Galboda Falls Exploration - 2016

Galboda Falls (ගල්බොඩ ඇල්ල) is a waterfall in Sri Lanka. It is located by Nuwara Eliya District. Galboda is along the railway track of Colombo to Badulla. The environment is cool with much rain. The Galboda Ella Fall originates from the Galboda Canal (also known as the Hanguranketha River), in the Central Province wet zone. Annual rainfall here exceeds 4500mm, 60% of the rain coming from the south -west monsoon (dry season is January to February). Watawala, the area of Sri Lanka that receives the highest amount of rainfall on the island, is nearby. Galboda Falls is 30m high but the width ranges from between 3m and 6m, depending on the season.

At certain times of year, the water also cascades in two streams. Growing in the surrounding woodland is a rare species of orchid and the vicinity is home to a wide variety of wildlife. Among them are 12 species of reptile and four are only found in Sri Lanka. The upper section of the fall is unique in its biodiversity.

Galboda Ella exploration was the 10th hike of the 2016/2017 hike season of the University Explores’ club. It was held on 17th July, 2016 with crew consisted of 72 hikers. Explorers were gathered around the Science Faculty Premises at about 7.30 a.m. Hikers actively participated to make the preparations needed for the hike. Then the President of the UEC explained the club rules and things that we should follow throughout the journey.

The journey began at about 8.45 a.m. We went to sarasavi uyana station and got the train to galboda at about 9.00 a.m. It was about one and half hour journey to galboda station. When the time around 10.30 a.m we got down from the train at galboda station.

At the galboda station the president of UEC gave some advices to the hikers and also appointed the head and the tail and asked to follow the guidelines.

We started our walk at about 11.10 a.m and had to walk along the railway. Then we took a narrow footpath. On our way we could observe colorful flowers, trees and small streams and also some small houses. Some children were playing outside of their home.

We walked about 1.5 Km and we reached to the Galboda Ella at around 11.40 a.m. When we reached to the place we could see a beautiful waterfall with milky water. Not only that there were so many butterflies. But we couldn’t capture the butterflies because of the dew.

We went inside of the waterfall. That is a special thing of this waterfall. After exploring the waterfall we had our lunch at about 1.30 p.m. As usual everyone had the lunch together. We cleaned the place without leaving any traces. Then the president made his speech and also some of our senior members explained about the waterfall. After the speech was made, according to the UEC manner each one introduced themselves and took photographs.