Climbing Idalgashinna Mountain and tunnel walk to Ohiya

Year and Month	March, 2015 (15th)
Number of Days	One Day Trip
Crew	03-Thinuwan, Nirosh and Niroshan
Accommodation	Uma Guest House-Uwa Thanna
Transport	Train, climbing and walking
Activities	Mountain climbing, Photography and Rail hike
Weather	Excellent till evening. Then we were caught to a rain.
Route	Colombo -> Idalgashinna -> Climbing Idalgashinna Mountain -> Ohiya -> Udaweriya estate -> Kalupahana
Tips, Notes and Special remark	Start the journey in early morning. Climbing Idalgashinna Mountain is an easy task and only takes about 30-45minutes to reach the top. Better clarify your way from locals. There are only one or two tea shops at Idalgashinna but they don’t have breakfast. Bit careful about trains when you are walking on rail track. Some rail tunnels have man holes. There are places to get food at Ohiya. (It is a rewarding point as Ohiya getting popularized among tourists) Always clarify your way from Udaweriya to Kalupahana from locals. Though we have to descend through a tea estate it can be easily mislead the foot pathway.
Author	Niroshan
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I have noted Idalgashinna Mountain in my first visit to Haldummulla old fort . It gave me the idea of conquering in the day of trekking from Haldummulla to Idalgashinna . She was wrapped with mist on that gloomy day when we reached Idalgashinna Railway Station.

We got into 14th Saturday night mail from Colombo and reached Idalgashinna station at about 4.30am with chilling cold. After inquiring about climbing pathway we headed to the mountain around 6.30am. It was a brightened day and surrounding view was beautiful. First we climbed up through the tea estate and reached the end of the tea patch where Pinus trees start. There was no foot pathway within the Pinus forest. After about fifteen minutes we reached the second highest point where it provides good view towards Koslanda, Beragala, Haldummulla and Belihuloya. Southern plane of the country was visible far away. We had our breakfast there and noted highest point of the mountain in our left hand side. It was bit difficult to reach there due to acute ascend. This place also provides good bird’s eye view but not well as the first place.

Idalgashinna Mountain-View from Haldummulla

Misty view of the mountain on my way from Haldummulla to Idalgashinna.

Idalgashinna Mountain- Photo taken on my way to Beragala

Kittens rolled at Idalgashinna Station.

Good morning Idalgashinna…..

Directions-The concrete road goes up from black star to orange star. There is a water tank at orange star. Then take foot pathway up along the tea patch.

Towards Welimada plateau. Namunukula is seen far away.

Land mark-Water tank

Beragala Mountain and Idalgashinna station

First target of the day-second highest point

Along the tea patch

Going up through Pines Forest

Superb view towards Kalupahana. Black star-Wangedigala, Black arrow-Balathuduwa, Red arrow-Gommolliya and Blue arrow towards Hortain plains

Zoomed view of Balathuduwa and Gommolliya

View of Bambarakanda Waterfall

Zoomed view of Need wood tea factory

Central picture shows Sabaragamuwa University

Drop of Kuragala

Colombo-Badulla road get it’s turn at Haldummulla

Might be Pettigala???

Thinuwan gets his drop to the highest point of Idalgashinna Mountain

Beragala Mountain

Getting down

Rail turn at Idalgashinna station

Our second activity of the day was to walk from Idalgashinna station to Ohiya station. This rail walk meets highest number of tunnels in between two railway stations. There were 14 tunnels (No: 35-No: 22) between Idalgashinna and Ohiya. Total stretch of this railway track is 8.85km and tunnel No: 29 is the longest (181.09m) out of all these.

Oil man

Our walk starts

Sampo signal ahead

Walking with a weight

Tunnel No:35-First tunnel we met

Group photo

Thinuwan in the Man-hole

Tunnel No:34

Bridge in between tunnel No:34-No:33

Black and white

Tunnel No:33

Tunnel No:32

Tunnel No:31

Tunnel No:30

View of Tunnel No:29 from No:30

Into darkness

Tunnel No:27

Tunnel No:26

In between tunnel No:26 and 25

Road side cascade

Tunnel No:25

Scenic

Tunnel No: 24

She is coming

Tunnel No:23

Tunnel No:22

Reaching Ohiya

Ohiya station

Our last activity of the day was to descend to Kalupahana from Ohiya via Udaweriya. The time was around 1.30pm and we had Rotti from Ohiya. The boutique people said we wouldn’t able to reach Kalupahana before the darkness if we follow the normal route. Then they said about a short cut to omit the first part of the route and asked us to use a three-wheeler in that phase.

Nirosh and myself said good bye to Thinuwan (He got the train to Haputhale to go to Colombo) and started the journey by the three wheeler.

This alternative road is a connection between Udaweriya estate and road towards Hortain plains from Ohiya. We entered Udaweriya estate and passed famous Devil’s staircase in our journey. Estate workers were so kind and showed us some short cuts to follow. By 5.30pm we reached somewhere closer to Bambarakanda Holiday Resort and called for a threehweel to complete rest of the journey.