The Trails of Indiana Jones – Hiking in Hanthana

The Hanthana Mountain Range lies in the central part of the island, south-west of the city of Kandy, and consists of seven mountainous peaks. The drive is about four to five hours  from Colombo but there’s plenty to see even as you come into the range of the upcountry. Hanthana was declared an environmentally protected area in February of 2010, under the National Environmental Act, so it has remained a serene and picturesque little town surrounded by spectacular environment.

Picturesque views in Hanthana

In 1984, the Steven Spielberg 1984 blockbuster ‘Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom’ was actually filmed in Hanthana, Sri Lanka! Although the film was set in India, the filmmakers were denied permission to film in North India and Amber Fort due to the government finding the script extremely offensive to the Hindu religion (I personally would not recommend the movie). After production the film set was destroyed with only the natural ‘village rock’ being left behind.

Harrison Ford and Kate Kapshaw with local Sri Lankan actors in front of the village rock in the “Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom” movie

Slowly the plants that had been cleared grew back and the environment returned to normalcy, leaving the movie set to be forgotten. It was only recently when one of our friends, a hiking enthusiast, set out to find the movie set that a path to it was rediscovered. Once we heard about this we were determined to go on this hike, therefore, when Jetwing travels advertised it we quickly signed up. There were approximately 10 available spots for the trip so we were able to fill up 7 of them with four other people signing up too.

Views from the camp site

DAY 1

The hike and camping expedition was organised by Jetwing Travels with transportation, food, lodging, and excursions all sorted, so really all we had to do was sign up and be there early Saturday morning to head to our destination. We arrived at Dome Hanthana, our recreation and adventure camp home for the next 24 hours. Our group was greeted by Suranjith Wewita who runs the camp with a team of passionate and dedicated staff with intimate knowledge of the surrounding flora and fauna.

Settling down at the camp site before we leave

Since we’d already stopped for breakfast along the way, we only took a few minutes to stretch our legs and prepare for our the Sherwood Forest hike, just above and beyond the campground. The peak of the forestry offers a lovely view of what is perhaps knows as the world’s purest white quartz pit.

Quartz Pit

We walked through what looked like a “ghost town” due to the series of unfinished and uninhabited houses. Our guides explained that the government had relocated flood victims to this area with no means of livelihood, causing people to quickly leave before even completing construction.  Just past this “ghost town”, the majority of the trek runs through a pine forest that has overgrown grass and other bushy and sharp leaves.

Pine Tree Forest

In a matter of minutes of walking through the path, we all had multiple scratches all along the exposed parts of our legs and arms. Due to the natural forest fires, there was also a significant amount of ash covering path in some sections making it very dry, dusty, and dirty. After reaching the viewpoint, we hiked back the same way that we came, which was a great relief as it was fully downhill.

At the viewpoint
On the way back

Coming back, the heat was a bit unbearable so we were quite thankful to take shade under a little hut by the campsite and dig into a hearty Sri Lankan meal of rice and curry. Most of us avoided heading over to our individual camps as they were extremely hot but… Alex, Muneera and I didn’t. We went up into the empty (7 person!) tent and took a short nap in the sauna like heat – but we were so exhausted we didn’t even mind.

At the river

After almost being left behind, we took the bus to a natural pool bath at a branch of the Nillamba Oya only a few kilometres away. The water was a perfect end to the day, refreshing us after the long hike and hot tents. Of course, we also took the opportunity of being close to town due to our short bus ride to buy a couple of ice creams from the local kade (shop). When we got back to camp we were given milk tea and vade (fried chickpea snack) as we all showered and got our tents ready.

Camp Fire

Like most campsites you’ll see in movies, this one too had a campfire and bbq set-up ready to go by dusk. Everyone was relaxing and enjoying the fire as the sky turned to darkness and as the moon rose up from behind the mountains. The air also began to cool at night with temperatures dropping to about 17 degrees so I felt lucky to have my jackets on and the warm sleeping bag to enjoy an extremely comfortable night’s sleep.

At the tents

DAY 2

Majority of the campsite woke up before us to catch the sunrise at 5.30 a.m. except for Alex, Muneera and I getting our extra minutes of sleep in (which seems to be a common trend).  Luckily for us the sunrise could not really be seen as the surrounding mountain ranges covered it, so we were actually awake for when the sun rose above the mountains.

Click here for a video of the sunrise: IMG_5827

Just after the sunrise

We went down to the common area and sipped on our tea to try and warm up while breakfast was being prepared. Our guides also ran into a family that was visiting the area that decided to join our hike.  After introducing ourselves, once again we quickly got ready to leave after breakfast to go on the selling point of this trip, the infamous Indiana Jones hike in the Hanthana Mountain Range. Before we left the guides informed us that we would not actually be walking to the set location, but instead, we would be seeing it from an aerial point of view, little did we know that this would entail some serious uphill trekking.

At the beginning of the hike

We hopped on the bus to get to the closest access point for the base of the Urugala mountain to begin our hike. The path initially went through a relatively wide path that was alongside the mountain before we reached a smaller path that turned directly into the mountain for our ascent. Here the hard work started, the path was uphill through thick forest so we had to take multiple breaks. As we neared the top of the mountain, we intermittently passed through large valleys of tall grass and forest, both making for some beautiful scenery.

Large valleys of tall grass and forest

Finally we reached a steep rock face which would be lead us to the Uragala peak, at 1,350m making it the second-highest peak in the Hanthana Mountain Range . From here we could see the expansive views of all the highest peaks of the island including Piduruthalagala, Adam’s Peak and the Knuckles Mountain Range in addition to the small rock left as the sole reminder of the ‘Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom’ movie set.

Uragala Peak
Rock face

Click here for a video of the expansive views: IMG_5852

After taking in the views from the Uragala peak, we started descending from the other side of the peak which would allow us to cut across to reach the base of Uraketugala, the highest peak at Hanthana Mountain Range at 1384m above sea level. Once again trekking through thick forest, we were lucky to have a relatively flat path from one peak to the next. After the thick forest we suddenly emerged to an even steeper rock face than before.

Uraketugala Peak

Here we were able to quickly hike up to the topmost point before reaching the defining feature of Uraketugala, the knife’s edge and narrow peak to reach the summit. I was very nervous to continue to the summit as knife’s edge ridge has a 90 and 75 degree angle on either side with only a one foot space to travel on. With encouragement I was able to make it halfway across the knife’s edge ridge but I was unable to muster up the courage for the second half.

Shuffling along the knife’s ridge

Here Muneera, Alex and Regina along with the guides went on the 75 degree angle side of the wall with practically no grip to reach the summit. After this we carefully made our way down from the summit and we continued through the thick forest. We surpassed the Uragala peak by continuing in a downhill path which eventually linked up with the way we got up to Uragala.

Muneera and Alex on the 75 degree ledge

Then we just followed down the same path all the way back where we reached a small pond that some of us took a dip in. After that we bought some lime juice from the local store before heading back to camp for a nice Sri Lankan curry. Then we showered, packed up and headed back to Colombo.

Overall this was a great trip to help me get some activity in while enjoying nature at the same time. Although the hiking was both physically challenging at times and nerve-wracking, it was one of the best trips I have been on Sri Lanka.

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