Waking up with a slight hangover from the night before (must have been a dirty glass!), I decided to spend another couple of hours in Kandy enjoying Sri Lanka’s second city before the three hour journey to Dalhousie.

This time we took a local bus (the ticket cost under £3), where we passed along roads still being repaired after the cyclone, in fantastic countryside where we drove through jungle and tea plantations as we climbed higher into the Central Highlands. Colour abounded, both the many shades of green from the jungle and the incredible colours of the Hindu temples we passed.

Eventually, the bus reached Dalhousie which sits in the foothills below Adam's Peak that Rachel and I planned to climb the next morning. Adam’s Peak is a sacred Buddhist mountain, known locally as Sri Pada and is 2,500m tall (about one-and-a-half times the height of Ben Nevis). A depression at the top of the peak is said to be Buddha's footprint and, each year, thousands of locals climb to the top for sunrise.
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When we arrived at around 1430, we could not see the mountain as it was shrouded in fog; possibly a good job as when the sky cleared after dark the sight of the lit path to the summit was intimidating in itself. I am not sure my resolve to climb it would have survived the night had I seen the steepness of the mountain in all its glory.

Having had a couple of beers and a few hours’ sleep, we joined local pilgrims (many barefoot), and we set off on the 3 km walk to the base of the mountain at around 0200 to ensure we were at the top to view the sunrise. At the start of the actual ascent, there is a stone staircase which we followed right to the top. This stage of the ascent involves around 1100 metres of climbing, with many flights of steps (some of which are steep), 5800 in all, and is about 5 kilometres long. It was incredibly tough on the legs, and whilst it was physically challenging, we took our own pace, taking the time to savour the experience which we shared with pilgrims.

On reaching the top, after an obligatory photo we again removed our hats and shoes and went into the Buddhist Temple. Unfortunately, we were not able to take photos which is a shame as this was a beautiful and peaceful sanctuary, made all the more special owing to the effort expended in finally reaching it. Before receiving blessings from the Monks, we first rang a large ceremonial bell. Tradition states that for every pilgrimage undertaken to the peak you are entitled to ring the bell once. It was amazing to see many of the older pilgrims (some of whom had slept out on the mountain to break up the climb), ringing this multiple times.

Once we had received our blessings, we took our place on some terraces to await sunrise. Whilst we could not see the sunrise itself as we were on the south face, the beautiful landscape of this very special region was soon exposed - truly beautiful!

The descent was quicker and we took the opportunity to stop for some Chai at a couple of the refreshment halts which dotted the trail, where we were able to see the magnificent peak without the mist of the day before. When we got down to the hotel at around 0930, after a late breakfast of Curry and Rice with some fantastic fresh roti, we headed to our rooms to shower and recover from this memorable day.





Blog conceived and written by Nigel Buckland