21 April 2010

Alagalla Mountain


I climbed this mountain recently with a group of friends. Sinhalaya Travels has posted a detailed account on the excursion and so as Libertad.

Alagalla is situated right at the provincial boundaries of Central and Sambaragamuwa Provinces. In fact Kegalle and Kandy ditrict boundary goes very close to the peak of Alagalla. Anyone who travels to Kandy from Colombo by train will surely recognize this imposing mountain on to your left as you pass Ihala Kotte railway station. Ihala Kotte is situated 3 stations after Rambukkana and 2 stations before Kadugannawa.

The mountain face towards Ihala Kotte is a sheer drop as seen in the picture above, so scaling it from that side is impossible. So we had to walk right around the mountain and reach a small village called Poththepitiya. The actual climb started off from there, yet the journey up to Poththepitiya was quite interesting with some scenic views towards Kadugannawa and beyond along the path.

The peak of the mountain is about 1100m above sea level and the total climb from Ihala Kotte is about 800m. This particular mountain stands tall among relatively smaller mountains in the vicinity, as it is postioned just outside the central highlands. The result is some breathtaking scenery at the top and along the path up the mountain!

28 comments:

Loshini said...

Congrats on your successful eventful hike/trek :)

rainfield61 said...

You have another beautiful one.

George said...

Congratulations on your hike to the top of this mountain. It is a very imposing mountain and I hope you'll show us some more of your pictures from this hike.

Magerata said...

Hi, That looks very inviting and I am sure all of you had nice time together. Yes like George said, we want more "breathtaking scenery"

Vicente B said...

Your Island has everything. So nice beaches as we could see in Patanangala and beautiful mountains as we can see in your pictures of this entry.
Best Regards from Spain.

Rick (Ratty) said...

I would love to be able to stand on top of a mountain like that. The view must be terrific.

Harshi said...

That's such a great place for a hike. The view from the top is superb.

Great pics. And thanks for the link of Sinhalaya Travels too.

Kirigalpoththa said...

Loshini,
Thanks a lot :) That was a successful hike indeed!

Rainfield,
Thanks brother!

George,
Thanks. I will show up more photos soon including the ones from the top.

Magerata,
It was mad fun.
Sure! I'll upload all of them very soon. :)

Vicente B,
The change of climate, geography and vegetation within a small distance is one of the most interesting feature of Sri Lanka. Within a day you can enjoy all of these like I did a few weeks back. In the morning I was in this beach and by afternoon I was up in the mountains.

Ratty,
You will surely like this hike and the view at the top!

Harumi,
You are welcome. If you look at north westward, Alagalla is clearly visible from Hanthana as shown here.
Why not join Sinhalaya Travels for one of their hikes next time? :)

Thanks all for your comments!

Purple said...

that picture is brilliant.. hope you'll join us again for the next one :)

Kirigalpoththa said...

Libertad,
Thanks mate! I'll surely join you again :)

Anonymous said...

I won't be able to do any hiking or climbing in this life time..Things like these are not friendly for physically challenge people like me..

Beautiful place though! And congrats on your hike.

Anonymous said...

great job, more mountains to scale.

NicoleB, Egypt said...

What a breathtakingly beautiful mountainside.
I really enjoy looking at your pics from the lush green nature, sigh :)

Kirigalpoththa said...

Icy BC,
Yes, this is a bit difficult hike but there are plenty of places in this area, where you can enjoy lovely sceneries without any need of hiking.
Thanks a lot for your comments.

Ewok1993,
Thanks a lot for dropping by and for your comments!

Nicole,
This is an area full of greenery.
Thanks a lot for your comments!

Rajesh said...

Beautiful shot. Very nice place to trek.

Sankara Subramanian said...

Looks like an awesome trek! K - Can you post more picture pls? Or at least a link to the pictures!

Anonymous said...

How was the climb?
It looks pretty steep from your photo!

Kirigalpoththa said...

Rajesh,
Thanks mate!

Sankara,
Thanks :) I shall send you a link shortly.

1ondoncalling,
We went around the mountain, and started the climb from a place opposite to the precipice shown in the picture. From that end, climb was quite easy, other than the last bit, which was bit challenging.

Harshi said...

Wow.. that's such a beautiful scenery. Thanks for the link.

Um.. that'd be wonderful.. but not feasible for me at the moment. =D Thanks for the offer though. ^__^

Kirigalpoththa said...

Harumi,
You are welcome :)

Diane AZ said...

It looks like a challenging but fun hike and the views must have been spectacular.

Kirigalpoththa said...

Diane AZ,
Yes it was superb up there. I'll upload all pictures soon.
Thanks a lot for your comments.

The Puppeteer said...

I was a bit apprehensive that you might have found us... weird.
Good to know that you haven't :D

Looking forward to you joining us on the next excursion!

Awesome pictures!

Kirigalpoththa said...

Puppeteer,
Not at all. Think tis a relative thing. When weirdos meet weirdos there is nothing odd about it. Just kidding ;)
I will surely join you again..
Also will send you guys a few exciting places, which I have in mind to visit soon.
Thanks for the comments!

Knuckles Mountain Range said...

Thank you publishing about Alagalla Range. We camped in Alagalla as scout boys. That was my first adventure. Alagalla is close to my village and school - Menikdiwella central.
Ravi
www.srilankatrekking.com

Kirigalpoththa said...

Hi Ravi,
Glad to know that. So your home village must be close to Poththepitiya.
I missed a chance of climbing Alagalla when I was a scout long time back. Our troop climbed Alagalla in 1990's, but I could not make it as I had some other event. Glad I could do it a few weeks back.

sbarrkum said...

Really cool place, specially the height and the caves.
Need to pay more attention to your posts, which I have not been doing too much since I have been back in SL.

Kirigalpoththa said...

Sbarrkum,
You are in SL now. Great to hear that. Also would like to see your blog getting updated more often :)

Alagalla is a great place to explore. If you get time you must go n see it.