Where the trail ends…

To believe in a world’s end, one must believe in the flat earth theory. One must believe that there is an edge somewhere that mark the end of the world as we know. And it must be magnificent.

I started my journey from Meegahakiula, a small town half an hour away from Badulla. The first few kilometers off the Badulla-Mahiyanganaya main road weren’t much but the village. But I was convinced that higher I get from the sea level, more transcendence the view will be, so I kept climbing the road towards Pitamaruwa.

There’s no such a thing as riding safe to avoid accidents. Of course you can take all the safety precautions and follow safety procedures but there’s always a chance for the unexpected to happen. And that happened to me when I took a hairpin turn on the steep road. The front tire caught with a stray rock appeared from nowhere and I fall down!

Meeting with an accident is one thing, but meeting with an accident in a nowhere terrain is whole another thing. Especially when you are riding a 0.2ton motorbike and capsize, being the only human being around is not fun. I knew that I had to take care of it by my own so I tried to lift the bike from the difficult angle by pushing my back against it.

“Machan what happened?”

At that time a guy appeared again out of nowhere and helped me to lift the bike up. He is also traveling from Meegahakiula to Pitamaruwa, his village and saw me falling down. So he came to the aid. Both the bike and the rider were alright so it was no harm having a small chat with the guy who came to my help. “I’m Tissa. I’m a teacher and also a member of Meegahakiula Pradeshiya Sabha.”

He introduced himself after I told him about myself. And he, being a kind soul offered the company to the mini world’s end in the evening. So we started to climb again.

The climb is hard even though it’s a concrete road but the view is breathtaking. If there’s a road to the heaven it must be like that, I was thinking. And gradually we entered to a forest of tall trees. Now that must be the place where you realize the glory of Mother Nature while you are on the way to heaven. The straight tall trees and the azure blue sky seeping through the tall heads of the trees makes you feel how small creature you are under the empyrean. And we came to Roberiya. 

“Machan there’s a short cut from Pitamaruwa to Mini world’s end which let us cut down few kilometers. The road is harsh and challenging but you might enjoy it. What do you say?”

“Let’s go and see how much of the challenge the road could possible pose” I wouldn’t back down on a good challenge.

And when I saw the road, I realized that that wasn’t a challenge but more like an intimidation! It was a sharp steep made of heavy loose rocks and slack stones. If one step goes wrong, you will fly down the brae. But I accepted the challenge. After a great hardship and a fearful journey, we managed to reach to the top of the road and bypass few kilometers. From there, the road was relevantly easy and picturesque. And we finally reached the byroad that leads to the mini world’s end. 

“An abyss of 1250 feet and a panoramic view of Uva extending to the Eastern province…” I read out loud a notice stone.

“From here we have to go by foot, the world’s end is just up ahead.” Tissa must have had come here countless times I could say.

It wasn’t a hard climb to the world’s end and it doesn’t seem much even from few feet away. But when you realize that you are just few inches away from a defile that leads to a fall more than thousands of feet, you realize the meaning of that name. When you see the giant trees in the bottom of the basin as miniature figures, your head start to spin yet you can’t stop the desire to lean towards the abyss and take a peek.

We climbed further and reached to the end of the trail. From this point I could see the whole province stretched to the giant tanks in Mahiyanganaya and to the borders of Eastern province. This would be a perfect place for a night camp!

“The mini world’s end belongs to the Pitamaruwa Gramasewa division. This is Dorapodha Mountain. People come here to see this beautiful scenery often but it’s still not a tourist attraction. We have a Praja Mandala here. I’m an advisor. When the villagers create the village development plan, they included the proposal of developing this site as a tourist attraction among other proposals.” Tissa talked about the dreams of the village that will come true if all goes well.

“If this proposal came through, the village also will be developed and new livelihoods will be generated. After the proposal came to the Pradeshiya Sabha from the Praja Mandala, me and the chairman visit here as an evaluation trip and we realized that providing necessary facilities for the tourists. Still this site is pristine and we try to keep it that way while promoting it as a tourist attraction. This would be an echo friendly project. We don’t want to create concrete buildings here but make necessary facilities without disturbing the natural beauty”

“When English invaders came to Wellassa, people had to move further into the mountains covered with thick forests. And after some time Brits cut down the forest and started plantations.” Tissa explained the history a bit as well.

“The main livelihood here is agriculture. People grow tea in their backyards, yams in their gardens and Kithul products including treacle, jaggery and toddy also have a good market. If this Praja Mandala proposal comes true, those products will reach to a wider market. We have hopes” I could see the fresh hopes for his village in the gentle smile painted across his face.

The night is slowly coming down. It is time to go back. I was looking at the stretching vista from Wellassa to Mahiyanganaya while the cold breeze touches my face. The village development plan Tissa explained to me is a brave idea and it seems the Praja Mandala gave them a chance to pitch the idea before some tourist companies does. I hoped to see new developments when I come here next. Next time Tissa and I will be able to talk about it on the rocky plain of the mini world’s end while sipping the finest quality fresh Kithul toddy…