The Adventures of Michalina: Sri Lanka: Elephants and Adam's Peak

There is so much catching up to do on this blog.... Hopefully I will get it done before I fly home and forget everything!

After a rest in Colombo and a refill of Mark's mom's amaaaazing food, we went to an Elephant Orphanage. We were running late so we had to run to be able to feed the baby elephants, but boy was it cute! They seriously guzzled the bottles of milk in about 3 seconds, so we had to take our photos really fast. Then we went down to the river and looked out at all the elephants having a bath. Some of the elephants got scrubbed down with coconut shells. Others just flopped down into the water for what seemed like hours with only a bit of their bodies showing, their trunks occasionally coming up for air. Others showered themselves with their trunks. It was really cute to see them all interacting and doing their elephant things!

The next day we left on our next round of adventures. We stayed at a beautiful bungalow that we had all to ourselves in the middle of the jungle at Laxapana. On the way there we stopped to have a dip in a little river (with freshwater crabs in it!) and have some tea while the radiator got topped up. It was a very uphill drive. At the bungalow there were some really cute dogs and a cat that I made friends with. The dogs had leeches on them though, which was pretty nasty. I got sick with a cold this day so I slept a lot. We had a really yummy barbecue that the boys made, too. There were also huge clove trees in the yard! They had some cloves drying under our covered outdoor eating area.

We rested up here for a day before going to our next hotel that was near to Adam's Peak. Adam's Peak is a place of pilgrimage for Buddhists, Hindus, and Christians. There is a giant footprint at the top of a mountain that, depending on your faith, either Buddha, Shiva, or Adam made. In Singalese the peak is called Sri Pada. When the British came along and took over everything they renamed it Adam's Peak and declared it was Adam's first footprint when he came to Earth. Whatever way you slice it, it's a tall pointy mountain that really hurts your legs to climb. I really respect the little kids and elderly people who make the climb!!

We started the climb after midnight. It only took us about 3.5 hours even though we were trying to make lots of stops and go slow. The whole climb is stairs, with many tea and refreshment shops along the way. When we started it was not crowded, but by the time we got to the top many people started to appear. We visited the temple at the top and saw the footprint. It was about a meter long, but covered with a cloth so you could only see the outline of it. We also rang a really big bell, which you are supposed to do if it is one of your first times climbing the peak. It was quite cold at the top so we layered up in all the clothes and blankets we had and waited for the sun to come up.

Unfortunately, it was pretty cloudy. So when the sun finally rose at 6:30 we couldn't really see it. This made the mountains slowly illuminate in a misty blue/purple colour. This was neat to see because we had been climbing in the dark before! (Which was probably a good thing, because we couldn't see how much farther we had to reach the top. It really was a struggle in will power!!)

Climbing down was really neat because we saw the lush landscape light up with misty sun rays, and I got to see all the vegetation around us. I kept feeling like I would lose control of my legs on the way down my knees were shaking so badly, but fortunately I made it. We had breakfast and a nap before we were on to the next destination!

Emma feeding a baby milk.

Super soaker elephant. This one stayed almost totally submerged the whole time we watched!

This elephant remind me of a twirling ballerina.

Bath time for the herd!

This elephant kept reaching up to us for leaves!

Cloves drying by the roadside.

A really cool ants nest I saw in a tree! They seem to have built with mud around these baby coconuts! I had to stand on a railing to get this shot whilst avoiding leaches.

Me and the boys scoped out the start of the hike beforehand.

The view to the top of the peak when we started from our hotel. It looked very daunting...

We followed the moon rise on our way up

Lotte lights incense before we tie our string.

The first three times someone climbs Adams Peak they can sew some white string with a packet of herbs to a pole, then unwind the string up the stairs as far as it will go, weaving it with other people's threads. We took turns unwinding the thread.