Monkey Mountain Walk/Hike (included in your stay)
I have written about my stay at the Gal Oya Lodge in a separate blog post, so if you’d like to find out more about it, you can read my review of the Gal Oya Lodge.
The alarm bell started ringing at five am – the thought of putting on my gym clothes to go up a mountain didn’t exactly fill me with joy. But the birds were already chirping, the sunlight had started sneaking into our bedroom and the promise of a spectacular view eventually got me up.
The alarm bell started ringing at five am – the thought of putting on my gym clothes to go up a mountain didn’t exactly fill me with joy. But the birds were already chirping, the sunlight had started sneaking into our bedroom and the promise of a spectacular view eventually got me up.
We met our naturalist Charlie as the sun was rising, and after giving us a cool aluminium bottle of water, we headed out with the lodge’s gorgeous dog Arrack following us behind. Passing a small village with waving kids, through the fields Charlie kept pointing out different edible and medicinal plants, telling us his incredible story and a bit of history on the lodge and the National Park. A short walk after we had reached the foot of the mountain and started the climb up through the forest – it was fairly hard and very slippery at times, but so rewarding too.

The whole climb up took about an hour and half, with lots of help and guidance from Charlie and motivation from a dog who showed us just how easy it should be! Once we finally reached the top the promised 360 degrees view over the National Park most certainly didn’t disappoint…it was spectacular, and my photos below really don’t do it justice. We sat down with our water, the bananas and cake that Charlie had kindly carried for us and the whole world around us. And the best bit? No one else was there!
We met our naturalist Charlie as the sun was rising, and after giving us a cool aluminium bottle of water, we headed out. Passing a small village with waving kids, through the fields Charlie kept pointing out different edible and medicinal plants, telling us his incredible story and a bit of history on the lodge and the National Park. A short walk after we had reached the foot of the mountain and started the climb up through the forest – it was fairly hard and very slippery at times, but so rewarding too.
The whole climb up took about an hour and half, with lots of help and guidance from Charlie and the promised 360 degrees view over the National Park most certainly didn’t disappoint…it was spectacular, and my photos below really don’t do it justice.



