Conquered Conical Hill the border of Uva and Central

Year and Month	May 2017
Number of Days	01
Crew	5 (Sobasiri Team)
Accommodation	N/A
Transport	Motor Bicycles
Activities	Hiking, Nature Exploring, Photography
Weather	Perfect
Route	Colombo -> Avissawella -> Hatton -> Blackpool -> Dimuthugama
Tips, Notes and Special remark	Take enough water 2Lx2 Entering to Concial Hill foreset reserve is strictly prohibited Try to get at least verbal permission for a hike from the RFO People in Dimuthugama and Mipilimana area are on alert about illegal entrance to the forest Leach protection is must Do not try this ever in rainy days Use GPS maps to have your own path to the summit Try to reach the summit only otherwise the hike will be one of a hell hike Be careful about Leopards as they are usually coming to this forest Also be careful about wild animals such as Sambars, Wild boars and reptiles Please do not pollute the environment, bring your own garbage with you
Author	Ranshan Fernando
Comments	Discuss this trip report, provide feedback or make suggestions at Lakdasun Forum on the thread Conquered Conical Hill the border of Uva and Central

Conical Hill is the 10^th highest mountain in Sri Lanka which is height about 2166m. It is also a forest reserve which belongs to the Forest Department (DFO-Nuwewaraeliya). I remember when I see this giant several times in Nuwaraeliya and especially on the way to Horton Plains. Conical is a mountain range which carries two mountains named as Conical Hill and Waterfall Point. I was searching for Waterfall point last year and noticed it on SD map near conical hill. After that I realized that waterfall point is the other side of Conical hill which is fully belongs to Nuwaraeliya (Central Province).

When I locate these maps on Google maps and SD map I realized that the peak of Conical hill might can be belongs to Uva province as the border of Uva and Central goes from the summit of it. However as per the forest department it belongs to Nuwaraeliya.

Since we have a friend in Nuwaraeliya we planned this hike early of 2017. Hence we took some verbal permission from rangers and started the hike on a clear day. Conical hill is like a virgin forest reserve which is fully fresh and lesser polluted forest. However we prepared with leach socks and other important items since we didn’t know about the behavior of the forest.

Fortunately we met a person who frequently goes to the forest to collect woods. He gave some useful tips of the path and we followed as his said. We started our hike near to the farm and continue it through the forest patch. The forest is not much difficult as we thought but we were on alert about the wild animals. Because most of time Leopards are crossing from Horton Plains to Kikiliyamana via conical hill forest and we observed some sambar and wild boar foot prints on our way.

Within 2-3 hours we came closer to the summit and we identified it using our google maps too. As per the villagers said there is no any proper view point but we could see the environment through the forest. Finally we conquered conical hill with in few hours as we had some obstacles on the way.

There were few small water streams and some places like open caves created by huge rocks. There were leaches but not much as we expected. We have seen a wider range of nuwaraeliya at a point and we identified many mountains and areas. The nearest mountain to Conical is Hakgala. After we spent few hours we got down to the village and went to Nuwaraeliya.

Thanks for reading!

Sobasiri Team