I would like this opportunity to recap over our weekend and the rather epic adventure of climbing Sri Pada. It started bright and early on Saturday morning with a 4:45 wake up call, we staggered bleary eyed and bushy tailed out of bed and grabbed our luggage; ten minutes later we were in the mini van headed towards the station. We arrived 5:30 to discover we had missed the train we should have been on, but resolved the problem by power walking it to the bus station and catching a rapid air conditioned bus to Colombo. Matt, Becki, myself, Supun and Goyen (two lads who work at moonbridge), Kim, John and James (from the postgrad group) made up our team and we were all rearing to go.

The bus to Colombo was very fast and barring fears of limes disease from the dripping A/C unit, quite pleasant, and we arrived by 9:10. We crossed quickly to the train station in time to catch our train to Hatton, but unfortunately first class had sold out and third class had no toilets. In consideration of this fact and a 6 hour journey ahead of us we opted for second class. It was phenomenal. The scenery passing the open doors of the carriage seemed to represent such diversity and ecological variance as to be quite bewildering. First came the Sri Lankan landscape of undulating hills and valleys of tropical forest broken here and there by terraced tea plantations with their myriad of Tamil tea pickers; next came America with trees looking exactly like fir trees and large rocky river beds so reminiscent to North America. Finally we passed through African landscape, with trees like floating clouds seeming to hover over the savannah –like ground. It was stunning.

The train arrived at Hatton by 15:05 and we immediately went to catch our buses to Maskelyia and then on again to Dalhousie, our final destination. Arriving at the base of Sri Pada, or more widely known as Adam’s Peak, at 18:05, we found it to be shrouded in mist and drizzling lightly, so we moved to a small rest house and ordered our first real meal of the day. It was heavenly fried rice, noodles and chicken curry. The owner of the rest house was a very decent sort of chap and gave us 20% discount for being students and offered us a very competitively priced room with two double beds in it for the night. We took the room, and at 22:00 the 6 of us snuggled down to sleep. Supun and Goyan, being local had secured themselves a free of charge room for the night too.

Four hours later, at 2:15 we were woken up as it was time to move. We packed the bare essentials and trudged through the dormant town to the base of the mountain. By this time is was 3:00 and our party of 8 had been joined by an elderly German couple, an Indian couple and a number of Sri Lankan residents. At first we climbed slowly, conquering the crumbling steps and rocky slopes with ease, but soon the all too frequent steps began to take their toll and we split into smaller groups; the postgraduate boys, matt and I went on ahead, while the girls followed with Supun and Goyen. Because of the dampness of the slopes and the masses of foliage, leeches were in the abundance so we had to be on constant watch for them.

The trek up Adam’s Peak takes the form of 5200 rambling steps, in varying distance, height, width and length, which curl up around the mountain swathed in clouds leading to the ancient temple at the top. Myths as abundant as the clouds surround this peak, with many religions staking their hold here. Christians claim (as the English name suggests) that this is the summit where Adam first set foot after being cast out of Eden. Buddhists claim this is the peak where Lord Buddha first trod, and Hindus the same but for Lord Shiva. Whatever the myth, the mountain attracts pilgrims aplenty and during the peak season (December to May) the well lit steps can house up to 10,000 pilgrims a day. Out of season the steep slopes are almost empty and the closed down shacks and derelict stalls lend an eerie quality to the ascent.

By 5:00 the boys had made it to the top and were huddled up in the temples cabin room for warmth. It was bitterly cold and the rapid ascent through torrential rain has chilled and shaken the senses. At 5:50 the girls and Supun minus Goyen (who had had to turn back due to a migraine) arrived, and we climbed up to the very top of the temple, which included having to remove our footwear and to wade about in freezing water! I had procured a massive leech on the ascent, which left a bleeding wound on my leg once it had been burnt off, but other that that the journey was fairly straightforward. At 2243m altitude above sea level, we were well above the clouds, blocking the sunrise. We sat around recovering our strength for about an hour and a half before descending slowly back down the knee jarring steps to the base.

The journey back was of pain and discomfort. We were forced to stand for the 6 hr train to Colombo, crushed between the other passengers and being constantly regaled by the pushes and cries of “wadi wadi wadi” of the food salesmen forcing their way through the massively already overcrowded carriages, touting their deep fried dough balls. Once in Colombo we caught another bus and then another, to arrive back at Moonbridge for 21:30. We had not eaten for 28 hours and were seriously ravenus. But the climb had been worth every painful step and second of it. And as they say, short term pain, long term gain.