Rail hike from Demodara to Pattipola and hike to Ella rock

It was a rainy Friday when I went to Gampola from Colombo to spend the weekend at my aunt’s place. I took the 5.50 am train from Colombo and reached Gampola at about 10.30 am. My mother was at my aunt’s place and as we were having a small chat, she wanted me to go to Haputale and deliver some documents to a relative. I was instantly willing to go because I have not been to Haputale for years. As soon as I was dreaming about going by train to Haputale, I remembered Ashan ayya’s trip report on his hike from Badulla to Ambewala  YES, I wanted to do at least a small bit of it. But as it was raining and as I wanted to relax a bit, I thought of dropping the hike and just do a short trek from Bandarawela to Haputale and keeping the trip to one day. But then again, after a while I thought of doing it from Demodara to Haputale. So I decided to take the night mail train on the same day so that I can come home on the Saturday nightmail from Haputale and sleep the whole Sunday. .

Shibly is a cousin brother who always wants to join me in my trips, so I just informed him that I’m doing this hike and he was like – “what should I bring?”. He didn’t ask how long we should trek or how difficult it is. He just wanted to join me.

So we packed and went to the Gampola railway station. The train was scheduled to arrive at 11.20 pm. But as usual it was late and came at about 12.15 am.

Waiting in Gampola railway station station for the night mail train to arrive

We were lucky and got two seats after about 30 mints. On the train, I met a person from Heel Oya who was glad to take us to Ravana falls and a forest near it and he offered us a stay at his place too. But as that was not in our schedule, we thanked him and promised him that we would come some other time.

When we reached Pattipola, it was so cold and stormy. When the train glided from Pattipola towards Ohiya, me and Shibly went towards the footboard to watch the scenery. Shibly was flabbergasted by watching the scenery. I thought for a moment, came and sat on the seat. There started a small conversation:

Me: Shibly, come and sit, don’t watch the scenery.

Shibly: Why ayya? It is so beautiful. I want to watch it.

Me: Change of plans. We are extending our hike. It is not ending from Haputale, we are trekking till Pattipola, Ambewala if time permits.

Shibly: Really?  Awesome

I can remember how happy he was. Even I was happy though I didn’t show him. . We reached Demodara at about 8.00 am.

Shibly and myself at Demodara station

We had our quick breakfast and started the journey after having a quick glimpse of the Demodara loop from the station.

The first tunnel we came across

Tripod comes handy to take group pictures.

A villager who gave us train timings and informed us to wait for a few minutes and capture the Colombo bound train which will travel over the Nine arch bridge

Colombo bound train over the Nine arch bridge

Landslides have been cleared and men at work

Ella station. A main tourist attraction point in Sri Lanka

Is she expecting something from them to eat?

Love those hanging ears.

The next station after Ella is Kithal Ella. From there, on the way, a villager asked us about our journey and when we told her, she asked us whether we are visiting Ella rock. I asked her how long is it and she said only about an hour. Yes, another conversation between me and Shibly:

Me:

Shibly: I know there is something fishy with that smile.

Me: Yes, what you are thinking is going to happen.

Shibly: No.

Me: Yes, we are climbing Ella rock.

Shibly: Are you sure?

Me: You heard me.

So the villager showed us the trail head starting from the railroad somewhere between Kithal Ella and Heel Oya.

The pictures below show the trail and observation points:

After you are done a few meters from the trail head, you will come across this bridge. You need to take left after crossing the bridge

After a small climb you will be here

She did not bother to look at us though we kept on calling her.

On the way

The footpath will become narrower

Path is not clear at this point

The path clears and you realize that you are high up in the mountain

The path is not flat. It is slanted

Be careful when you trek through this

Quick rest at Observation point one

View from observation point one

This is the way you should come from. The path is a bit unclear but can be figured

Climbing Ella rock is not tough. But with the backpack and carrying the camera mounted on the tripod and as a victim of wheezing, I had so many difficulties climbing this trying to tackling with time. But as soon as we reached the summit, we couldn’t even remember the difficulties we faced when climbing.

How relaxing it is to sit on such a seat and observe the nature

There was a footpath to Heel Oya, but as our intention was a rail hike, we climbed down the same way we came and headed towards Heel Oya along the rail road.

Cabbage cultivation?

We reached Bandarawela at about 3.15 pm with the greatest difficulty due to the Ella climb. If we had sticked with the plan, we could have done till Haputale, but with the hike, we couldn’t do it, so we got into a local train from Bandarawela to Haputale.

Diyathalawa railway station

Ears on both sides.

End of day one at Haputale

When we reached Haputale, we went to the mosque to inquire whether we could stay the night. Before we could inquire, we saw a relative and he insisted that we come to his place to stay the night. We had a good sleep that night and in the morning I woke at about 5.30 am to realize that my knee ligaments were almost dead. I had no clue how I will be doing the rest of the hike. Aunty packed us some rotti with potatoes and scrambled egg and we did a small walk to Haputale station.

It was Poson Sunday and in the station they had a gram Dansala. We took two packets and when we were about to start, it started to drizzle. We were disappointed. But without getting late, we put on our raincoats and started off at about 7.30 am.

Starting the second day

It stopped drizzling but it was gloomy towards Ohiya side, so we didn’t remove the raincoats.

So green everywhere

He was so camouflaged that we almost knocked him

Thangamale sanctuary

The railroad winding along the mountains

Our faces might look tired, but our intentions are strong

Any idea why the check rail on the right has a huge gap which is unusual?

A cascade on the side of the railroad

The photo was taken straight but the railroad is not

Endless. Lot more to go. But the beauty motivated us

Tea plantations below

Linesman and his dog?

Exiting Thangamale sanctuary

Tunnel before Idalgashinna station

First glimpse of Idalgashinna station

Carrying wood for more than a km

He never gave up

Maybe the railway workers made some plain tea here.

Almost all the pictures were taken a little over exposed because the weather was, raining and sometimes very gloomy. But the below picture was taken with correct exposure depicting the actual view and light.

This is how it actually looked. Very gloomy

After the rain

So many tunnels between Idalgashinna and Ohiya

Saw many “Purple faced leaf monkeys”, but my lens does not allow me to zoom more than 55mm.

How disappointing to see such a thing

Well maintained Ohiya station

Receiving the “Tablet” at Ohiya

So much of greenery

Approaching at a high speed

Why do they have to do this?

Saw some of these inside a tunnel

Love this, but unfortunately it is blurred

The weather changed and it became so misty

Tunnel 18.

Sri Lanka’s highest railway point.

At Pattipola. Tired? No, but disappointed because we couldn’t make it to Ambewala

We reached Pattipola at about 3.20 pm and was unfortunate because the local train to Kandy was to arrive in about 5 minutes. Or else, we could have done up to Ambewala. However, after we got into the train and at Ambewala, the train halted for about an hour. I was so angry because had we known this, we could have completed our trip.

We did only 42.7 km excluding the Ella climb because I do not know how long it is to the summit from the trail head and back to the trail head. Maybe altogether it would be about 50 km. Hope to do a longer one soon.

Thank you very much for reading my trip report.