1, 2, 3: Easy Mountains for Starters

Inguru Plaintea
Aug 24, 2017 · 3 min read

If you’re new to hiking, these are the most rewarding places to begin.

If you’re new to the backpacking scene but have that insatiable wanderlust in you, Lankan mountains are as stunning as any other mountain to satisfy your hungry soul; give or take a few snakes, leeches and whatnot. Those minor concerns aside (kidding, please be careful of snakes), it’s not really hard to conquer some of them. Being an easy climb doesn’t automatically mean that the view won’t be worth it: so don’t worry about that. All of these takes around an hour to hike. That’s not too long, really.

Here are a few we’d recommend. Go forth and p̶r̶o̶s̶p̶e̶r̶ conquer!

Hantane

Consisting mostly of stairs and then a little walk through tall grass, this has one of the best views we know of. Getting to a high vantage point almost anywhere on the Hantane range means that you have miles upon miles of wild grass sweeping around you, in a hundred different shades vacillating between sun-kissed golds and mature greens.

This is about a 20 minute drive from Kandy, and an hour’s uphill walk.

Single Tree Hill

Ask around for mountains in Nuwaraeliya, and your options are either Piduruthalagala or Single Tree Hill. The former is Lanka’s highest, whilst the latter is the 7th highest — and much more easily accessible to boot. What makes this easy enough for a toddler is that there’s a proper road leading all the way to the summit, plus that it’s set under a perfectly manicured tea plantation so you’re basically just walking through a nice tea plantation. If this is too mild, you can always skip the road and cut across the plantations through the underbush and make a bee-line towards the summit; from where you can pretty much see the whole of the N’eliya town spread out before you.

Little Adam’s Peak

A must-see when you’re in Ella, Little Adam’s ends in a small plateau. Personally, I prefer skipping over to one of the secondary peaks leading off the main one because it has fewer tourists and better views; but that involves a lot of scratched skin and an equal amount of slips and falls. Sunrise from up here is a sight to behold, especially if you’re lucky enough to have a clouds and mist roll out below you.


There are the easiest climbs we could think of. Let us know what your favourites are. If you’re looking for something a bit (or LOT) more challenging, have no fear. Our mountain-guides are working on them as we speak. (Not really, but we’ll have a blog on it out soonish).

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Inguru Plaintea

Written by

Small budgets, big adventures — travel stories from Sri Lanka. inguruplaintea@gmail.com for information, features and collaborations.

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