Expedition Namunukula

In search of the top of 9 hills:

by Mountain Rangers

Next: The Mountain Rangers are to explore another mountain range and await their list of Jungle Ethics; the not-to do list.

The Mountain Rangers contributing to the Sunday Observer are Kushan Fernando (Kush), Deepika Fernando (Deeps), Sudila Thilakarathne

(Dr.S), Nirodha Ranasinghe (NC), Thinuwan Gayantha (Thinu), Dhammika

Mahendra (Dhamz) and Amandani Ariyarathna (Ama).

They will be regularly writing to this page, about their exotic

adventures to mountains to enjoy the hill chill, or long beautiful

coast to enjoy the warm breeze, and everything in between

At 2036 Metres Namunukula is the 12th highest peak in the nation. There is a well-trodden path to the summit but as fans of off the beaten path adventures we opted for a more challenging route.

With our explorers’ hats on we began at Ury Estate which is off the A5 after Badulla and before Passara.

We travelled overnight from Colombo and reached the entrance of the estate by early morning. We walked comfortably up to the point where the motorable tea estate road became a foot path.

As the footpath wound up uphill, a strong and strange smell filled the area. After another turn we saw what caused the smell; the rotten corpse of a cow crawling with maggots! The body had clearly been half eaten by a predator and we could still see the remnants of the deadly fight between the two; loose earth, broken plants and foot steps marked by dragged feet. Two things were obvious - the area is inhabited by leopards and no humans had set foot in the upper part of the tea estate for weeks.

The path continued clinging to the side of the hill, narrower and narrower but seemingly endless. Ultimately we decided to shorten the ascent with some vertical climbing up the sheer banks and off the road. Soon dense jungle replaced the tea bushes and we were in a near virgin forest. We relied on google maps – using a star marked for the summit and tried to make our way to the marker. The distance seemed easily achievable but we had little idea about the terrain which turned out to be rough with many impassable dead ends. Ropes were necessary for the ascent and we had to fix ropes to the mountain side and hauls ourselves up.

From time to time someone would cry ‘Avalanche!’ while climbing uphill and those who are at the tail had to move aside to let the falling stones roll down the mountain.

As we steadily ran out of water and time it seemed we would fail to reach our goal. Without time to either ascend or descend during the remaining hours of light it was decided to look for a campsite instead of trying to reach the peak.

We headed for an area appeared to be a flat plain on the Google satellite view.

Upon reaching the site, we were devastated- the banks were still steep and thickly forested there was no hope of setting up a campsite there. Tired, dehydrated and confused we were in dire need of water and shelter before nightfall. A simple personal challenge to get off the beaten path had become a survival challenge.

The only water source we found was a small swamp and the risk of upset stomachs adding to our challenge didn’t seem worth it.

We were on a peak in the Namunukula range without water. Our GPS imagery was evidently unreliable so we were basically completely lost. As per survival theory we followed the trickle of the swamp in order to find a stream, the idea being that a stream will lead to a larger stream and then to a river and civilization. Fortunately, within half an hour we located a defined, but tiny, stream.

With no civilization in sight our options were to camp by the stream itself, knowing that we’d have little chance to light a fire in such a damp environment, or to keep exploring. Using the last specks of twilight we trekked on for another 15 minutes and were more than rewarded for our persistence.

We found one of the best campsites we have ever seen.

We pitched our tents, enjoyed a good night by the fire and dozed quite comfortably in our sleeping bags. Disaster had turned into a little triumph and in the morning, as we had breakfast, a friendly doggie greeted us from afar and some human voices were heard from a distance.

We were lost no longer and having bathed at the village Peella we found our way to nearest tarred road and the bus that would take us back to Badulla.

Though we were disappointed we hadn’t reached our desired destination we were happy to be safe and well and to have made it through another adventure. On close inspection of the satellite maps when we got back to Colombo we also realized we had only just missed the mountain’s highest point– so we chalked the expedition up as an all round success and busily set about planning our next mission.

Pix: Deepika Fernando, Kushan Fernando and Amandani Ariyarathna