Sri Lanka It's Happening

May 25, 2008

Great Western is the sixth highest mountain in Sri Lanka. The highest elevations are covered by thick rain forests and lush tea plantations occupy the lower elevations. Very near the top the Rain Forest thins out before disappearing all together at sudden cliff faces.

Rock climbing with the aid of a Rope and Piton isn't a very Sri Lankan thing. Probably because there usually isn't a need to; there is always more than one way to get to the top. Every tiny nook and cranny in the rock face is covered by vegatation, often it's just a kind of grass that is called 'manna' in Sinhala. It has very strong roots - and will not be dislodged even if a grown man hangs by it. So who needs pitons?

Anyway there are only a handful of places on the Great Western cliffs where you need to literally hang onto a blade of grass for all you are worth, because Elk and Wild Boar have threaded a path through much of it. These paths have been 'improved' in recent times by woodcutters. So getting to the top is difficult but not impossible or too risky.

We started our trek by driving to the Galkanda Bungalow - the very place Nishantha was living in when I first met him. That places us at an elevation of about 1350 meters. After parking the car, we walked through the fields until we came to the Rail Road. The Colombo - Badulla rail track runs through the estate and the train catches it's breath at the picturesque Great Western Station.

But we didn't walk as far as the station. We stopped close to a small Hindu Kovil which is about 50 meters higher than the Rail Track and those fifty meters are covered by concrete steps! The kovil though marks the last sign of civilization on our route. Above the kovil there are some abandoned tea fields slowly being reclaimed by the jungle. What was once a path through the fields is now a slippery footpath.

Six of us set of up this path but only four of us completed the journey. After walking as far as the

Posted by raditha at May 25, 2008 4:02 PM