Bambarakanda and Sri Lanka's highest waterfalls

Bambarakanda drops approximately 263 metres in a single principal fall from the Kuda Oya, set in a pine plantation above the village of Kalupahana on the Colombo to Badulla road. It is the tallest waterfall in Sri Lanka and, on a day of good flow, one of the most striking sights in the highlands.

Access is straightforward. A side road turns off at Kalupahana and runs a few kilometres to a parking area, from where a short walk of ten to fifteen minutes brings you to the base. There is a shallow pool at the bottom, and the surrounding pine forest is a pleasant place to spend an hour. The fall is at its narrowest in the driest weeks and can be disappointing then, so time your visit with the rains in mind.

Diyaluma, near Koslanda, is the second tallest at around 220 metres and is the one most travellers actually visit, because it is visible from the road and because of the pools at the top. Those upper pools, reached by a steep and often confusing walk of roughly 45 minutes to an hour from a trailhead above the falls, sit right at the lip of the escarpment.

They are genuinely spectacular and genuinely dangerous. People have died at Diyaluma. The rock is slippery, the current above the lip is stronger than it looks, and there is no barrier of any kind. Go with a local guide, stay well back from the edge, do not swim in the pool closest to the drop, and do not go at all if the water is high or rising.

Kurundu Oya Falls, in the Nuwara Eliya district, is around 189 metres and among the tallest, though it is difficult to reach and rarely visited. Dunhinda Falls near Badulla, at roughly 64 metres, is far shorter but much more famous, and it is reached by a walk of about a kilometre and a half on a rough path from the road.

Ravana Falls just outside Ella is the most visited waterfall in the country simply because the main road passes its base, and it is associated with the Ramayana tradition in which Ravana held Sita nearby. St Clair's and Devon Falls near Talawakele are both roadside and photogenic, and Aberdeen and Laxapana sit in the Maskeliya river system.

This is the part most guides skip. A waterfall is only as good as its catchment, and Sri Lanka's dry season reduces some of the biggest falls to a thread. The escarpment falls in the Haputale, Koslanda and Badulla area draw from the wet zone, so they run hardest during and shortly after the south-west monsoon, roughly May to September, and again after the second inter-monsoon in October and November.

The paradox is that those are also the wettest, mistiest months for walking. The practical compromise is late in the rains or shortly after: October, November and early December often give strong flow with reasonable access, and January can still be good after a wet inter-monsoon.

Waterfalls kill people in Sri Lanka every year, and the pattern is consistent. Rain falls in a catchment several kilometres upstream, the level in the pool rises within minutes without any rain falling where you are standing, and swimmers are swept over a lip or against rocks.

The rules follow from that. Do not enter a pool if the water is brown, high or rising. Watch the water for a few minutes before you get in. Never swim above a drop. Wear footwear with grip on wet rock, which is far more slippery than it looks. And take a local guide at Diyaluma in particular, where the combination of a steep unmarked path and an unfenced 220-metre drop has proved lethal.

The southern escarpment strings the best of them together. From Ella, run south-west through Wellawaya and up to Koslanda for Diyaluma, continue to Kalupahana for Bambarakanda, and finish at Haputale or Lipton's Seat. Dunhinda sits the other way, near Badulla, and pairs with the Ella to Badulla road.

The Talawakele falls, St Clair's and Devon, belong to a different day: the Kandy to Nuwara Eliya road, where they appear as roadside viewpoints between tea estates.

Waterfalls are a morning activity in the hill country for the same reason everything else is: the cloud comes in. Set off early, do the walk-in falls first, and leave the roadside viewpoints for the afternoon when a bit of mist matters less.

Lankan Stays & Trails arranges local guides for Diyaluma's upper pools and checks recent rainfall before committing to a waterfall day, because the difference between full flow and a thread is the difference between a memory and a photograph you delete.