Ballabandigala/ Bellanbandigala Hike – 1935m

Ballabandigala (බල්ලාබැඳිගල ) / Bellanbandigala (බෙල්ලන්බැඳිගල) is a 1935m height beautiful destination in peak wilderness and it belongs to the Nallathanniya route as it’s neighbor is Yaka Andu Gala (යකා ඇඩූ ගල ) and the waterfall. I have planned this hike since March 2018 but was not able to make it realize due to some issues. Even though we planned this hike in January 2019 but due to a very urgent matter we had to postpone this hike at the last moment. Finally, I had to make this hike realize with Sajith and Migara on a weekend in October.

We left Colombo at 11.50 pm in the night on Friday and reached to Nallathanniya at 4.00 am and slept for 2 hours until the hotel opened for breakfast. After that, we turned to Hamilton Estate, which is situated at Mulgama junction where the road dividing into Fishing Hut road also. We headed to the estate via very difficult roads and we met Lakshapana Estate and then Hamilton Estate at the end of the area. This little estate is close to Dakinapura Mountain and Eligoda Kanda which makes 6-7 waterfalls.

As per the GPS map, we started our hike, and luckily there was a footpath from the exact place. That path is usually for the necessity of villagers to collect woods. We walked along the footpath and came to tour 1st pinned point where a small rocky plain located. That place easily can be seen on the Satellite map hence I marked it at the 1st resting point. We spent a few minutes and enjoy the surroundings as our target can be seen over there. Also, we have noticed two waterfalls situated far away from the forest which falling from a massive rocky wall of the right edge of the Ballabandigala.

After we walked for 1 hour from here, we saw a Leopard who stand at the top of a rocky wall where we were climbing it from the beginning. Sadly, Migara had caught and it was jumped to the jungle and got disappeared. It was a well-grown big Leopard and it is our fortune that it was not seen us because there was just 10-15m distance between us.

After seen the Leopard we had a little fear but were able to reach the top of the mountain with witnessing for many elephant dings all along the footpath. This path created by us as per the GPS map and it was much easy as we are descending as altitude gain.  We had a 5-6 hr hike due to the risks and we always kept our eyes and ears to the jungle as there were only three of us.

After we came to the top, we spend 1 our rest by laying on the rocky plain, and then we walked around the massive rocky plain and saw plenty of elephant dings, footprints at the highest points of the summit. It was marked as 1935m at the highest of the Ballabandigala and it was in the forest. There were many footprints as a small footpath created by elephants.

Ballabadigala marked in the Metric Map, see the other nearby giants

The elevation gain in Terrain Maps

The GPS path we followed

Satellite view at the summit of Ballabandigala (All of my photos were deleted erroneously, otherwise I will share the real photos of this view)

The view of the Samanala Giants

This is the view can be seen to the Uda Maluwa

View at Nallathanniya early morning

Just started the trail from the Hamilton Estate

Nature creations

Found a stream to refill our water bottles

Thick forest

Elephant dungs

Elephant dung

Fresh items

A beautiful cave we met

At another coolest stream

Migara is drinking some water

Sajith is showing the summit. Now we at a small rocky plain

The Ballabandigala Mountain

Through a thick forest

Surrounding

Here is the rocky plain

We were there

The forest where we saw the Leopard

Surrounding

Climbing the last part of the peak

Clouds with Mist

We came to the Mountain

First view of the holy peak

Wet Environment

Getting dark

Nice environment

Dakinapura area

A part of the Rocky plain at the top

Holy peak getting covered by the mist

I witnessed

The forest patch will end at Yaka Andu gala and the fall

Elephant footprints

Getting dark

The thick forest where the elephants are roaming

I’m walking

Its a beautiful environment

Its wet

At the top

Elephant dung at the top of Ballabandigala

Colors

The end of the rocky plain

At the top

We were there

View from the top, Bena Samanala and Kuda Bena Samanala is visible from right side of the Holy peak

The rocky plain was wet

The forest path towards Yaka Andu Kanda

A massive range of the mountains can be easily seen to the top of Ballabandigala and we were looking at the holy peak for hours. And when we realize that the evening is getting dark we started to fix our tent. After we made the tent ate some biscuits and apples and hanged our torches outside of the tent to see the dark environment. Because we saw many pieces of evidence of elephants at the top of the mountain and nearby our tent too.

On the next day, we were lucky to see a clear environment as there was no mist. And we saw the giants at Horton Plains and the estates and the Hatton trail too. Also, we were lucky to a running elephant near to Hamilton Estate and we heard big noises of breaking trees and when we saw there, an elephant was seen. We got down to the estate around 12 pm and returned back to Nallathanniya to have the Lunch. Fortunately, the hotel was opened and we had our lunch and had a bath at the Bridge and talked with few sellers about the offseason atmosphere.

After that, we left from Nallathaninya and slowly we have driven the car by enjoying the surrounding.

Holy peak

Zoomed view, Hatton route can be seen

Had a visit to the forest

Getting dark

View	Sajith is enjoying the view

Migara witnessed

Devotees

Seen at the top

At the top

Found the reason for this

A flag was there, signs of previous visits 🙂

I witnessed

The view

Permission to spend the night

Our tent

At the wet night

Morning view towards Maussa reservoir and Horton Plains

Giants seen

Time to leave

The below list can be seen from my previous report of the 2nd Highest mountain in peak wilderness, Mahamuni Kanda Hike, this is what I marked in my google maps.

සමනල රක්ෂිතේ ඇති ප්‍රධාන කඳු කිහිපයක උස, GPS පිහිටීම
(දැනුම පිණිස පමණි)

• සමනල කන්ද (2243m) – 6.809442, 80.499388
• මහාමුණි කන්ද (2060m) – 6.763427, 80.587461
• උතුරු බගවන්තලාව කන්ද (2055m) – 6.769158, 80.659051
• බෑන සමනල (2010m) – 6.798479, 80.488412
• බෙල්ලන්කන්ද (1990m) – 6.755442, 80.659268
• ගවරවිල කන්ද (1985m) – 6.791023, 80.569886
• යකා ඇඩු කන්ද (1950m) – 6.830219, 80.495122
• දොතුරුගල (1950m) – 6.776332, 80.541637
• බල්ලාබැඳීගල (1935m) – 6.838176, 80.504357
• කුඩා බෑන සමනල (1910m) – 6.802759, 80.484739
• රත් කන්ද (1855m) – 6.774883, 80.516328
• දෙතනගල (1837m) – 6.748021, 80.674945
• මරියකොටේ (1836m) – 6.761208, 80.601705
• රජමාලේ කන්ද (1815m) – 6.807748, 80.521305
• ගවරවිල තැන්න (1811m) – 6.782155, 80.566499
• යකා ඇඩු ගල (1810m) – 6.830927, 80.504900
• මහා පිදුරුතලාව (1800m) – 6.843085, 80.490565
• දකිනපුර (1795m) – 6.843516, 80.527786
• පිදුරුතලාව (1790m) – 6.856050, 80.483251
• හීන් පිදුරුතලාව (1600m) – 6.836758, 80.453016
• කුණු දිය පර්වතය (1580m) – 6.812945, 80.450528
• උඩ ලක්ෂපාන ගල (1569m) – 6.883509, 80.498332
• පැදුරුතලාගල (1485m) – 6.836460, 80.449797
• කටු කිතුල් ගල (1490m) – 6.864323, 80.514915
• බඹරගල (1370m) – 6.875358, 80.477835
• ගැටනිටුල්ල කන්ද (1307m) – 6.809683, 80.459809
• කෝඳුරු ගල (1249m) – 6.742797, 80.554279

Thank you for reading !

Sobasiri Team ©