Diyaluma waterfall

 Diyaluma fall

Credit to rashvinda photograph

Diyaluma Falls is 220 m (720 ft) high and the second highest waterfall in Sri Lanka^[1] and 619th highest waterfall in the world.^[2] It is situated 6 km (3.7 mi) away from Koslanda in Badulla District on Colombo-Badulla highway. The falls are formed by Punagala Oya, a tributary of Kuda Oya which in turn, is a tributary of Kirindi Oya.

The head of the waterfall lies 191 meters above the the viewing bridge which lies on the Koslanda – Wellawaya road. Colin Writes; “But these figures gives only a faint conception of the majestic appearance of this falling waters, which are so awe-inspiring that its hard to take ones eyes off them. The cliff itself is black granulite, and immense in height. A river leaps from its brow, the while festoons of spray to which it soon dissolved, contrasting strongly with the darkness of the rock. I hardly know whether the Fall is most beautiful in the bright sunshine or when the shadows of passing clouds cast a sinister light upon it. It is at any rate magnificent in every mood; for first it docents in to a sheer cataract until broken halfway down by a shoulder of a rock that rises aggressively to meet it. In this encounter the water is smashed in to a spray, so that it completes its decent in the eddies of mist that are blown this way and that by the breeze. Normally it plungers straight, but the wind may drift it far-away, or spread across the cliff like a gossamer vail. You can fix upon any festoon of water and and see it drawn away and dissipated in to rainbow. But if it should be so far blown out of its course as to miss the halfway buttress, then water falls whole 570 feet like a column of smoke dashed to pieces on the rocks below. It should be interesting to see it in a high wind when it blows even across the road. This superb picture of falling water is framed by the dark foliage of trees. There is something forbidding yet irresistibly attractive in such stern aspects of nature. The rock buttress rise up in bold challenge to the water, and indeed it breaks it it irretrievable ruin. But century by century the unwavering torrents have grounded these granite walls beneath its heel. “.

The fall is steeped in folklore. One story tells of how a king had fallen in love with a young woman belonging to a lower caste. This affair enraged the king’s subjects so the lovers decided to flee. Arriving at the site of the fall, they began climbing upwards. The king made it to the top but the creeper the woman was hanging onto became entangled in rocks and she plunged to her death. It is said that the tears shed by the king in his grief were collected by a deity and turned into the fall as it stands today. RL Brohier, a scientist and historian from the UK who served in the Surveyor General’s Department, kept records detailing his intimate knowledge of Sri Lanka and its inhabitants. Amongst them was a story concerning Diyaluma Falls, which is said to have been Brohier’s favorite fall. It is a tragic story dating from 1910, which local village elders still remember. Two tourists, Harris and Ashna decided to climb up the fall but it was Ashna who made it to the top first and began to descend again.

Credit to rashvinda photograph

Credit to rashvinda photograph