December Hike Day 1: Pattipola Railway Summit

Railway Summit @ Pattipola. The two signs are on the right. Credits: Lahiru Piumwardena

Heiyo! Right now I'm on a train, heading home after yet another trip - this December is full of trips. So by the time I get home, this post will be up and ready to be read; welcome to my first, full-fledged, camping+hike trip!

We started off by taking the Super Line Luxury bus from Pettah to Bandarawela at 10.00PM. The ticket is LKR 900 per person and the seats are like heaven. They were so comfy that we missed our stop and ended up in Badulla! 

Pettah to Badulla via Google Maps

Nine Arches Bridge in the mist

Not to worry though because that way, we managed to catch the 5.20AM train from Badulla to Pattipola. We were gonna catch the train from Bandarawela anyway but this way, we got on from the station it starts from so we all got seats :)

The view on the way is breathtaking, I am a literature major and I have no words to describe it. Follow my instagram here and these other accounts here and here to get an idea... it was truly amazing and I'm gonna try to do justice to it here with the few pics I have.

We had breakfast at Happy Cafe within spitting distance of the Pattipola railway station. Mind you, everything is within spitting distance there; it is one tiny community. The local food there, like rotti, hoppers etc. are good; the sandwiches are terrible and terribly overpriced too. We bought 2 packets of sandwiches (chicken and cheese) and 3 rottis with accompanying curries and it cost us LKR 620 for 4 people.

Our plan was to do the railway summit hike which is to walk along the railway line towards Ohiya station till we came to the highest point in the Sri Lankan railway. Again, the view was spectacular and it took us about 1 and a half hours of slow trekking. Unfortunately, the beauty was spoiled by a ton of trash - people had thrown plastic cups, gum wrappers, shopping bags and all kinds of rubbish on either side of the tracks as they passed on the train.

Summit!

After plenty of stops for pictures and selfies - never mistake the two - we came to the summit. Interestingly it is located on a bend and there were two signs on either side of the bend declaring the summit. 

We also went through one of the longest tunnels in Sri Lanka. We waited for a train to pass and then walked into the creepy, cold and dark tunnel. I do not wanna try that again.

Long ass tunnel #creepy

Our camp :) Yes, that's the garbage :P

We got back to Pattipola in time for a late lunch. We were coordinating with Amila aiya*, a very nice gentleman who provides camping gear and off-road vehicles to aspiring explorers and nut jobs like us. He gave us lunch in his own home and then packed us off to our camp site, barely 2km down the road towards the Horton Plains reservation from Pattipola station.

Then ensued a hilarious 4 hours of clearing the campsite, setting up a torn (yes, TORN) tent, building a fire, keeping it going and basically, making the campsite habitable. I have a very bad opinion of humans after seeing the kind of garbage they threw away: diapers, underwear, tissues, shopping bags, glass bottles, plastic bottles and more. We had to scatter ash all around the tent to make sure roaches didn't crawl in, thanks to all the rubbish people'd left behind.

I'm minimizing the suffering, but it was an extremely windy day and the fire was not easy to build. Nor was it easy to cook on the small camp stove we had. But once we did... YUM! Never have instant noodles and sausages tasted so good.

*slurp nom nom

We slept late and tossed the whole night thanks to the moaning of the wind around the trees that surrounded us. More to come next week so stay tuned everyone!

(Approx.) Time Spent: 1 day
(Approx.) Total Cost  : LKR 7000 (for 4 people. We also took LKR 5000 worth of stuff for camping, hiking etc.)
Satisfaction                 : 3/5

*Please contact me via instagram or twitter for his contact details if necessary

**All pictures are subject to copyright © Asuka Randeniye 2016