Waterfall Hunting

One thing I love to do is hiking. I don’t do enough of it in England, but I try to make a point of going on a hiking trip when I’m in another country. We have a team member who organizes hiking trips as a hobby; he has his own Facebook page and lots of hiking enthusiasts (or adventure seekers, as the page is called) join their events. I went on a hiking trip with them to Galboda Falls, which is located in the Hill Country in Nuwara Eliya. The adventure starts in the early hours of the morning to get ahead of the traffic, so we left Fort Railway Station in Colombo at 5:00am by coach. We drove through Kandy and into the Hill Country, which is so green and lush. The road is windy up to the base from where we begin our hike.

Everywhere you look there’s tea growing in perfect formations like art. It’s so green, so peaceful and so vast. I took so many pictures, but it’s fair to say that no picture I took was worth taking because you just have to see this place for yourself. There were small villages where women and children watched us pass through amongst their goats, chickens and ducks that were wandering about. As we hike higher into the hills, the faint sound of a train chugging through the hills can be heard. We pass some railway tracks and no sooner a passenger train comes chugging past us. There’s no barriers to keep anyone away from the tracks and the thrill of the proximity, noise and speed is incredible.

 

Around midday we finally reach the foot of the waterfall. There’s a man taking ‘entrance fees’ for those who want to pass further up to the falls. He doesn’t look official and there’s no signs, but it seems legitimate. He spots me out of the crowd I’m with and tries to charge us extra because I’m a foreigner (I don’t blend in as much as I thought I might), but they somehow convince him and we continue. The remainder of the journey to the falls is through winding narrow paths covered intertwining trees and branches. We cross a rickety bridge from where we get our first glimpse of the waterfalls. It’s been raining recently, so it’s gushing more than normal and the water levels have risen.

It’s a spectacularly breathtaking view. No sooner that we got there, the rain came pouring down. A kind reminder that it’s monsoon season here. The rain continues as we trek back down to where we started from. I didn’t swim in the waterfall, but I’m still soaked from the rain. As we passed back through the villages, we’re offered some shelter from the rain so that we can eat some lunch. They are so hospitable, bringing out a plastic table and chairs for us to sit on their porch. I’m in awe of their humble abode, which is one room where they all live. I marvel at the thought that one of the ladies, who is pregnant, will probably have her baby in the same room. It’s so easy to take our modern lives for granted, but I find myself being reminded of that everywhere I go. We pile back into the van and head home. The journey feels longer than before, but we finally make it back to Colombo around 9:00pm. I highly recommend going on a hiking trip in Sri Lanka. Such a great experience to explore this beautiful country and all that nature has to offer. Already looking forward to my next hiking adventure!