Some time after the conducted tour to Knuckles range, we thought we should once again attempt the failed cross country expedition from Maliboda to Hangarapitiya. We decided to do it in the reverse direction this time, i.e. from Laxapana to Malimboda.
In the first attempt, the envisaged exit from Peak Wilderness was to be at Hangarapitiya at the end of the Seven Virgins Range. This time, our priority was climbing Seven Virgins wherever feasible, to enter the Peak Wilderness range and then blindly go down its southern slopes to reach Malimboda.
Our grand scheme was to get lost in the wilderness and find our own way out without even the aid of a map.
We started off in a hired van from our rendezvous point near Peradeniya Gardens, to the Ginigathhena Hatton highway. Turning off to Norton Bridge and driving up a few miles, the Seven Virgins Range came into view across the valley in the distant wilderness. Seeing its steep and rugged face, it seemed a daunting challenge.
Through the army checkpoint, we proceeded further down and turned off once again from the main road heading towards the Seven Virgins. We came to a point where we had a spectacular view of a stream quietly flowing down the plain at the foot of the mountain range, to suddenly dip down into the valley below thereby displaying a majestic waterfall against the Seven Virgins Range in the background.
This sunlit stream was identified as the Maskeli Oya and the fall as Laxapana Falls. Maskeli Oya flows down to meet the Kehelgamu Oya to form Kelani Ganga, which we had crossed over Norton Bridge on our way up.
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| Steepness of the face of the hill we were climbing |
We reached Seven Hills farm where we had lunch and hitched a ride in the manager’s double cab to the point where we could start up the steep face of the Seven Virgins range guided by a labourer.
On the way down to this point we passed four peaks of the Seven Virgins which appeared almost impossible to climb with their steep faces seemingly looking down arrogantly upon us as if challenging us to climb them if we could.
After the initial passage through the tea estate, ascent became tougher and tougher and in the last stretch we had to literally climb vertically by hanging from cane branches, avoiding decayed and old ones or we would take a swift but disastrous passage back to the base.
This went on for about an exhausting two hours. There was no question of turning back as it would have been even more dangerous.
Time was running out as nightfall was descending on us. We hurried down the southern slopes of the range to find water. It was only when we woke up the next morning and saw elephant droppings all over did we realize that we had spent the night right across a jumbo trail. We could not imagine that elephants could climb hills this steep.
Walking down the waterway we faced the usual difficulties that such routes present like having to leap down tall rocks and squeeze through narrow spaces in between the rocks. The land route too was not easy, through thick sometimes thorny shrubs.
Sometimes such passage had to be done on steep surfaces bordering the valley through which the stream flowed. At such places we would walk sideways facing the slope clinging on to shrubs on the steep face of the land mass. At one point, one member of the party slipped and luckily managed to hold on to a shrub until another pulled him to safety.
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| Seven Virgins seen from road to Norton bridge |
Towards noon we happened to come to a small waterfall where we had a bath and lunch before resuming our trek.
On the second day, the course of the river alternated between flat stretches and precipitous falls, giving us false hope at each flat stretch that we were done with the hilly part. But this was as deceptive as a mirage.
We thought we were following Madagal Oya but if it had been Madagal Oya, the hike’s end would have been very near. We ultimately ended up having to spend another night in the jungle not knowing where we were and when we would come out.
On the third day the stream went through difficult terrain for a long stretch and we had to leave its course just keeping track of it by the noise of its flow. When at last we saw it once again low down in the valley, we had to go sliding down steep slopes to get to it. We reached the stream where it had formed a large natural pond bordered by tree ferns. It was a breathtaking view.
From here onwards the stream took a curve and then remained on horizontal course for some distance before it again started to descend to rough terrain once again. Suddenly, we had a brain wave to cross the river and go down on the left bank. It was the right choice.
It was flat terrain in contrast to the hilly right bank ridden with many cliffs. There was some clearing of the jungle to be seen and we finally came out having blindly roamed the jungles for two nights and three days.
As we went down, we came to a newly laid tea plantation. Further down were the living quarters of the workers and still further down, a board reading “Peak Wilderness Sanctuary. Unauthorized trespassers will be prosecuted. Clearing of jungle is strictly prohibited.” Hilarious indeed, another typical warning notice in Sri Lanka, just meant to be disregarded as we had just passed a newly opened plantation and new land still being cleared, well inside the sanctuary.
From a point further down when we looked back we could see the Seven Virgins range that we had come down rising up steeply making it difficult to believe that we really ascended it.
The estate road wound its way down in hairpin bends and we crossed between the loops to come down to a populous area where there was a tea leaf collecting centre from where we could hitch a ride in a lorry.
We had come down a stream called Halatura Ganga which also receives the Mandagal Oya on its way down. We had thus managed to reach Malimboda in the reverse direction. So we had successfully accomplished another hike, this time without the aid of a map. |
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