Remember way back when, before all anyone talked about is getting the Covid-19 vaccine, there was a time when all anyone talked about was their trip to Ella.
Quite a while before the pandemic, there was a time when Ella was the hot travel location. Everyone wanted to go and whoever went, did the same four things: Took a picture with the Nine Arches Bridge, hiked up Ella Rock, ziplined the Flying Ravana stretch, and drove past Ravana Falls. To be fair, there were quite a few who, feeling a little adventurous and with a bit more time on their hands chose to visit Diyaluma Falls, but otherwise, it was an endless stream of Ella-related social media content that looked identical.
We also did the same exact stuff. However, we chose to make a second visit because what we didn’t realise the first time was that Ella is bursting with waterfalls and if you are interested in going waterfall hunting – easy-to-find waterfalls in and about an area – then Ella is the perfect spot.
If you can dedicate two days to visiting Ella, then it’s definitely worth checking some of these waterfalls out. In our attempt to cover as many waterfalls in one go as possible, we devised a plan. You have to start very early in the day, preferably start your morning in Ella. We spent the night at an inn right on the Wellawaya-Ella-Kumbalwela main road; there’s plenty to choose from along this stretch, and we began our journey bright and early, setting off to the closest waterbody to us, which is sort of cheating to include it here on the waterfall list – but we visited the Nildiya Pokuna first.
Situated on the Rakkitha Kanda Road, the spot is a heritage preservation and to our claustrophobic selves the place was slightly traumatising considering that you have to crawl into a cave to reach the water and really, it is one of two things – absolutely horrifying or magical; there’s no in-between and we set off without even dipping our toes.
Right next to Nildiya Pokuna however, are two famous waterfalls – big tourist attractions as they are smaller and easy to access off the main road – Secret Waterfall and the Pallewela Ella, both in the Karandagolla area. Of course, feeling exhausted after hiking to two separate waterfalls, even if they were relatively easy to access, as it was a lot of walking, we took an evening break at around 5 p.m. and headed towards Ella Town where we visited the famously ignored Ravana Falls which was about a 15-minute drive from Karandagolla.
Once you get to Ravana Falls, you can choose to either visit Ravana’s Cave which was crawling with tourists at the time or visit the lesser-known Kitalella Waterfall, which is a 30-minute drive from the falls. Of course, we chose to visit the waterfall. We were hunting waterfalls after all. We then decided that that was it for the day and settled in Ella Town for the night.
The next day was a lot less eventful as we made the less than prudent decision to drive for about one-and-a-half hours up to Dunhinda Falls. It was not smart considering the time-consuming drive but we were first timers at Dunhinda and anyone who has visited the waterfall will tell you, it is one of the most beautiful ones in Sri Lanka. It’s so pretty, especially because unlike the others, the water does not pour or trickle – it sort of cascades and it’s even known as the bridal fall, due to the shape of the water falling being similar to a bride’s veil.
After travelling for so long to Dunhinda, we called it a day and decided to make our way back to Colombo, taking the long route through Kandy. Surely if we had researched a little more thoroughly, there must have been a lot more waterfalls we missed along the way. Sri Lanka being called a paradise is not to be taken lightly; if you really wish to experience something magical, similar to the dreamlike vistas you see on television and travel programmes, you need only pick up a map and do some digging.