The art of riding down a brae!

If you have rode on a rugged mountain road which stretch around one mountain to another with hairpin curves and edges and braes, you know how a flying down a fall go through the rider’s mind. It’s not a happy thought but not exactly a nightmare either. What would really happen if you slip in one of those sharp curves and run out of the road towards a fall? Well, if you continue with the same high speed you were riding, you’d be able to experience the flying sensation but in real world you’d try your best to apply brakes and avoid the fall but you will go down the scarp nonetheless and it will be ugly. But hey, that’s highly unlikely so let’s not spoil the mood with negative thoughts!

Gawela is a collection of beautiful rural village situated in a basin surrounded by Uva Mountains. Located southwest of Weragama and Alakkangama and northwest of Tembekumburagama, Gawela reside between 800m and 900m from the sea level. There are 2285 people in Gawela division and the Ettampitiya plantation first stage also belongs to the division. Dairy farming is the main livelihood of the people along with the vegetable farming. Also many people tend tea crops in their private lands in a much smaller scale.

I’m riding towards Gawela for two reasons. First reason was the natural desire of any traveler to visit to a beautiful village. The second reason was to know more about the Praja Mandala Project I learned before from my trip to Ettampitiya. My friend gave me a contact and was kind enough to facilitate a meeting so I can get more information on this.

Road to Gawela is again a trip through mountain roads and rugged terrain. It was always a pleasure to look at the mountain range stretched to the vista. The scenery was changed from tea to rubber and many other tall trees, and the terrain was covered with forests.

Climbing on a mountain road is relatively much easier than descending.  And since descending towards the bottom of the mountain can be prone for losing control than ascends, a rider has to rely on his breaks. And you cannot just apply break when you gain extra speed either. You have to keep the right hand and the right foot on breaks all the time, gently squeezing them, always applying break to counter the speed of descending systematically. And it will become a second nature of the rider.

Mrs. Mullegama’s house was situated in a nice patch of land covered in trees. The muddy road towards her house was one of the steepest roads I’ve ever seen but the art of descending a cant got me there. It was nice to see a house surrounded by this much of green and flowers. It was equally nice to see a leader of a community who welcomed me warmly.

Mrs. Mullegama is the president of Gawala Praja Mandala and the secretory of Gawala Praja Sansadaya. There are several community societies in the area but Praja Mandala is the one that umbrellas everything. They have finished concreting a road recently, which was a project passed through the Praja Mandala. Also there are proposals to repair a village building, develop roads and solve the water problem and provide houses and lavatory facilities for needed. Also Mrs. Mullegama claimed that she is trying to start a Batik center with a ten day workshop so people will have another choice of self-employment with access to a niche market through Uva local government body. According to her, the grant is already passed for 20 people to provide the necessary industrial knowledge and material for starting a Batik center.

She says that more than two hundred and seventy people came for the Praja Mandala but many more skeptics are in the sidetrack. Nevertheless she hopes that the work they are doing through the Praja Mandala would certainly make an impact and many more would join in future. And she wants to let more people access the loan schemes of ‘Gama Naguma’ project with lesser interest rates which also operate under the purview of their Praja Mandala. 

Meeting her was certainly helpful for me to get a better understanding of the Praja Mandala project and I realized the yet to tap potential of the concept for the villages as well. I pledged my farewells to my hosts and started climbing again through the village. The new concrete road was certainly an ease and when I reach the end of the concrete road I realized how important the infrastructure such as roads in this region. Some of those mountain roads were used as shortcuts by the villagers but the condition of those roads are poor and dangerous. Better roads would provide their products an easier access to the market, so I thought while riding back to Ettampitiya.