Visiting Knuckles Mountain range

Today we head into the Knuckles Mountain range to try go for a few days of trekking. We are told we should be able to find some cheap a accommodation and a guide when we get there, so we head off on an early morning bus towards a village in the mountains called Illukkumbura. We local bus trip is long but beautiful (about 2 1/2hrs for 44km). We drive past tea plantations, rice paddy fields, small villages and get some beautiful views of the knuckles mountain range. The bus takes a narrow road and actually drives at a speed which is unlike other Sri Lankan buses which are trying to quality for pole position at the Grand Prix. We do however play the game of 'how many people can you fit on a bus', which is quite amazing to see and make us thankful we have a seat! We reach Illukkumbura and try find accommodation which we found wasn't cheap and then we were told that there were only Sinhalese speaking guides, so instead of trekking we have a picnic lunch by the river, Lila and Jean have a splash and a swim and we decide to take the bus back to Matale in the evening.Read more