to reach Udaththawa to have a bus.
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Image may be NSFW. Clik here to view.  View from Udagaldebokka village. Note the appearance of Kehelpothdoruwegala is different now. |
Thanks for reading.