Dalhousie, a ghost town in the off season with at best two shops open and every hotel vying for you to stay with them. this was to be our base for climbing Adam's Peak.
We awoke at 2am to begin our accent up Adam's peak. There are two stories, the first been that it was the place where Adam supposedly first set foot on earth and the other been that's where Buddha left his footprint on his way to paradise.
Either way it didn't change the fact that it was 5,500 odd steps up and the exact same number on the way back down!
We arrived at the top at about 5.30 just as the horizon was beginning to change from the dark of night to the oranges and blues that indicated a new day was about to begin.
We watched the sunrise from a point that could of been the top of the world looking down on the surrounding valleys with thin layers of cloud flowing through the middle of them was beautiful.
At the back side of the mountain the sun cast a shadow of Adam's peak in the shape of a perfect triangle.
The descent was not as difficult as we had predicted and our knees only jiggled slightly once we reached the bottom.
I think the worst part was not the steps or the early start, but having sore legs for four days afterwards and waddling like a duck with a pole stuck up its clacker!!
After Dalhousie, we continued our journey north to Dambulla famed for its Golden temple and the easy access point to Sigirya Rock.
Arriving early enough in the day, we decided we may as well hit the ground running, so we headed for the Golden temple. A rock overhang that was converted into five separate temples.
With our freshly sore legs we hauled ourselves up to the temples, checked out the some 500 Buddha statues and images, listened to some female monks (monkettes) chanting and left.
After a solid nights sleep and a hot shower, we set off for Sigirya Rock. This is the site where over 2000 years ago meticulously manicured gardens and water fountains stood and an enormous rock that had a palace and later a monestary which occupied the top of the rock. The rock is actually the magma centre of a long extinct volcano that had it's sides eroded over millions of years.
Buggered if I know how they got the bricks, furniture and themselves up the side of the rock face.
Now there are just the remnants of what used to once rule the rock and surrounding area. There is still a pool up there that is half full with water.
The locals say that many hydro engineers and experts have visited the site to try and determine how they got the water up there and none of them can work it out!! The Sri Lanka's are pretty proud of this fact!!
Our next dilemma was whether we continued north to another ancient city or head back to Colombo (poor us!!) with only a few days remaining. We decided we'd probably aeen enough temples and opted for the Colombo route.
No comments:
Post a Comment