Walking along the greenish stretch of Matale line

Year and Month	17th April 2017
Number of Days	Half a day
Crew	02-Chamara and My self
Accommodation	Previous day night at friend’s place at Kandy
Transport	Bus and walking along the rail track
Activities	Rail hike and photography
Weather	Excellent
Route	Kandy->Ukuwela (උකුවෙල) ->Waththegama (වත්තේගම)->Kandy
Tips, Notes and Special remark	Walking along the railway line is prohibited in law but people do. Better carry a bottle of water to refill water. There are some boutiques situated on and off to buy cool drinks and iced packets. Talk to the people you meet. Don’t expect much sceneries like up country rail hike or jumbos in dry zone rail walk. Better start early morning. Be aware about train time tables. It is shown at each station and sub stations. No railway tunnels in this stretch.
Author	Niroshan
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This small trip report is to just summarize our experience on Kandy-Matale railway line (Matale line). It was kind of a long waited rail walk for Chamara and me. (I don’t like to use the term rail hike as there is no such a hike)
The distance from Kandy to Matale along railway track is 27.9km. Theoretically Matale line starts from Peradeniya junction and Sarasawi Uyana (සරසවි උයන) and Kandy stations are also belongs to Matale line. According to history it was opened in 1880.
We have decided to do only the part from Ukuwela to Waththegama as other areas were crowded with houses and buildings found on either side of railway track. Google map reading showed the stretch from Waththegama to Ukuwela is comparatively less crowded and more greenish. I can remember one of my colleagues told this railway line was beautiful at her childhood as she had to travel everyday from Matale to Kandy for schooling.
We reached Ukuwela from Kandy by bus and it was around 8.30am. We started from Ukuwela station where few passengers were waiting for 10am train to Kandy. Total length from Ukuwela to Waththegama was 10.4kms. We have passed Udaththawala (උඩත්තාවල) station following Ukuwela station. There were three sub stations named as Marukona (මාරුකොන), Pathanpaha (පතන් පහ) and Yatawara (යටවර) in between Udaththawala and Waththegama stations.
Water supplying line for Ukuwela power plant crossed the railway line. It was a high security zone and we didn’t spend much time there. There were tea estates with pepper creeps and few houses at side of railway track. After passing Pathanpaha station we have noticed Hunnasgiriya Mountain with transmission towers. Railway line crossed Waththegama-Matale road closer to Waththegama station. We reached Waththegama station by 1 pm and returned to Kandy to get the Colombo bus.