Full blown Kota Ganga Falls

This was part of two days trip and first day we conquered Meeriyagolla Mountain (මීරියගොල්ල කන්ද) who is a neighbor of Lakegala-Narangamuwa. Then we trekked to Meemure and spent the night there. Next day we reserved for Kota Ganga Falls expedition.
Kota Ganga Falls is a cascade of 6+more waterfalls can be seen well at Rangala area. This Kota Ganga flows from Knuckles range. The basic of visiting this waterfall complex is either getting down from Knuckles area to Kota Ganga village or climbing up from Kota Ganga village to Knuckles-Thangappuwa.
We choose the first option. Ruvinda and myself reached the Corbet’s gap around 7am from Meemure. It was the ideal time to enjoy the beauty of Corbet’s gap.

(Corbett’s gap-1127m)
Corbett’s gap is a deep valley between Knuckles Mountain range and also a rain shadow area. This area also has a mixture of vegetation types such as wet, dry and montane type. At Corbett’s Gap, there is a high wind blow during some months of the year and the forest trees grown in that area has a special feature that is stunted and gnarled. Looking towards the Corbet’s gap from Deanstone Mini World’s end will give the visitor the panoramic view of Aliyawatunaela and Kinihirigala mountains to the left and the Dumbanagala Mountain to the right.
(Taken from http://www.srilankaview.com/knuckles_range.htm)

British surveyor-Corbett who has done the mapping of this area in 19th century has lived here. Therefore this gap is called Corbett’s gap.

Good morning Corbet’s Gap- Three way junction connecting roads from Thangappuwa, Meemure and Hunnasgiriya

Winding road from Hunnasgiriya

Sun rise over Dumbanagala Mountain (දුම්බානාගල)

Dumbanagala-Closest Mountain at Corbet’s Gap

View towards Thangappuwa

Balalgira (බලල්ගිර)-Mountain with superb view

Sphinx rock, so called because of ridges of the mountain which has characteristic square shape. Height-1559m.

Left corner-Sphinx rock, middle-Alugal Lena peak (අලුගල් ලෙන)

Towards Mahiyangana side

Dothalugala (දෝතුලුගල) , Aliyawatunaela Hela (අලියාවැටුන හෙල) and Thangappuwa side

Closer appearance of Sphinx rock

Lakegala (ලකේගල) with it’s dual peaks

Alugal Lena Mountain in left hand side and Lakegala in right hand side

We enjoyed our breakfast at Corbet’s gap and started next stretch: walking from Corbet’s gap to Thangappuwa. It was about 5km and I have been there by a three-wheeler before. It was a nice experience to walk over there with enjoying the surrounding beauty.

Walking from Corbet’s gap to Thangappuwa.

Starting the journey

Clear sky….

Clear sky….

Walking from Corbet’s gap to Thangappuwa

Walking from Corbet’s gap to Thangappuwa

Road condition is not bad…

Knuckles forest

Dumbanagala

Rising….

It was a nice walking…

Creepers

Knuckles Forest

The road.

Towards Thangappuwa

Aliyakanda/? Aliya Watuna Hela

Sun rise with different colours

Sun rise with different colours

At the end we came to Thangappuwa

We spent about 2 hours to reach Thangappuwa as we couldn’t stop clicking on our way. Thangappuwa is a collection of 100-150 line houses with boutiques and can be approached from nearby town-Rangala. We met Raja at Thangappuwa and started the journey.

Thangappuwa to Kota Ganga Falls
It is an almost continuous ascend from Thangappuwa to Kota Ganga. I have been there before in my Alugal Lena journey and beauty was more with clear weather. First we climbed through the tea patch. Aliya Kanda was seen in our back. After passing the forest patch five peaks of Knuckles were seen in front of us. It was my first experience of fantastic view of Knuckles.
We got left hand turn to reach Kota Ganga and from there onwards it was a continuous descend till Kota Ganga village.

Old and famous board at Thangappuwa

Starting the journey

Through the tea patch

Pyramid

Watching at strangers….

Preparing leech repellents

Climbing up….

Climbing up….

Looked back……

Reaching the forest boundary….

View of Thangappuwa

View of Thangappuwa and nearby other places

Aliya Kanda and Thangappuwa

Entering to the forest patch

Finishing of continuous ascend….now it is a gentle hike

Through the forest patch

Brighten day….

Brighten day….

Crossing a water stream

Five peaks of Knuckles

Knuckles and Alugal Lena peak

Kota Ganga plain

Crossing Kota Ganga….

Zoomed view of Kota Ganga village and Kota Ganga after forming cascades

Zoomed view of Kota Ganga village and Kota Ganga after forming cascades

Kota Ganga Falls full expedition
Kota Ganga makes 6+ cascades when it flows from Thangappuwa to Kota Ganga village. There are side roads from main foot pathway (always to left hand side) to reach each cascades.
Just before starting the downward journey we were able to see Kota Ganga Village and the water stream (Kota Ganga) which was our destination.
First by road was the pathway for both first and second waterfalls. We went to first waterfall and on our way back visited second waterfall. For the second waterfall you have to get another by road. There was a nice view point at base of first waterfall.
We came to main foot pathway again and started to descend. Third waterfall was very closer to main foot pathway and it was a massive fall with another good place of view point at it’s base.

Raja gets the turn for first and second waterfalls

Kota Ganga Falls-1/කොට ගග ඇල්ල-1

Kota Ganga Falls-1 is about 10m tall and fallen into a base pool. You can have a nice surrounding view from base of Kota Ganga falls-1.

Kota Ganga Falls-1

Kota Ganga Falls-1

Top of Kota Ganga Falls-1

Framed view of Kota Ganga falls-1

Framed view of Kota Ganga falls-1

Surrounding view from base of Kota Ganga Falls-1

Kota Ganga Falls-1

Her side view.

Kota Ganga Falls-2 /කොට ගග ඇල්ල-2

It is a cascade of two steps with the 10m of height. It is bit difficult to reach the base of the fall.

Gets the turn for second waterfall

Kota Ganga Falls-2

Upper part of Kota Ganga Falls-2

Upper part of Kota Ganga Falls-2

Lower part of Kota Ganga Falls-2

Kota Ganga Falls-3 /කොට ගග ඇල්ල-3

This might be the tallest out of all waterfalls and situated closer to main foot pathway. It is tall about 30-40m. It also provides nice view point at base of the fall and good camping site also.

Kota Ganga Falls-3

Kota Ganga Falls-3

Surrounding view from base of Kota Ganga Falls-3

Kota Ganga Falls-3 with it’s wide base

Steepness was more and more after third waterfall. Fourth waterfall is also a fairly tall one and it is situated somewhere away from main foot pathway. It was kind of a cascade. Fifth waterfall is a tall and thin fall. According to Raja 6th and 7th waterfalls are situated together and one fall is situated above the other one. But I couldn’t clearly find out the 7th/6th waterfall. We reached the Kota Ganga village at the end and it took around 2-3hours for waterfalls expedition. From Kota Ganga village we were able to view full spectrum of Kota Ganga cascades. We had a quick bath at Kota Ganga village and reached Rangala by 3.30pm.
It was a nice journey with waterfalls expedition with covering a beautiful area.

Kota Ganga Falls-4 /කොට ගග ඇල්ල-4

Kota Ganga Falls-4 is about 10-15m tall and kind of a cascade.

Kota Ganga Falls-4

Kota Ganga Falls-4

Kota Ganga Falls-4

Kota Ganga Falls-4

Acute drop following fourth waterfall

Kota Ganga Falls-5 /කොට ගග ඇල්ල-5

Kota Ganga Falls-5

Kota Ganga Falls-5

Kota Ganga Falls-5

Top of Kota Ganga Falls-5

Top of Kota Ganga Falls-5

Kota Ganga Falls 6 & 7 /කොට ගග ඇල්ල-6&7

Kota Ganga Falls 6 and 7 are situated together. One waterfall is situated above the other one. But I couldn’t clearly see both 6th and 7th waterfall, only one fall could be seen. This waterfall is about 10m tall.

Kota Ganga Falls-6 and might be seventh waterfall

Kota Ganga Falls-6

Kota Ganga Falls-6

Kota Ganga Falls-6

Our destination is close now.

Looking back….

Kota Ganga Falls….Full spectrum…

Kota Ganga Falls….Full spectrum…

Map of explored area. Black star shows Corbett’s gap. Black line shows the pathway to Thangappuwa. Orange line shows the pathway from Thangappuwa to Kota Ganga. Blue line shows Kota Ganga Falls. Click image to enlarge.

Thanks for reading and have a safe journey