The arrival of Dr. Ananda Gunasekera as Director of the Teaching Hospital, Kurunegala along with a new addition to the medical staff, Dr. Sunil Silva as M.O of the rehabilitation unit, saw a sense of rejuvenation in some of us who were already in the process of falling into a sedentary lifestyle. Dr. Gunasekera enlisted Dr. Sunil Silva’s experience in the Kegalle district to organize a hike to Bible Rock. A fairly big crowd signed up and a bus had to be hired to transport the group to the spot.
Bible Rock is the rectangular-shaped rock that we see in the horizon beyond the valley when coming down Kadugannawa Pass. It is seen to rise up almost vertically making one wonder whether one could really climb it. Probably the name Bible Rock was derived from its shape. Locally it is known as Batalegala Kande.
As we approached the base of the rock, we saw that it was not as steep as it appeared, allaying our fears of a vertical climb. The approach to the rock is off the road to Aranayake. The Rock is in a rural area, the road passing through a hamlet of mud houses which had the typical pila, a platform-like sitting arrangement for evening fellowship among the villagers over lengthy sessions of betel.
The early part of the hike was through a rubber plantation, the road climbing up along several hairpin bends. We took short cuts at times climbing straight up in-between the loops. There were plenty of spouts along the way to quench our thirst.
One of our group who despite having a stomach ailment and vomiting several times continued the climb after washing himself in one of these spouts and replenishing the lost fluids from time to time.
The final part of the climb was very steep, but among the first to reach the top was a couple, the wife being an expectant mother who showed no signs of exhaustion.
The summit was a vast stretch of flat terrain with plenty of space for us to walk about. After roaming the roof of the rock for some time, we assembled under a tree for a sing-song session. As usually happens at such instances, some strangers joined in. They started off with a couple of folk verses but later on began making a nuisance of themselves. Apparently they had been in the practice of exploiting the place to extract money from visitors. We promptly moved away from there to another part of the rock.
Just then, there appeared dark clouds in the distant skies followed by a downpour over the mountain tops beyond the valley casting a breathtaking view of falling raindrops brightly illuminated by the sun’s rays against the background of dark clouds. The real thrill was witnessing this scene in bright sunlight before we ourselves came under the rain.
After the rain subsided there appeared a waterfall in the distant mountain range giving us an even more spectacular sight of white foam shining in the bright sunshine against the dark clouds above it. The waterfall was identified by someone in the group as Asupeni Ella.
Legend has it that the early route to Kandy had been through this mountain range and the travellers on horseback had to jump across the stream over here on their way to Kandy giving it the name Asupeni Ella. The sight was so striking that we decided we should visit the place some day even though the access to the site appeared very steep.
We climbed down from the rock just before sunset, many of us by now well and truly bitten by the hiking bug. And so it turned out, this thriller was the first of what would be a series of such expeditions. |
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