Lakegala (1494m)-Mountain of two peaks

Lakegala is a well known mountain situated in Knuckles massif with height of about 1494m. But only few people know it has two peaks. The peak is seen to Meemure is identified as Lakegala and it is known as one of a difficult mountain in Sri Lanka to be climbed. Only few people know it has another peak which is seen from Narangamuwa side. There is gap between two peaks. In between there is a small rock, therefore “Gal Thuna”-ගල්තුන (Three rocks) is another name for Lakegala. Narangamuwa is a village situated closer to Meemure. Interesting thing is Lakegala (Meemure) belongs to Kandy district and Lakegala (Narangamuwa) belongs to Matale district.

Pilot view of Lakegala to show it’s dual peaks. This photo was taken when I was at Kehelpothdoruwegala (කෙහෙල්පොත්දොරුවේගල).

View of Lakegala from Corbet’s Gap

I have climbed these two peaks separately on a same day of the year but with a gap of two years.
Meemure village and knuckles area is directly related to Rawana legend. Lakegala has drawn a special attention in Rawana legend and it says king Rawana (රාවණා රජතුමා) has lifted his aero plane- “Dandu Monaraya”-දඪු මොණරය from there.

The name Lakegala is having several meanings:
1. It is the highest mountain can be seen from eastern coast of Sri Lanka. Therefore ancient sailors have sailed their ships by aiming Lakegala to eastern ports of Sri Lanka. “Illakkagala”-ඉලක්කගල has become Lakegala.

2. The word Lankagala has become Lakegala.

I climbed both peaks starting from Narangamuwa village and after climbing ended up at Meemure village. Apart from that I have been at Rahassa (රැහැස්ස) and Meeriyagolla Mountain (මීරියගොල්ල කන්ද) which are in the same line of Lakegala. (Will come in another report).

Climbing Lakegala-Narangamuwa peak
Here onwards I mention Lakegala-Narangamuwa as Lakegala.
It was my fourth visit to beautiful Narangamuwa village which is under threatens of Moragahakanda reservoir. (Though it is not submerged they will lose the road to the village).
Eshan and myself reached Narangamuwa village on previous day night. We have given alms to the Buddhist monk who stays at “Kuti” at Narangamuwa before start the climb. This Kuti is situated on different foot pathway from Lakegala pathway. There is a foot pathway staring from Narangamuwa to Meemure. Soon after this foot pathway divided into two: Left hand side one goes to Meemure bypassing the base of Lakegala. Right hand side foot pathway goes to Meemure close to base of Lakegala. We followed right hand side foot pathway and on our way we were able to enjoy the view of Uyangomuwa Lake. (I will write in next report)

So there are two foot pathways connecting Narangamuwa and Meemure. One goes at the base of Lakegala range (which is steeper and time consuming but more scenic) and other one by passes Lakegala. After passing Uyangomuwa Lake it ascends and reached a point where another foot pathway goes to left hand side. This is the one to Rahassa, Meeriyagolla Mountain and Lakegala. It initially has a descend with crossing two water streams (Was dry in my both visits) and then it ascends till the base of the mountain.

We kept our bags at base of the mountain and only carried water bottles and necessary food items. As we have been at Meeriyagolla Mountain one month ago we knew the path and difficulties. But we have selected the small gulley in between Meeriyagolla Mountain and Lakegala. Angle is about 60/70 degrees in most of the time. There were enough bushes at side of the gulley to hold. After about 30-45minutes climb we reached the area between Meeriyagolla Mountain and Lakegala peak.

The foot pathway to Rahassa, Meeriyagolla Mountain and Lakegala.

View of Lakegala

Back drop of Meeriyagolla Mountain and Lakegala

View of Meeriyagolla Mountain from Rahassa

Towards the base of the mountain

Start the climbing…Initial first 10meters were on the rock

View of Lakegala from it’s base

Shantha and Eshan

Eshan at the base of the mountain. The gulley at his left side.

Our local guide Shantha. It was nothing for them to walk on the rock.

Reached the area between Meeriyagolla peak and Lakegala. Meeriyagolla Mountain is behind.

We spent about an hour to reach the area between Meeriyagolla Mountain and Lakegala. After having a small break there, we started second part of hiking. It was not steeper as previous one. Surrounding view was superb and last part of climbing like walking on a knife ridge. It takes another 45minutes to 1 hour to reach the peak of Lakegala. The peak of Narangamuwa-Lakegala provides nice panoramic view compared to Meemure Lakegala where view gets obstructed with bushes and trees.
Land marks were: Other mountains of Knuckles massif: Kehelpothdoruwegala, Yahangala (යහන්ගල), Dumbanagala (දුම්බානාගල), Thunhisgala (තුන්හිස්ගල), Knuckles, Karagahathenna (කරගහතැන්න), Riverstone and Maningala (මානින්ගල). Mahaweli River, Sorabora Lake, Rathkinda and Ulhitiya reservoirs, Meemure village, Narangamuwa were also seen. Most significant thing is the closer view of Lakegala-Meemure. There is a gap between these two peaks and unable conquer Lakegala-Meemure from this side.
After enjoying the surrounding view we started to get down along the same pathway. We satisfied with Rotti for lunch and said good bye to two guides at junction where main foot pathway meets. Eshan and myself walked down to Meemure in one and half hours.
I have been at this foot pathway for several times and it basically a descend towards Meemure. We were able to see the point where we started to climb Lakegala-Meemure in 2014.

Ultimate peak of Lakegala-Narangamuwa

Second part of hiking to be started

In between Meeriyagolla Mountain and Lakegala

Lakegala

Eshan is leading now…..

Karagahathenna and Maningala are seen far behind….

View of Thunhisgala

Some more to go…..

View of Meeriyagolla Mountain

It is easy to walk over there with Mana bushes

Weather was excellent….

The peak of Meemure Lakegala

Note the peak of Lakegala-Meemure and the gap between both peaks.

Walking over the knife blade to reach the peak.

Peak of Lakegala-Meemure. The arrow shows the angle we climbed Lakegala-Meemure.

We are at the peak of Lakegala-Narangamuwa. Lakegala-Meemure is bit higher than this.

Eastern edge of Knuckles massif

Coming down

Getting a help from guide

Cross section of Lakegala-Taken on our way to Meemure from Narangamuwa.

Climbing Lakegala-Meemure peak
This is the classic Lakegala and kind of a difficult climbing. We stayed the previous day night at same place at Narangamuwa and started the journey early morning. The foot pathway was same I mentioned above but we went further down towards Meemure and got the turn to right hand side towards base pool. Kapila Banda Mama came to that junction and rest of the climbing we did without a guide.

View of Lakegala from Corbet’s Gap

View of Lakegala from Kosgolla (කොස්ගොල්ල) estate.

Classic appearance of Lakegala at Meemure.

View of Lakegala at Dandenikumbura (දන්දෙනිකුඹුර). Here you can again notice it’s dual peaks.

Starting the journey.

Where two foot pathways started. Black arrow shows the foot pathway bypassing Lakegala. We followed the red one.

Crossing the water stream

Climbing up

Lakegala (Left hand side) and Meeriyagolla Mountain (Right hand side)

Forest department boundary

Narrow foot pathway towards Uyangomuwa (උයන්ගොමුව) Lake side.

Filtering….

This place seemed to be the entrance from village to forest. We also followed rituals.

I can’t avoid of snaps of early morning sun rays.

Crossing another water stream.

Happy faces of the team.

Kissing the ground.

Environment was fresh….

Must be the highest point of foot pathway. We had a rest there.

Red arrow shows the direction towards Lakegala base pool and black arrow continues towards Meemure.

We started the actual climbing from Lakegala base pool sharp at 9am. According to Sri’s report  climbing has three define sections.
First one is the section of bushes up to main rock. Second part is the most difficult part of conquering main rock, which needs climbing skills as well. Last bit is another steep forest patch till you step on the narrow summit.
We crossed the water stream above the base pool and walked up towards right hand side and made our way up along the edge of the mountain. This section is moderately strenuous climbing which took about 2hours to reach base of main rock.

Rest at Lakegala base pool before start the climb. Though it is called “base pool” it doesn’t show any features of a pool.

Climbing up….. Most of the time this section has bushes.

When you go further up few large trees can be seen. Main rock was waiting for us.

The mountain right opposite to Lakegala.

Making our pathway along the edge of the mountain.

Seasonal waterfall of Lakegala following last night rain.

View of paddy fields of Meemure.

Approximate directions from Lakegala base pool.

Snapped…..

We are close to the main rock.

At base of main rock

Two members are lagging behind.

Lakegala main rock is about 100m tall and has 80-90 degree angle. There is a vertical gulley at the surface of it where you have to do initial climbing till end of the gulley. You can safely climb along this gulley and there is high possibility you are getting stucked if you slipped down as it is narrow.
At the end of the gulley an iron rod can be found where you can attach a rope. If someone come across climbing up along the gulley is difficult, can get the assistance of a rope.
After 1st iron rod second one can be seen about 20-30m above the second one. This section has 50-60 degree angle and have to walk on a rock surface to reach the second rod for roping.

Getting into the gulley is also bit diff cult. Anupama was able to walk on rock surface and get into the gulley first. Then with the assistance of the rope others could do it.

Milindu coming to the gulley

This is what I described as gulley. Though we expected the first iron rod at it’s end, it was situated further above.

Anuruddha used his climbing skills.

Anuruddha used his climbing skills.

Another hard section.

Reaching first iron rod. This is embedded to the rock. It was done by villagers 7 years ago when they have a Pirith festival on top of Lakegala.

Roping from iron rod

Milindu is trying to reach the iron rod.

Now I have attached the rope to second iron rod and others still at 1st iron rod.

Coming to second iron rod

Another difficult part was come across after 2nd iron rod. A rock part has been popped out to obstruct the climbing path. No option to overcome this other than climbing over it. Anuruddha has climbed it and with assistance of the rope others also could climb it. It ended most difficult part of climbing and latter part was creeping up through the forest patch till the summit.

The view from Lakegala-Meemure was same as what we seen from other peak. But it didn’t provide 360 degree view due to bushes covering the peak. The time we summited few rain clouds were gathering around the peak and surrounding view was not beautiful as we expected.

Had to climb over this rocky part.

Anupama (blue shirt) is coming up with assistance of rope.

Last section of climbing –forest patch

Filling water

Milindu is climbing the forest patch

Another wall. But no need to climb over it. Can go by it’s side.

On the way to summit

Might be a seasonal waterfall.

Reaching the top. Lakegala-Narangamuwa (R) and middle part (M)

This is the summit of Lakegala. Note it is full of shrubs.

Towards Mahiyangana side

The place where villagers used to have Pirith festival.

Thunhisgala is seen far away. Mist starts to spread.

Another view from Lakegala

Smiley faces after victory.

Thanks for reading. Have a safe journey