Adams Peak

There are some accomplishments in life that you can be truely proud of, for me, one of them was making it to the top of Adams Peak. 7,360 feet (2,243 meters) high... when at the top you are looking down on surrounding mountain ranges.

The mountain is actually known by 3 different names;
Adams Peak - the place where Adam first set a foot on earth after being cast out of heaven
Sri Pada - sacred footprint, left by Buddha as he headed towards paradise and
Samanalakande - butterfly mountain where butterflies go to die

Anyway it's been a pilgramage centre for all faiths for over 1000 years and we climbed it!!!

We started our accent at 2am. 7km towards the heavens and no less than 5,200 steps in various states of disrepair. It took us two and a half hours up and 2 hours back down again which was pretty bloody brilliant if I do say myself. After the first hour it really became a mental game - thank god it was dark because I'm not sure my will power would have held out if I'd been able to see just how much further I had to go and how steep it was. We must have passed hundreds of Indian people on the way up and down ... including childrens and very old people. It was amazing!!!!

Back on the ground we had a good breakfast, then packed and headed for Haputale. Even though we were exhausted, we could still appreciate the stunning views from the train of the tea plantations. Haputale is a great village (mixture of Tamil and Muslim) with really nice people and a really chilled out vibe.

That night we slept like the dead ... and awoke ready for another full day (April 21). We took the bus to Diyaluma Falls. The bus ride there was one fo the worst I've experienced so far in Sri Lanka. With really windy roads, the driver appeared to be on a mission to break all land speed records which resulted in a few local people being sick... nice!

Diyaluma falls are 170m high (one the highest in Sri Lanka) and it was a great place to stop and have lunch. After that we attempted to catch a bus to our next destination Wellawaya, but after an hours wait we were still standing on the side of the road and in the middle of no where (just for something different). Luckily a really nice family on holidays (Greek/Italian) offered us a lift.

With a couple of hours to spare before our next bus we took a 3 wheeler to Buduruwagala to see some 10th century rock cut Buddha images (see photos)

It had already been a challenging day with public transport but the best was yet to come. It took almost 3 hours to try and find the right bus with everyone giving us different information or completely ignoring us and then turning their backs on us (how rude!). One guy kept following us around repeating the same thing over and over until I really lost my temper and told him to "shut up". Clearly he was the town idiot because the locals found it truely amusing. Anyway, finally we were on our way to Kataragama, but what should have taken one and a half hours took 3 as they stop every 500 meters and drove the longest possible way. It's really a case of asking the right questions here. "What is the quickest way to blah?" and "What is in that

sunrise

bottle of Whiskey that you're swigging out of Mr Bus Driver?". I can't confirm it, but by the way he was driving it wouldn't surprise me if he was on his way to being drunk! So it's possible we were a little grumpy when we arrived in Kataragama.... hmmmn.

The next day (April 22) I woke up with really bad back pain, probably from lugging my 24 kilo backpack on and off public transport at lightning speed. It's fair to say I wasn't in the mood for sightseeing so after breakfast (overlooking a really tranquil lake) and a quick stop at the local temples we headed for Tissamaharama to see if we could arrange a safari.

---

---