Date - 31st January 2018
Start - Colombo
Destination - Bambarella
Target - Knuckles 5 Peaks
Team - 11
Mountain Range- Knuckles Mountain Range
Elevation - 1864 m (6115 ft)
We left Colombo at 2 in the morning. After picking up everyone, we reached Kandy by 6 AM and had our breakfast there. Because it was a Poya day most of the shops were closed. And we had to depend on short eats. We had no choice other than bringing some short eats and biscuits for our lunch too. We reached Bambarella around 8 in the morning and that's where our real journey began. It was raining even before we reached there. So we put on our raincoats and began the journey.
At the beginning we had to ascend some kinda rocky steps & that reminded me of Great Western hike where we had to ascend through concrete steps. Those were the toughest phase we had to cover in both hikes. After covering that phase we had some rest and began the journey again. We crossed some fresh & beautiful water streams. About after 1 1/2 hours, we reached Knuckles falls. It was really beautiful. From then on it was quite a ascent. However we managed to reach the 2nd peak which is the highest on at 1.15 PM. But unfortunately we couldn't see much because of the heavy mist. Rohana, Lakmal, Carl & Kithmini had gone to 4th peak when we returned from the 2nd peak at 2 PM. Those guys are quickest climbers among us. So they took advantage of that. Lucky them.
Descending was bit touch because of the wet surface. Don even had to face an accident. He was lucky as I (Tharindu.) was there. However without a greater damage we managed to come back to the place where started around 6 PM. Rohana & I had a bath there from the water stream which flows alongside Bambarella bus stop. Leeches were the biggest problem we had to face throughout the journey. Rohana Hiran & I wore leech socks. It saved our legs but some leeches managed to get through to my belly.
We left Bambarella around 7 PM and had our dinner in Kandy. It felt like having a meal after days. I came home around 1 AM and that was the end of an another epic journey.
PS - Take nothing but memories, leave nothing but footprints.
Composed by : Tharindu Jayasinghe
