Bathalegala Hike

Year and Month	2014 August
Number of Days	One
Crew	2
Accommodation	N/A
Transport	Motor Bicycle
Activities	Hiking, Photography and nature exploring
Weather	Rainy
Route	Colombo -> Kegalle -> Aranayaka road up to Gevilapitiya Returned on the same route
Tips, Notes and Special remark	There are 2km long concreted road from the aranayake main road. The road is very narrow and not suitable for all vehicles except 4WD vehicles, Motor Bicycles and three wheelers Walking that 2km is not easy and it’s like a straight climb This mountain is good to start the adventure life for beginners Carry 2L water and some snacks Do not throw garbage or plastic Be careful on heavy rainy days since the rocky plains are very slippery Leave foot prints only
Author	MSRF
Comments	Discuss this trip report, provide feedback or make suggestions at Lakdasun Forum on the thread Bathalegala Hike

Bathalegala Hike
Bathalegala is a 798m height mountain at Mawanella area. This rock can be seen at Kadugannawa pass and it looks like “Little Sigiriya”. As per the old stories, there was a wild boar lived at the near “Ura Kanda” and came to this mountain with a potato. This is a famous story that we heard from a villager. But as our view we can imagine this as another kingdom like Sirigiya. Because there are more than 100 perches at the top of the Mountain and I’m sure this mountain might be used by our Sri Lankans for the war against British army. Because we can see 360 view at the top the mountain.

We left from Colombo around 9am and reached to the Bathalegala around 12pm. We directly came to the highest point of the road and parked our vehicles near the closed garage at here. After we stopped the bike it started to rain. We were waited about few minutes but the rain not got low. Then we started the hike along with the foot path and then we entered to the forest. We realized one thing, that there are no leeches at Bathalegala even on a heavy rainy day. The forest is totally like a background of a horror movie. It fully covered with mist. When we started to climb the staircase we saw the sky at an open area. There are about 400m hike from the parking to the top of the mountain. After 15-20 minutes we came to the top of this mountain. The whole area was white and we did not see anything for 10-15 minutes.

Then we walked up to the Pagoda and came to the corner of the mountain. It is so beautiful and colorful. We saw the Asupini falls and Uthuwankanda area and the central province area. We were there for more than 2 hours. We were totally wet and slept at the rocky plain for few minutes. Then we got ready to downward the mountain and we went to the other area of the mountain as well as to the herbal forest in front of the “Awasa Geya”

If the provincial council will put some light along the foot path from the staircase to the top of the mountain that would be so colorful and beautiful to the area. If they put some light for the main corners of the mountains we can see a beautiful image at the night from the Kadugannawa area.