Week Sixteen. The Pilgrimage to Adams Peak
After two days on the road we finally arrived in Ella a beautiful small town in the mountains. Ella was alive with activity and tourists all clambering about to see the many natural wonders this village and its surroundings had to offer. It was strange to see other westerners because although we had only been hitching for two days, the experiences we had shared and the people we had met off the beaten track made our time on the road feel like weeks. We took a walk along the train tracks to a small waterfall but upon seeing the lines of tourists heading upward we decided instead to hide away, sitting on a rock and reading and sleeping in the sun, enjoying simply being.
The next morning Max and I went our separate ways, he to Kandy to meditate in silence for 10 days and myself to take the pilgrimage to Adams Peak.
I opted for the train this time. I refused the second class which was filled with a Swedish school group and opted to sit instead in the quickly filling third class, I was not yet ready to give back into the comforts on my first world life. Here in third I made friends with a man who had served 30 years in the army, ate food from the locals and had a young girl fall asleep on my shoulder. It made me feel like a part of things once again.
On arrival to Dalhousie the tiny village at the base of the climb I realised I had no plan and only the equivalent of $7 Australian dollars as all the ATMS had been out along the way (a regular occurrence here). Getting off the bus and looking around I made eye contact with a boy who had been on the same train as me. Without even asking each others names we began to bargain for a room together for the hike was not to start until 2am. Finally we found one, splitting costs and him buying me dinner as I had to embarrassingly explain I had no money left. The room was awful, but I managed a few hours sleep tucked underneath my sarong to hide from the thousands of mosquitoes that swarmed around.
Before I knew it alarms went off and it was time to begin the hike. I put on every layer of clothing I had, for up in the mountains the temperature dropped dramatically.
The climb was one of the strangest things I have experienced. A supposedly spiritual hike to the temple at the top of the mountain, the place where is was said Adam first set foot in this world, was filled with stalls peddling toys and children’s posters to mini Buddhas and the worst food I had experienced in my whole time on this island. It was like a strange side show alley full with hundreds and hundreds of Sri Lankan’s and westerners. Stuck like sardines as we got closer to the top with everyone pushing together tighter and tighter in a race to reach the peak before the sun rise.
It was possibly one of the most physically challenging things I had endured since I don’t know when. Half way up I was overcome with altitude sickness. Swaying, almost vomiting. I felt like there was no way I could go any further and then I saw mothers with babies, 90 year old woman and men all slowly making their way up with what seemed like ease and I was humbled.
I continued one foot after the other and the higher I got it became slowly easier.
As dawn broke I was only 100 meters from the peak, but with the queue so tight I decided to stop pushing up through it and stay on the steps squeezed in with some other travelers I had met along the way. As the sun begun to peep over the mountains in the distance I retreated into my own silent world and held my head up to the new day. It was a sight like no other that had the ability to make you forget the 4 hours spent climbing stair after stair. It had not been quite the spiritual experience I had thought to of had, but it became more than that. I had been humbled and had finally allowed myself to show the struggle that journey had been. As the sun rose fully into the sky I did not bother to try to make it to the very top. For me standing on that steep decline, looking out over the mountains and the mist that ran through them like rivers was enough. I had found myself again in a different way than I imagined, but in the way that I had really needed after all.
