Kalupahana to Pambahinna – Hiking Wangedigala, WangediKanda, Balathuduwa & AdaraKanda

Year and Month	23rd & 24th June 2018
Number of Days	Two
Crew	8 (Aged 26 to 36)
Accommodation	Camping
Transport	Public transport (Train/Bus)
Activities	Hiking, Photography, Jungle trekking, Sight seeing,Camping
Weather	Sunny mornings and Gloomy evenings
Route	Peradeniya -> Haputhale -> Kalupahana Junction -> Wangedigala -> Balathuduwa -> Adrarakanda -> Pambahinna -> Haputale -> Peradeniya
Tips, Notes and Special remark	Carry adequate amount of water (No water source after Wangedigala) Do not carry Plastic items (Minimize), Make sure you bring back everything you took. Check weather conditions in advance. Ask directions from locals. Take a GPS device or Load GPS trails in your phones. Some parts of the trail are not much clear. Minimize backpack weight. Wear clothes which cover your body Do not camp on peaks.

This is one of my long waited hike. People hike the all these peaks as separate hikes. I thought of doing it differently. I wanted to do the peaks of kalupahana area and Adarakanda range as one hike. As usual another 7 members of my team also joined for this hike. initially we prepared with a proper plan with time schedules and travel plan.

In this hike we covered following;

Wangedigala
WangediKanda
Balathuduwa and
All peaks of Adarakanda

On 22nd We got in to the Colombo-Badulla Night mail train from Peradeniya at 11:30 PM. Train was crowded and we were able to get some seats only after Nawalapitiya. The train reached Haputale by 5:45 am on 23rd. We had our breakfast at a hotel in Haputale. After the breakfast we took the bus to kalupahana. it is around 18 Km from haputale to Kalupahana. the bus took 30 minutes to Kalupahana. We filled our water bottles at a spring by roadside and started the hike around 7:30 am. Its around 2.3 km from Main road to Wangedigala. There is a view point at km where we can clearly have a views of Bambarakanda area.

After spending some quality time with resting we progressed for our next destinations. We met a group at wangedigala and they told us we can fillup water at the water source available close to the campsite. we filled our water bottles and bags with enough water and resumed the journey.

Wangedigala is a suitable camping location if you are hiking in this mountain range. There are adequate camping sites available in wangedigala and Wangedikanda. We also saw a camping site on our way to Balathuduwa. But no water source at this site.

team	View of Balathuduwa

.	Another group is at wangedikanda

We reached Balathuduwa at 3:30 pm. Everyone in the team were so tired and wanted to take a rest. so we placed our tents just below the peak ( 200 meteres) of Balathuduwa and preapred the lunch and dinner. Camping in the peaks is not recommended due to hight windy conditions.

After having lunch everyone wanted to take a rest. so we had some rest with nice coffee in the late evening. therefore we postponed the Balathuduwa peak hike to the following day. We packed ourselves in to the tents by 7 pm.

.	Balathuduwa

Path to Adarakanda starts from balathuduwa. Refer the map. The first 1.5 km path is clear. the final part is little confusing and it is difficult to find the descinding path to Adarakanda. it took us 1 hour for final 300 meters even with the GPS device. If anyone wants to try this path, it is a must to carry a GPS. We started at 8:15 am and reached the Adarakanda at 10:15 am.

.	Top most point of Adara kanda

.	4th and 3 rd peaks

After 2 hours of descending in the Adarakanda range we reached the first peak. this is the place where most of the people used to camp. Water source is available within 100 meters. We took a small rest and filled our bottles and got refreshed.

Around 1:45 pm we were able to reach the main road at Pambahinna. We took the bus to haputale and reached Haputale by 2:45 pm. We made a reservation for the the train ticket in Ella-Kandy AC train.We bought lunch packs from Haputale and got in to the train came at 3:15 pm. The train has all required facilities and less crowded.