Adam's Peak (Jan 16)

Now, I'm going to preface this post with many explanations (or whining if you will). I've lost a bit of weight while here, mainly due to minor illnesses; but also because I walk everywhere and combined with the heat, I burn off way more than I take in. I'm now down to my weight from grade nine, which probably is not something to brag about, but I will anyways. Also, before we caught our bus to the base of Adam's Peak, I didn't eat lunch when we were in town, as I was feeling ill.

Suitably warned, I'll proceed with today's post. Our ascent began shortly after we got back from our backpacking detour to the waterfalls. I remarked at the time that it prolly was a bad idea to do that, on the same day as the climb. I'd like to say it fell on deaf ears, but Reuben agreed, and despite that we continued with our plan. On the bus to Siripagama, the usual starting point of the climb, we met two students (from Germany & the Netherlands) who were on an internship in Sri Lanka. They were traveling with a local friend of theirs.

While I'm a convert to the Tilley hat (except when I have to buy any tickets), I'm reluctant to make the leap to the Tilley shorts that Reuben models above. (The next three photos are Reuben's shots)

We decided that to travel from Rathnapura to Nuwara Eliya, we'd climb over the mountain with our gear, as that would save us from backtracking when taking the bus.

However, it was a bit much for me. My calves started to cramp up, which I expected to happen since they always do that (anyone remember the double-leg-cramp-n-fall-over technique I pioneered during intramural soccer over at Columbia Lake?), but then my quads were giving out too. This was early, like 3 hours into the climb. So my sherpa (aka Reuben) heroically carried my pack as well. He claimed the extra weight was not a problem because he'd already hit one plateau of pain, and the difference in weight wasn't too bad. Plus he said he's used to doing stuff like this from his camping and portaging. I was still in awe. We had already separated from the guys that we met on the bus, because I knew I wanted to slow down my climbing rate and didn't want to slow the whole group.

Another 2.5 hours later and the somewhat even cement steps ended, while the very uneven rock steps began. I didn't think I could make it to the next rest area but I eventually did, upon which a team of experienced climbers (they've done the Himalayas) came to my aid. I got a leg massage, and they wrapped tensor bandages around my quads, gave me salt water (and I was silently curious if the water had been boiled. But I can't look a gift horse in the mouth. Even if there are brain parasites in my drinking supply), and then they told me to rest. They said my pace was likely too fast, I should adopt something like their pace, which is extremely slow; just taking it one step at a time.
They were confident we'd make it in time, which is good that at least someone was.

After a 30 minute nap I got up, took off the bandages, and gave a few pounds of gear to Reuben. And we were off. Very very slowly. Baby steps. The addition of a walking stick however improved the situation tremendously.

At first I could sense my legs were tensing up, but I just slowed the pace down even further and I was able to push on. I was a little nervous we wouldn't make it up the mountain before the sunrise, and I'm sure Reuben was more than a little nervous. Around midnight we rounded a flat section, and when we came to a clearing it was a little disheartening to see that we were only halfway there. From December to May the path is lit by fluorescent lights, which you can see snaking through the skyline in the pic below. (ed. VOC whut! It's my warmest hoodie)

But we trudged on. More accurately, I trudged while Reuben seemed to stroll with an airy bounce in his step. I hated him at this point. Still, we walked pretty much continuously, with 5 minute breaks when we reached rest areas. And in a feat reminiscent of the Tortoise and the Hare, we walked past our new bus friends who had stopped to sleep for an hour.

At the top, it was extremely cold, and everyone was bundled up and huddled together. We had a long and fairly solitary walk up the mountain, but at the top there were dozens of pilgrims (or "pilgrimmers" as I was informed by our international English teacher) waiting for the morning ceremonies. Most had come up the other side, which is a considerably shorter hike and has cement steps all the way.

Yes, lower right hand corner...even a dog made it up that mountain. Climbing down the other side still was a long process, about 3 hours till we reached the nearest bus terminal. As we walked down I was humbled once again, as a worker carried some 25-35 kilos of sugar up the mountain side. All those rest areas needed to be stocked with tea, bottled drinks, snacks, etc. and this was how it was done.

Near the base of the "Adam's Peak" section, which is still at a fairly high elevation, we stopped for another shot. This was still about 3 km from the bus terminal. It didn't capture the blue sky very well. Or at all I suppose. I blame the Germans. Well, the one German guy who took the photo.

We took the bus to Hatton (which Lonely Planet correctly describes as a "ramshackle market town"), and crashed there for the night. We'd be leaving for Nuwara Eliya by train the next morning. As we entered the guest house we walked through the middle of a wedding. That's nice, two smelly backpackers interrupting your special day. I kinda wanted to shower and come back to watch the wedding, but just resting my eyes for a bit turned into a 6 hour nap.

Sri Lanka