This day started early. We left Battaramulla at 5:30 to meet up with two other cars at a nearby petrol station. After a long drive we had breakfast at Silver Ray restaurant (Pelmadulla).
We have stopped at Silver Ray before and they did not disappoint. This restaurant has parking places in front but also a huge parking space behind (unless that's owned by another restaurant).
- Ambience: Average+ . Plain furniture but clean.
- Price: Low. We paid about 35 SEK/person for the breakfast buffet.
- Service: Good
- Seating: We all got space at a big table, and they brought a child seat for Isak. As I remember it the tables are placed to avoid "streets" with people brushing past while you eat.
Overall: Recommended.
After breakfast we went on to a secret bath place close to Marathenna Tea factory, consisting of three natural pools.
The pools
This is, kind of, a negative tourist trap. It seems only the locals knows about this place. There are three major natural pools where the water flows trough, and you can swim in them. It should be avoided to fall over the cliff at the last one (the picture with my foot in it) because that might hurt. One of the pools is very deep and have steep sides, so it would be difficult to get out of it (you'd be like a cat in a bathtub). So nobody entered that pool.
The track that leads to the pools go trough some tea field. We parked the cars at the beginning of the track, close to some houses nearby. Although you can guess the rate of income for the people living here by the look of the buildings I think they still might be happy with what they have. I assume they don't worry that much about smartphones and wether their kids will use the credit card on Internet gambling sites.
Arrival at the Blue magpie
The Blue Magpie is a kind of resort cabin which they seem to have built a bit halfheartedly from the beginning, rather by a handyman than a carpenter, and it's hard to tell if it's built in that basic style deliberately. It's very charming and it has electricity, WC and hot water (mind, only two rooms has hot water so you have to share the shower with the others). The room with the hot water shower had no lock either, to make things easier I guess.
You typically rent the whole building together with your friends (that's what we did). As far as I understood there are
- 4 bedrooms
- 2 resident chefs/butlers
- You have to bring all food and they will cook it for you
- The rooms have small buttons with a bell sign. If you press it one of the butlers will show up in a few microseconds so be careful as the button is just beside the light buttons.
- There is a bar. It's empty. Bring what you need.
- You can swim in the river just outside, but it's stony, a bit cold and rather shallow. No leeches though.
Like I said earlier the whole thing is very charming, and possibly this is because it has a feeling of not attempting to be the best at everything, just as long as it works. Some funny things: the drain from the washin basin in the bathroom empties into the shower, which in turn just empties into the garden. I was ensured that the waste from the wc was collected in a tank though. All the planks are kind of creaky so I'd not suggest a big dance party on the upper floor. And yes, I hit my head in the bathroom door frame (I should wear a helmet in Sri Lanka because everything is made for the smurfs!).
Day 2: Drive to the start of the trail
The trail to Adams Peak starts close to the Blue Magpie hut, but to go there by three-wheeler or van is a bumping experience along seriously bad roads. Normal cars can't go there, and the route wriggles around climbing the hillsides of the tea fields.
Today we were woken up by some inquisitive monkeys and had breakfast. Then we got in to a van that drove us to the starting point.
The view was extraordinary as can be seen in the pictures (and would have been seen better if I had remembered to bring my good camera). Another thing not quite visible is the slope, and that the road abruptly (no girly things like safety rails) drops on your left, and the cars way of entering a sharp hidden curve is to honk the horn so that any vehicle on collision course on the other side might slow down.
The trail
We were seven persons walking the trail, including Mihiri's father. In the picture below I've simply drawn a line of ~ 3.2km but the trail is not straight so maybe 4km would be more accurate. We started in the right side of the picture below, and it took us about 2.5h to get to the top.
Me and Mihiri went a bit ahead of the others. After a while we (rather Mihiri) noticed that there was leeches about (see note about dragons above). I flicked off three of them trying to climb up my shoe. These leeches look like small black threads that climbs a bit like a measuring worm, having one end gripping the shoe and feeling around with the other. We weren't prepared for them so we waited for Mihiris father who had some lime fruits that we smeared on the shoes. Mihiri also used lime to get rid of a leech that had attached to her leg (they don't like lime and they let go if you let them have some). You should not pull them off by hand because they might leave the stinger in the skin.
- Bring lime fruits (and a knife to cut it)
- Bring at least a water bottle, sandwiches and protein/chocolate bars
- Use white socks and tuck your trousers inside the socks. You will need long trousers anyway at the top (no bare legs allowed for some reason).
- Don't stop in wet areas
The trail itself is mostly sloping upwards and is full of roots, stones (and occasionally leeches). This is a fairly well used trail so you can see some plastic wrappings and such thrown by less caring people. But all in all you can probably walk this path from the age of 7.
The trail converges with the concrete stairs moving up towards the top. I counted 1072 steps from where we entered the stairs to the top, but I might have lost count a few times (and there's even a saying that nobody will be able to accurately count the steps). You walk on the right side upwards, left side downwards (but when you go down that will be your right side... bah you get it).
The bear went over the mountain, the bear went over the mountain, the bear went over the mountaaaain - to see what he could se. And all that he could see, and all that he could se....
The top
...was the other side of the mountain.
Ok so what's up there? At first you enter an area where you are supposed to remove any headgear (e.g sunglasses, hats etc) and shoes. Then you line up to enter the little hut where the actual footprint is (that is the supposed footprint of Lord Buddha or possibly a god stepping down from heaven). Inside you kneel, clasp your hands together and bow to the supposed footprint, and bang your head three times on the ground. It's true, you are to do that.
The footprint itself is hidden beneath a cloth, and no cameras or video recording is allowed so you don't really know what's in there. Googling around has not given me a better view either so wether or not there actually is anything beneath the cloth is left for speculation. I was a bit disappointed because of this.
On the other side the queue dissolved. You are now supposed to ring the big bell on the right side as many times as you have done the climb. Mihiri banged the thing three times. It was the first time for me so I only got to pull the string once.
We met Mihiris father when we went back to the entrance (be silence sign) where you could also donate and have a wish read out loud. I might have wished to see the real footprint without some self-appointed besserwisser having it covered but Mihiri advised against it, indicating that being kicked 1072 steps down the stairs by an angry monk is probably not the best way to get down.
The trail down
Pretty much as the trail up but reversed. It's rather steep at some times.
Mihiri managed to get a signal somewhere in the middle of the track and order a three-wheeler to pick us up at the finishing line, to drive us back to the Blue magpie. We waited for half an hour before we decided to walk to meet it. It didn't show up so we walked to the nearby village where Mihiri contracted one of the villagers to drive us in his tuktuk.
Back at the cabin we took a bath in the stream.
The others in the traveling party had not yet arrived, and after a while it started to get dark. We had imagined visions of one of them falling off the track and rolling down a mountain side, being eaten by angry snails, but eventually they showed up. We had dinner and some drinks before bedtime.
Driving home
The next morning Mihiris father drove one car back to Battaramulla trough the ever so exciting traffic in Sri Lanka. We only stopped twice, once for checking out a possible lunch place and once to get a King Coconut drink. Ok when we got close to Battaramulla we also stopped to buy bread.
Monday
Common Monday for Mihiri. In the evening we went to a nearby playground and Isak escaped into one of those playhouses where we could not reach him. We had to grab him when he poked his head out at the slide.
It should be noted that the kids are not allowed to wear shoes in these playhouses. We didn't know that so a hefty guard woman came and told us.