Kunissan Falls and Rupa lime cave

Year and Month	2018 June 17th
Number of Days	One
Crew	07-Anupama, Prabath, Kasun, Vinoda, Nalinda, Dimal and Myself
Accommodation	N/A
Transport	By car and walking
Activities	Waterfall seeing, Sightseeing and Lime cave expedition
Weather	Few rainy sessions but reasonably good
Route	Colombo->Rathnapura->Rathganga (රත් ගග) ->Polwatta (පොල්වත්ත)->Kudawa (කුඩාව)->Kunissan Falls (කූනිස්සන් ඇල්ල) and Rupa Lime cave (රූප හුණු ගල් ගුහාව)-> Rath Ganga Punchi Dambadiwa (පුoචි දඹදිව)->Back to same route
Tips, Notes and Special remark	Road condition till Rath Ganga Punchi Dambadiwa temple is very good. After that there are few bad sections which can be overcome by a four wheel or three wheel. There are buses from Rathnapura to Rathganga. One bus is there to Polwatta Get directions from villagers. They are helpful. It is a leech paradise. Try all leech protection methods. Base of Kunissan Falls is extremely slippery with rain. Be careful. It is not easy to find the cave entrance. It is essential to have a good torch (head torch is preferable) for cave exploration. Phone lights are inadequate. Bats, bat dropping, spiders, frogs and small insects can be expected inside the cave. Better carry only camera and torches. Free hand is a good advantage. Wanahapuwa can be approached from Balangoda side via Helakanda village.
Related Resources	1. “Sancharaka Satahana-2”- “Dushkara Charika” by Mr. Rodney Widanapathirana. (සoචාරක සටහන්-දුෂ්කර චාරිකා රොඩ්නි විදානාපතිරණ) 2. Special thanks to Vinoda for guiding us. And group of villagers who showed Rupa lime cave.
Author	Niroshan
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Kunissan Falls (කූනිස්සන් ඇල්ල) and Rupa lime cave (කූනිස්සන් ඇල්ල) were in my to-do list for a long time. The credit of information about these places should go to Mr. Rodney Widanapathirana who was a traveler wrote couple of valuable books. It was based on his journey happened about 25 years ago. I really grateful for his travel notes as I have referred them a lot. Someone may blame writing about uncommon destinations might destroy these places but what my point of view is a large number of travelers enjoy at these places responsibly only few use them for commercial purpose as well as irresponsibly.
One of my frequent travel friends Anupama also wanted to visit there for a long time and we were thinking it. Recently a group of travelers have visited Kunissan falls and their face book pictures stimulated us to do it as soon as possible.

Visiting at Rupa lime cave is also in our to-do list in this visit. Quite large number of friends-7 attended for this journey as it is not a strenuous hike. Luckily Vinoda who visited there before also came with us to show the route.
We have passed Rathnapura and followed Palabathgala-Sri Pada route. Next turn was to Rath Ganga temple. Peak Wilderness forest reserve with hills were in our back drop. This was the ideal time to watch seasonal falls. After passing Rath Ganga Temple we followed the road to Kudawa but road is bit narrow for a car. Driving of next few kilometers was a difficult one for the car. We have parked our vehicle at Kudawa and started the walking. It was a scenic walk about 2-3 km up to the fall. Kunissan falls were seen to the main road as a silver belt. After deviating from main road (just before the bridge with electricity project) we had to hike through a tea patch. Last stretch of the path was a descend through the tea patch and then along the forest border to view the fall more closely.

Reaching Rath Ganga area. Seasonal falls at Sri Pada mountain range

Getting the start: From left to right: Dimal, Nalinda, Prabath, Anupama, Kasun and Vinoda

We are at Kudawa village

Crossing Rath Ganga

Spiky Mountain at Peak wilderness

Polwatta- Duldeniya bridge

First glimpse of Kunissan Falls as a silver belt.

First glimpse of Kunissan Falls

Much closer view

A break

Surrounding view after hiking along the tea patch.

Walking along the tea patch.

Awaiting for others

View of top of Buddha Gaya at Rath Ganga Temple / Punchi Dambadiwa

Mush room… This reminded me Chamara

View of Kunissan Falls from the tea patch

Once we reached the foot pathway which goes around the fall rain started to fall. Therefore we had to wait for a while till rain settled. It seems this fall is about 50/60m in height (no records available for its height) and having two wings. With maximum flow these two wings become a single flow to show the real beauty of the waterfall. (What I observe in face book pictures). Presence of small fish species at this water stream gave the name Kunissan Falls. After flowing this will join with Rath Ganga. There was a clear foot pathway around the fall and we were able to reach the base of Kunissan Falls after deviating this path. Though rain has stopped it is really hard to be there due to mist formed by the fast flow. Sometimes this mist was covering the top of Kunissan falls to give strange appearance.

Kunissan falls with it’s two wings.

Kunissan Falls. It’s height might be 50/60m.

Kunissan Falls. This was taken before the rain.

Kunissan Falls

Reaching the base of the fall.

Reaching the base of the fall. This is right wing of the fall.

Reaching the base of the fall.

Top of Kunissan Falls covering with mist. This reminded me Galagama Falls.

Base of Kunissan Falls with slippery rocks.

Left wing of Kunissan falls.

Right wing of Kunissan Falls. We didn’t go towards that part.

Top part of Kunissan Falls

Kunissan Falls

At base of Kunissan Falls

View of the fall gets covered by mist

Framed view of Kunissan Falls

Portrait with back ground of Kunissan Falls.

After spending the time with Kunissan Falls we returned to the foot path and came back to main road. The second rain has almost settled and our next objective was to find Rupa lime cave mentioned in the book. Seems it is a famous cave among villagers but nobody has visited there recently. We met couple of villagers who came to show the cave in our request. I could remember the name of the villager-Haramanis Mama (හරමානිස් මාමා) who has showed the path to Mr. Rodney. His house is situated on the way to the cave and we had a chance to meet this old villager who is bed ridden for about 5 years due to a stroke. His son also voluntarily came to get into the cave.

Rupa lime cave is situated just next to a tea patch called Wanahapuwa (වනහපුව). It is bit difficult to find the cave entrance without assistance of a known person. It is about 3/4 meters to the floor from the entrance of the cave. They have made a ladder then and there and we got into the cave with aid of the ladder.

According to my previous lime cave experience in Sri Lanka- Wavulpane, Ekiriya and Sthreepura, this is one of a best lime caves I have seen. Rupa lime cave has less slippery floor and small number of bats (what we observed).
Soon after the entrance it was branched into three routes. Right hand side branch was a blind end and left side branches were big enough to walk through it. We were able to walk about 10-15m inside the cave. Middle path has ended with steep decent and sound of a stream was noted there. Most left side path also ended like a tunnel in 10-15m and we were not able to move further.

As I noted in previous caves, stalactites (formation which hang from the ceiling) and stalagmites (formations built up above the floor of the cave) were noted. As different stalactites and stalagmites form different pictures on the wall of the cave, it is called Rupa (pictures) cave by villagers. There were fairly small number of bat droppings and few spiders were seen.
Though lime stone cave is not a novel experience for me, it was the first exposure for others and seems they were enjoying it well.

At cave entrance.

It is hard to find this small entrance without assistance of a villager.

They have made a ladder then and there to get into the cave.

Ladder we used to get into the cave.

At Rupa lime cave

A bat. Out of focus

Stalactites formation.

A part of group inside the cave. Note it is high enough to walk.

හිරි ලඹ

හිරි ටැඹ

Posing with assistance of an external light.

Inside Rupa Lime cave.

Water was coming inside the cave. This is essential for cave formation as well as maintenance.

Coral formation

Different shapes of stalactites.

Anupama at Rupa lime cave.

At the end we have achieved our dream of visiting Rupa lime cave.

Team inside the cave.

Coming out of the cave.

A spider.

We had a tea at one of villagers’ house and rushed to the place where we parked our vehicles. At Wanahapuwa we have noted Kunissan falls in different angle and it has higher right wing than left wing.
In our return journey we refreshed having a bath at Rath Ganga. I call it as a day as I was able to achieve both tasks of the trip.

Happily walk out of the cave.

View of Kunissan falls from Wanahapuwa.

Kunissan Falls. Note it’s left wing is much higher than right wing. This can’t be noted in closer view.

Back to Rath Ganga.

This report might not be completed if I don’t include Rath Ganga Punchi Dambadiwa. This is sharing of some pictures of my visit there at 2017.

Rath Ganga Punchi Dambadiwa (රත් ගග පුoචි දඹදිව)
This is a place where sacred Buddhist pilgrim sites of Dambadiwa are reconstructed. Devotees can worship Buddha Gaya, Lumbini, Kusinara and Jethawanaya at Punchi Dambadiwa.