A steep encounter: Uragala

 Uragala is a very interesting and somewhat challenging climb. It is a range in the famous Hanthana mountain range and this was our first time going there now that the usual Hanthana route seemed somewhat familiar. The climb is really nice and I can say this because we couldn't even get to the top. Rain stopped us and made us choose the peak or our lives, and we as rational individuals chose the peak and then thought to give our lives another chance. Enjoy!

We started off in two cars and went to Sarasavigama. After stopping at the Royal mall to... eat, we were off on our way again with Google maps helping us get to Sarasavigama. We then asked the directions to go to Katusu konda (which is also a range in Hanthana). We ended up in a questionable dirt road and made our way up and ended up at a hindu temple as we were told we would. We were advised to leave the cars there because apparently to ride further up we'd need a jeep. However the path after turned out to not be so challenging for a car after all. Theres a really nice hotel along the way. Further up the road theres a very noticeable tree in the distance with a rock path leading upto it. Following it upwards we ended up in an area with a couple houses. After asking them for the path to Uragala, we continued up the path through a sea of Mana and perched on a for a while and took our precautions against leeches and went on our way after an impatient photo.

(My first time taking a picture with a GoPro, what can i say i screwed it up)

We continued on our way till we met a barbed wire fence where Nadithi tripped over and had a puncture in her skin. After our expert medical team attended to her with the limited supplies we were carrying (basically only bandages), she got up and said let's go so we went. We followed the path which a piece of white cloth on a tree indicated and sort of found our way up the mountain. After a while there was one huge rock climb which we didn't have to climb because we found a trail through the forest on the side of the rock, which seemed safer than slipping on a wet rock. Right after that we were met with a 70 degree rock climb we were warned about.

It looks flat on this angle but it's very very steep. Like you can't even see the bottom of it here. We were strongly advised to not climb it if it was raining because you could possibly slip and find yourself back at the car. It wasn't raining at the time so our determined hikers climbed it and safely made it all the way up. It was an exciting climb. We went up further and realised we had at least another 15 minute climb to the peak, and just then it started raining slow. We weren't sure about what to do but was pretty sure going down a 70 degree wet rock wouldn't end very well. So we waited to see if the rain would deepen and unfortunately it did so we made the call to climb down before the rock got even more slippery. But not before a life or death photo to commemorate the moment.

We went down to the first huge rock we encountered and began eating our food. It was pretty early because we started climbing around 9. It wasn't even 12 at the time so we decided to hang out up there, eating and enjoying the view. It stopped raining, and just when we thought we'd climb it again, the rain started came back. Unfortunate indeed. The weather is really unpredictable up there. Me and Inki fought over snacks and ended up spilling the holy grail of snacks, Mr. Pop which one in our group was particular was deeply saddened by. It was TOTALLY her fault though. Clearly. We hung out there for a couple hours probably but finally went down, taking our photos along the way and decided to go out to eat.