It's a Long Way to the Top if You Wanna Rock & Roll

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We left Kandy at mid day and hit the road for a two hour drive to Kitulgala, which is much further up in the hills of Sri Lanka.

We stopped at a local place to find one woman running around serving everyone her home cooked food in a buffet style. Marc tried some of the best chicken he had ever eaten! The rain was battering down as we enjoyed lunch and we were hoping this would make white water rafting in the afternoon even better.

We pulled up to the white water rafting start point to find numerous companies all beside one another with very little tourists to entertain. So we went with Chin's recommendation and got geared up for the rapids.

The white water rafting was fantastic and we even did body rafting (you swim and the rapids pull you along). During this we passed the filming of The Bridge on the River Kwai.

After rafting we drove to Dalhousie, where we planned to climb Adam's Peak. Adam's Peak is a 2243m high mountain. It is well known in Sri Lanka as it is the location of the sacred footprint of the Buddha. (In Hinduism it is considered the footprint of the god Shiva and in Christianity it's considered to be that of Adam).

As the site is spiritually special, locals usually walk up the mountain on weekends particularly during December to May (as the weather is better).

The trail up the mountain has thousands of steps built into it. These are usually lit up by a trail of lights with frequent rest stations, however as we were climbing the mountain at off-peak time, we needed our own torches and rucksacks full of snacks. The weather had been pretty rainy and cloudy, and people climbing Adam's Peak could only see mist and clouds at sunrise from the top. So we were hoping for a clear morning.

We left at 2:15am (which was horrific) and tried to navigate our way around the bottom of the mountain in the pitch black. We took a few wrong turns to begin with.. even ending up on a construction site next to a huge tractor, but eventually we found the right path.

It was very strange walking into blackness when you haven't walked the route before and there is no one else around, but we had been assured it was perfectly safe and we did not need a guide.

The climb has gradual steps to begin with, and then is gets progressively steeper until the next step is right above your head! There was about 30 other people climbing the peak and we bumped into them every now and again on the way.

Reaching the top was a huge relief (especially for Susie who was suffering from food poisoning). We were given a hot cup of coffee and wrapped up in the layers we had brought as it was perishing at the top! There was a great buzz as the sun began to rise and everyone was snapping pictures of the unbelievable surroundings. We were extremely lucky to have beautiful clear skies!

The temple at the top was open, but of course you must remove your shoes to enter... wow it was lethal to be in bare feet. We rang the bell at the top, took a quick picture and raced to put our soggy socks and shoes back on (to realise we had both been sucked by leeches on our feet).

The climb back down was also pretty tricky, with our calves and quads shaking uncontrollably! It was funny looking at the surroundings we had passed hours before but never noticed because it was so dark. Also, to see the peak we had just been on top of was a big achievement.

On the way down we passed men carrying huge bags of cement on their heads up the mountain to a house near the top- absolute madness!!! We fed them chocolate and watched in amazement as they passed us.

Early afternoon we left Dalhousie and travelled to Nuwara Eliya (both exhausted).

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