Since colonial times it has been known as the Knuckles due to five peaks lined up as on a clenched fist. Part of this range is protected as a National Heritage Wilderness Park and it’s a great place for trekking. The northern part of the Knuckles mountain range falls in the Matale District, which is less traversed in comparison to the range within the Kandy District. A weekend can be spent at the Forest Department compound in Illukumbura. The compound houses the Ranger’s office, a dormitory, and training and awareness creation facilities. Hidden away to the side of this unit is a rock-strewn stream that runs through a natural rock pool before meandering downwards.

The main thrill of hiking is to fight the wind while walking uphill along a winding narrow road with a foreboding drop off one side. The gale force wind makes you panic at the possibility of being swept off your feet and blown over the edge. The backdrop was beautiful, with wildflowers along the path and a thick tree cover in the distance; but for most of the walk you are so preoccupied with the wind that you hardly take in anything else. Due to less hiking-traffic on this side of the Knuckles, there are just a few trails. One trail begins in the backyard of the Forest Department compound and starts off steeply with the dry and powdery soil making it tricky to get a good footing.
 

You will enjoy the beauty and feel of the place in silence. As you walk, the vegetation around you keeps transforming from tall trees in a closed canopy speckled with sunlight, to open grassland swept by strong winds, to rocky scrubland and flat areas with very thorny bushes and wildflowers, to the densely packed stunted twisted bowers of “pygmy” forests, a unique feature formed due to the wind.
 

The Knuckles is a place where a sense of calm and quiet pervades your being, clears your senses and leaves you refreshed and relaxed; it is almost all natural: the real thing. The mountain range is an all-in-one tour of Sri Lanka’s many forest types, and for anyone interested in ecology or for any nature lover for that matter, it is remarkable.
 
(Content Source : Travel Sri Lanka Magazine)
(Image Source   : srilankatrekking.com)