Unforgettable Hike to Elgin Falls Complex and nearby cascades from Thalawakele side

Year and Month	November 2014
Number of Days	1
Crew	8 (between 29-49 years of age)
Accommodation	N/A
Transport	Double cab, three wheeler rest by foot
Activities	Waterfall hunting, Photography,
Weather	Sunshine in the morning & heaving down pouring in the afternoon.
Route	Nivithigala -> Ratnapura -> Awissawella -> Ginigathhena -> Nawalapitiya -> Thalawakele -> Lindula -> Miraya Bazzar -> Elgin estate
Tips, Notes and Special remark	Weather can be very unpredictable For weather updates do not fully trust the websites with weather updates Leech repellent a must if there has been raining recently Do not try if there is possibility of rain Start early as possible Distance given by the estate workers are grossly incorrect according to GPS
Author	malithkum
Comments	Discuss this trip report, provide feedback or make suggestions at Lakdasun Forum on the thread Unforgettable Hike to Elgin Falls Complex and nearby cascades from Thalawakele

I was planning to hike Great western. But it was raining few days. As a result on the day of the hike we changed our target. We decided to hike Elgin falls. As I was travelling to Thalawakele from Awissawella I took the opportunity to drive along beautiful B317 road enjoying the scenery.

Weather forecast on fallingrain site stated that there will be light showers in the morning and rain free lunch and afternoon. But sun was shining on us in the morning and we happily started our hike. To get there first we passed the Lindula town on Nuwara-eliya road and just after passing the town there was the road leading to Dayagama. On Dayagama road we met a three-way junction and took the left hand road leading to Meraya Bazzar and Elgin estate. There was frequent bus service to Elgin during day time.

Last 3kms of the estate road can only be tackled by 4wd vehicle or by a three wheeler. We travelled 2kms by vehicle and last 1km by foot. Please don’t believe the distance that estate people tell you. We found out in hard way. They were mentioning the distance as 1km but my GPS revealed it as more than 5km.

At the start of the hike there were 3 very beautiful waterfalls at the boarder of the Elgin estate. I was surprised that they didn’t have any names.

Kadiyalena Falls on the way-B317……

The 3 arched bridge….

The lower section of Kadiyalena Falls

Middle section of the fall….

Misty…….

Lovely landscape……

Sun is rising……

Sun is rising over Great Western????????

Can someone identify this cascade seen by B317 …

From here onwards…started walking…estate road ends in another 1km…..

Cascade along the road…..

This fall should be more than 20 meters in height…. Seen in distance.. but undocumented…..

Lower section of above undocumented fall…..

Another fall close by above fall…undocumented…..notice the down pouring….

This fall close to 10 meters in height…. Another undocumented……

It seems no one has tried this path for looooong time…. As there was no clear path until the three way junction where we met the path from Ambewela and downward path towards the Fall….there was 4 &1/2km to this point. Path from Ambewela was clearer and seems everybody was using that way to hike the fall…..Danger of the overgrown path was that we were walking on the edge with more than 1oo feet of sharp drop, so if we missed a step……It nearly happened to one of my friend who was not careful enough…
We saw the first fall of the Elgin water fall complex lying opposite to the upper and lower Elgin falls… As we were getting down towards lower Elgin fall bad luck stuck us…. It started to rain cats & dogs… We were slipping on muddy soil hanging dearly to bamboo trees as ropes…and there was no way we could get to the base of the fall due to overflowing river…. Thus we had to satisfy with the side view of Upper & lower Elgin falls and turned back as life was more important….. For 2 hours we were walking back in cold with the heavy rain and some parts of the path had turned to streams with gushing water. We were thankful to be back to estate without major harm except few scratches…..