Kaduganawa and Balana are locations—one on the highway, one on the railroad—at the mountain wall separating the lowlands from the Kandyan Highlands.
Here's the highway view at the top of the descent, although the camera has been artfully positioned to avoid the roadside.
A more honest picture would be like this.
The most striking feature of the road itself at Kadugannawa is this tunnel. You're not looking at a switchback; instead you're looking at the original British road, with the tunnel, and a new road, which bypasses it.
The "tunnel" is so short that it begs the question: why didn't the British just blast it? Answer: the tunnel was created to fulfill the Kandyan prophecy that their kingdom would never fall until the mountains were tunneled. And so the British went out of their way to include a tunnel on the road—a fine example of civil engineering as a psychological weapon.
Another symbol, in this case commemorating Captain William Dawson, who designed the road. He "had charge of the construction of the original road up the Pass, which for 40 years before the railway was completed was the only means of access to the mountain district from the north and west. The road was constructed in 1822. Prior to that time there were only two roads even in the Maritime Provinces... As to the Central Province, it was altogether inaccessible to any but hill climbers."
Dawson died of dysentery a few years later, in 1829, while surveying the Mannar channel in the north of the island. "The poor fellow died in my arms. The whole Island mourned him... Sir Edward Barnes had, notwithstanding Dawson's junior rank, selected him for the position of C.R.E.[Commanding Royal Engineer] which was a Colonel's command, for Sir Edward knew from his Peninsular experience of him the great merit Dawson possessed as an officer." The monument was erected a few years later. (Quotation from Thomas Skinner, Fifty Years in Ceylon, 1891, p. 93.)
The inscription at the base of the column.
We're heading to the nearby Balana station, just down the slope behind the mountains in the background.
The name come from small Balana Fort, which was less a fortress than a lookout point surveying the approaches to the highlands.
A country road snakes down to the railroad, mid-ascent here.
The railway groans uphill at Balana Station. There's a 1:45 grade here for 12 miles, as the track rises from 313 to 1698 feet.
Old signals.
Old signal controls, too, but immaculately kept.
Across the track, there's a tea stand.
Locals congregate.
