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Passing Kandy - Digana highway to Hunnasgiriya via the new Theldeniya and ‘Meda Mahanuwara’ towns, found mystique and frequently un- trodden paths that take you to the heavens of lush greenery and serene beauty of nature. On a recent Sunday with Mr. Priyantha Jayarathna an experienced traveller of greenery, we rode off in search of a waterfall in Hunnasgiriya area tipped off to have not been visited by many a traveller. We started around ten o'clock in the morning from Digana town and rode along the Theldeniya – Mahiyangana A26 highway.
Along this highway, there is much to see and taste. As the forest reserve on to the right, along the catchments of the Victoria reservoir starts, one can even stop at a wayside stall-shop to the mouth watering acidulate honey - mango that could be tasted with a crystal of salt. The salesman soon becomes friendly with you and starts inquiring where you are from and if the mangoes are really sweet. This middle aged salesman at the wooden stall-shop where we stopped, told that his shop was actually run by his wife in his absence during the week as he was employed. He said that he came to the shop only in the week-end to ease his wife's work. He even makes a cup of tea to quench the thirst of the visitor to his little stall-shop. 'Kola Kaenda' or 'Pol Rottee' is also available on request.
Along the highway one meets two bridges that cross beautiful ‘Hulu Ganga’ and ‘Gal Mal Oya’. Of the upper end of the ‘Gal Mal Oya’ bridge there is a foot path down to the waters of Gal Mal Oya where authorities have warned in print not to step into this strange waters as it is extremely dangerous as of the series of drowning incidents that have been reported over the years. The notice is in Sinhalese and it says, “ You might be the 20th! Nineteen persons have died, drowned while bathing in this place. Are you the twentieth? Think for a while.”
After further riding and passing Meda Mahanuwara along the A26 highway, up to the 36km post at the Hunnasgiriya down town area, a bi-road starts to the left, gliding down to Rambukpotha and which is the gateway to many beautiful waterfalls in the area. This bumpy, sandy and broken track to Rambukpotha, from the beginning, would always put the off road enthusiasts at their fullest comfort! Besides Riding or driving, even a walk along the patched path is of course a hard ‘duty.’ It is slippery for anything rolling over the metal and gravel all over the track at many a place. A rider or a driver has to ‘explore’ it with the fullest concentration and with a lot of care. Unless you stop here and there during the drive, the risk of driving along this road would not allow you to enjoy the distant lush greenery or the natural beauty at hand.
On both sides of the track, the village appears to be tranquil and peaceful. On to the right are terraced paddy fields that are often seen in the same format due to the geographical array in the area. Recent heavy rains to the central hills have made a number of waterfalls active on to the right of the highway closer to Hunnasgiriya area and also beside Rambukpota bi-road, where the distant calls of heavy waterfalls could be heard. Sometimes a little brook crossed the bumpy and sandy track and stepping on it with bear foot is of course the coolest comfort available on the way. The brooks might have born from a distant waterfall and running to nourish another, crossing someone else's border. Farmers who have ploughed the terraced paddy fields have been immensely benefited from this free flow of water as they cut the ‘water's edge’ to detour through the paddy fields. After a ride of about two kilometres and just before an iron railed culvert, a narrow foot path opens way through the green, to a much wider brook known as the ‘Bambaragaha Aela’ (Bambaragaha Brook). Since the beginning, it seems a frequently un-trodden path. Stepping on ‘stone to stone’ we climbed up the brook waiting for an interval half way to quench our thirst. Water rushing down from the waterfall along the brook with a mighty strength carried a lot of pressure. A mouth-full of water that we consumed was much heavier than water we consumed at home. Creeping through the fallen trees across the brook, over the broken branches of trees that had stopped halfway on their ‘unconscious’ way down the waters and smoothly cheating all the obstacles that stood before us blocking our way up to our destination, we reached the foot of the waterfall after climbing up the brook for about half an hour from where we entered it.
As thousands and thousands of droplets of water as of the pace at which it hit the rocks below welcomed us, at our arrival to this gorgeous splashing beauty of more than 225 feet high we heard no sound except for the echo of the water splattering on the rocks and flowing on the pool that lie beneath. No deeper than few feet, the pool beneath, naturally made on a plateau of stones makes a perfect natural rock bath tub to swim several metres around. Up above this pool once again, water splashing down in pure white form, like the long veil of a bride is sure to catch anyone’s breath since the very first glimpse of it.
As we climbed down safely back along the same route after two hours of stay at the waterfall, and at closer proximity to where we entered the brook, we met Mr. Premarathne a former school master and a villager of the area who revealed that there stood no exclusive name for this waterfall that we had just visited and that it was a terraced branch of ‘Bambaragaha Ella’ (waterfall named ‘Bambaragaha Ella’) that started further above.
On the way back, for the tired and hungry traveller, there exists a better place at the 35th km post along the A26 highway down to Kandy. This ‘Rottee Kade’ ( ‘Rotee’ shop) there, is the best place for a snack with hot ‘Poll Rottee’ with ‘ dynamite’; a thick chilli paste made of ground green chillies, pepper and other spices. The snack is followed by a cup of hot ‘Kahata’ (plain tea without sugar) with a piece of ‘Kithul Hakuru’ (jaggery). You should remember to take only the least amount of ‘Dynamite’ to taste the ‘Pol Rottee’ here, as this chilli paste is extremely hot for the alien taste buds. This so called wayside shop has been here since years for its tasty local snacks and meals and anyone visits it for the first time would never forget to visit it again for a snack along this way the next time.
At a time tourism should be made a strategic action to boost and assist the economic development of the country, no policy maker or decision maker in this field should forget the fact to promote such strategic locations like Hunnasgiriya to explore and expedite along its un-trodden paths to identify them as vast resource areas and as major receiving areas in the country. At the same time, infrastructure such as roads and electricity should be immediately developed in these areas as it is imperative if we are to pursue tourism in this country in the future. A proper road system should be developed keeping the time factor in mind as all foreign tourists and travellers are not full-time off-road enthusiasts. On the other hand there exists hardly any point in constructing better hotels in distant areas of the country if it takes long to get there. Preserving the environment and localities in the rural areas and places such as above, will immensely benefit not only for the development of tourism and travel trade but also to elevate the living standards of the local communities, alleviating the hardships of poverty that they go through. If these issues could be properly and duly addressed while maintaining the service standards, it will surely fulfil and offer the dire needs for a safety net to rescue the industry of tourism and travel trade in Sri Lanka.