Thotupola and Diyagama nature trails – Horton Plains

Thotupola Kanda (2359 m) is the third highest peak in Sri Lanka. The trail is also known as Rawana nature trail. According to the legends, king Rawana landed his Mythical plane (Dadu monara) on the peaks of "Thotupola Kanda" which means "Landing Site" in sinhala language.

Date : 6 November 2010
Crew : 4
Transport : Public Transport (Train)
Activities : Hiking, Photography
Weather : Rainy and Misty
Route : Colombo -> Pattipola -> Thotupola -> Diyagama -> Thalawakale -> Colombo

We started our journey from Colombo Fort at 8 pm on a Friday eve. The crew was four. We booked the tickets for Badulla night mail train in advance. Even though I tried to get some sleep on the train it was really difficult for me. After eight and a half hours, the train arrived to Pattipola station around 4.30 am. We had to wait 1.5 hours till the sun rises to start our journey. So we had an early breakfast and as soon as the first shop opened we bought some food (Rotti and Lunumiris  ) as lunch and started our journey.

From Pattipola we walked towards Hortain Plains. Although it is 5km to the Pattipola entrance from Pattipola station, we decided to do it on foot. At first the weather was fine and after walking few kilometers the mist started to invade the area. Within a few minutes the whole area was in thick mist. The visibility was no more than 5-10m.

We got tickets from the entrance and kept walking until the Thotupola Kanda sign board is found. According to the board there are 2kms to the peak. We turn left from the main road and started to climb the mountain. The path was easy to find since it was cleared and maintained properly. There is no chance of getting lost if you travel using the cleared footpath. The trail is going through a cloud forest and because of the heavy mist it was like a whole different world. 

Map of the area

By 10.30 am we could reach the top of Thotupola Kanda. There were heavy winds on the top on the mountain. We couldn’t see the surrounding area because of the heavy mist. After a 10 minute break we started climbing down and suddenly it started raining.

From the Thotupola trail head we had to walk around 4-5kms to reach the Diyagama trail head under rain. Only two of the guys had rain coats and the other two including me had to use an umbrella and fight against the windy rain. 

The whole trouser got wet and I was shivering due to extreme cold. After this tough part of the hike we reached a bungalow of forest department and even though it’s closed we found some shelter in the garage. When we reach there, some fellow travelers were also taking shelter from the rain. We had our lunch there and waited till the rain eases out. But sadly it didn’t. We had no option but to start the hike again and we started the Diyagama trail at 1 pm.

After walking through some remarkable landscape we reached the border of the Diyagama estate. There we found a patch of forest and the heavy mist made it looks so beautiful. We have never seen such a place in our entire lives. When we look up the trees stood up like giants in the mist. It was still raining but we even risked our cameras to capture some pictures of this wonderful place.

Then we walked down the Diyagama estate and reached a small village. This part was also so beautiful. By now the rain was stopped. From there we took a three wheeler and reached Dayagama town. The driver said the last bus from Dayagama leaves at 5.30 pm. But we had only 35 minutes to catch it. So he gave us a roller coaster three wheel ride through the tea estates and reached Dayagama down just before the bus took off. J The bus took 1.5 hours to reach Thalawakale town. After having dinner at Thalawakale we waited till the night mail train arrives. We were lucky enough to get some seats and because of the tiredness and lack of sleep in the previous night I could sleep the whole way back to Colombo.  At 5am Sunday morning we reached Colombo Fort.

-The End-