Cosy holiday amidst hilly vistas, nature trails
It’s 5.40 a.m. and the gradually brightening blue light peeking through the window propels us off our beds and out onto the porch, where it’s freezing cold. The air is still.
Magnificent: The view from Riverston peak
The mountains stretch as far as the eye can see, but just before sunrise they’re shrouded by a thick layer of mist that looks somewhat like candy floss. As the sun makes its appearance the mist disperses, bit by bit, until the mountain range is resplendent in its full glory.
Our view is from Sir John’s Bungalow, so called because it was the holiday home of former Prime Minister Sir John Kotelawala.
Perched near the top of Riverston peak, the bungalow has been revamped as a holiday destination for travellers seeking peace and quiet in the hills- or the many sights and nature trails around the Knuckles Conservation Area that the Riverston peak offers.
The Knuckles Range (or the Dumbara hills as more popularly known among the locals) covers parts of Kandy and Matale districts extending from Laggala to Urugala.
Observed from a distance, the range resembles a clenched fist, (thus the name) and consists of five peaks; Kirigalpottha, Gombaniya, Knuckles, Koboneelagala and Dotulugala.
Nimal’s cooking: Rice and spicy curries in clay pots. Pix by Neil Siriweera
The area above 1500 m has been declared a climatic reserve and a conservation forest, later declared a Man and Biosphere Reserve and World Heritage Site.
Getting to Sir John’s Bungalow is a bit of a journey. From Matale you can take the route via Rattota – be warned that travelling up Riverstone can take almost an hour, quite a bumpy ride but with some excellent views.
Beware the leeches. During the very short time it took to reach the bungalow after alighting from the vehicle ( 10 seconds?) I managed to pick up a couple, who clung on to me persistently like old friends with a vendetta.
At the bungalow-which can accommodate a maximum of 15 visitors at any given time-we were offered warm towels and fresh orange juice, which we sipped from the front porch, enjoying an excellent view of the dry zone mountains.
They also have a leech spray right by the entrance so make sure you take your shoes off, roll your jeans up and give them a good spray if you’ve been strolling around the garden.
The bungalow is modest, comfortable and exceedingly practical-everything in here serves a purpose. There are five rooms; one can accommodate two people, three others can accommodate up to four people and one room can accommodate five.
We chose the one by the porch with an expansive view of the mountains (and yes, easy access to breakfast and lunch served right outside).
Sir John’s bungalow: Secluded retreat
The rooms are simply, but comfortably furnished with good linen, a small dressing table, rack, a bench to keep your bags on, and a bedside table that comes equipped with a multi-purpose power cord. The bathrooms are also very good, with hot water and stone flooring (and bathroom slippers to keep your feet warm).
The lighting was quite dim-especially to read – possibly because the house is not connected to mains electricity, instead using solar power.
Through the main entrance you’ll walk into quite a large sitting room with couches, a reading seat by the window, and plenty of books and games to keep you occupied – and Wi-Fi.
I found a couple of Agatha Christie novels and several guidebooks about wildlife and plants endemic to the area.
The formal dining room is mostly used for dinner; we enjoyed a delicious three course dinner here, but loved our Sri Lankan dishes for breakfast and lunch more.
The dining room has a small rack with plenty of bottles of water and soda plus little tins of crisps and peanuts, which we really liked.
Breakfast on the verandah
It’s this careful attention to detail, and excellent service by the staff and manager Nadeera Weerasinghe that made our stay at the bungalow such a pleasant one.
The bungalow team also offers tours and hikes (you’ll be charged separately for these) to locations around the mountain. We were taken for lunch at a village known as Redd Barna on our first day.
Redd Barna was built as a farming community in the early 80s by a non-profit organization; however one by one the villagers left due to its isolated nature (we travelled in a truck on an extremely rough track through forest for 15 minutes or so to get there) and today only one couple remains.
Nimal, who was by himself that day as his wife had gone to visit their son, served us a delicious gamey rice and curry lunch in clay pots followed by curd and treacle.
Asked why he had chosen to stay on in the village he said “I moved around a lot before I came here in 1981 and wanted to belong to some place.
This suits me.” Nimal only leaves the village twice a year to visit his son. They get regular visits from hungry elephants who munch on the kithul trees outside (“they don’t harm the house or us if we let them be,” he says) and even leopards, and the couple have also adopted a family of threes – three dogs, three cats and three hens, all of whom attempted to coax us to part with our food.
The gushing waters of Vedda Peni Ella
The next day, grimly donning leech socks courtesy the bungalow, we left for a hike up to Riverstone peak before breakfast. Riverstone peak is the highest on the Northern side of the mountain range.
The weather up here is temperamental, so take your caps and raincoats. Luckily it was quite sunny and breezy, and we glimpsed several migratory birds on our way, like the grey wagtail-a migratory bird species from Northern India.
Our guide Nadeera tells us that you can find around 20 (mostly forest) migrant birds from Europe at this time of the year.
At the top we had an excellent view of the Knuckles mountain range and beyond; peaks with names like ‘Yakunge gala’ (Devil’s Peak) and Kalupahana are covered by a layer of clouds.
On our way down we glimpsed several creatures, endemic to the greater area, like the leaf horn lizard, a black spined snake known as ‘rath karawala’ due to its reddish brown belly and varieties of ferns and flowers.
Somewhere down the line there’s an industrious gentleman named Gamini who will chop up a fresh kos (jak fruit) kottu for you. It’s pretty tasty and can be shared amongst 2-3 people for just Rs. 100 a plate.
After breakfast (stringhoppers and kiribath with spicy lunumiris and curries followed by fresh fruit and copious amounts of ginger tea) we headed to the Pitawala Pathana grassland – the original plan was to climb up to the Mini World’s End (a quick nature trail of about one kilometre) but due to time restrictions we decided to walk around for a bit.
Thanks to Nadeera we came upon Gunther’s rock frogs (endemic) nestled cosily under their rocky homes, plants like ‘pathan ala’, an edible yam only found in this area, and the carnivorous plant kandulessa (drosella).
Pitawalapathana is also remarkable for alternating from being a wet to dry grassland, with differing climate conditions at different times of the year.
Here we met Lokubanda, who forms part of a self-appointed group known as ‘Dumbara Surakinno’ that looks after the area.
We also trekked through the sleepy village of Atanwala, cutting across paddy fields, jumping over little streams and saying hello to the friendly locals, who mostly travel by foot or on bike.
A slightly strenuous pathway leads to ‘Vedda Peni Ella’, a fall beginning from Kirigalpotha Mountain, which derives its name from the untimely death of a Veddah chieftain who reportedly tried to jump from one rock to another over the rushing water.
Other attractions in the area include the Sera Ella Falls located in the village of Puwakpitiya, Pothtatawela; Pathana Ella; and Manigala-a six hour, 16 km trek through lush montane forest and a 500 metre ascent offering 360 degree views of the Knuckles mountain range. Nature lovers can arrange for nocturnal mammal watching, butterfly watching and birding around the bungalow.
Sir John’s Bungalow was also a 2015 winner of the TripAdvisor Certificate of Excellence for the second consecutive year.
For bookings contact laggalabungalow@gmail.com or call 0773936103.
Rates: Friday/Saturday/public holidays: Rs. 12,000 (double room on full board basis)
Weekdays: Rs. 10,000 (double room on full board basis)
During season: Long weekend Rs. 14,000 (double room on full board basis).