Machan,Public transport is available only up to Bogawantalawa.
Total distance from Bogawantalawa to trail head/Northcove Cabanas, Loinorn Estate is 10km.A vehicle with high ground clearance will be better to tackle the section from Bogawantalawa to NorthCove Cabanas.
Permit Required ?Technically “yes”. But there is no ticket office at the trail head. Therefore permit should be obtained from Horton Plains (HP) visitor Centre at the trail end. Therefore special permission from the department of wildlife is required for you to start this trail from Bogawantalawa.
Two main trails from Northcorve to HP are 1) The bridle trail from NorthCove to FarrInn (2) Trail from NorthCove to world’s end via Nagrak Division of Non Pareil estate.
As per the google map ,Bridal trail distance from Northcove to HP is 11.5km.
Trail Head: NorthCove division, Lionair Estate (Close to NorthCove Cabanas)
Trail End: Horton Plains Visitor Centre .
Machan,to be honest,this path is not open for wanderers like us. Yet, we are nature enthusiast. We love the nature and we love to see places. So we decided to go for it.
But I would like to say a few things for anyone who is trying this trail.
1. This is not an easy track to walk mainly because of the thick, thorny undergrowth that covers some sections of the trail.There is basically no network until you reach close to Campion Estate. The chances of getting lost is very high. (We got lost several times but managed to find our way). The chances of being attacked by a Wild Boar or a leopard who is defending it self cannot be out-ruled.
Besides all of these the chances of falling into a gem pit which is almost 10 to 15 feet deep is the most dangerous risk. The gem pits are indeed man made disasters. I could't stop thinking how many wild animals would have fallen into these pits and died.
2. You need to prepare yourself very well. This was our fourth attempt at this decent. The first three failed miserably. There was years of planing and preparations into this decent. We read articles on articles, studied the area in google earth very closely. Prepared our back packs so that it has the correct qty of tools are items we need. We had a GPS and the learned how to study the Compass. We had a map in our hands. Mostly we prepared mentally because this journey was tough and dangerous.
I even gave my family a deadline to announce us lost if i didn't call them at a particular date and time. But no matter how much we prepared we were not 100% ready to overcome all the obstacles which came towards our way. We did not have a guide so we were all on our own.
But we made it. This was and will be the greatest hikes that i have completed so far.
