Peaks and Pains -Geography IA

Last week my Geography class went on our IA trip, which aimed for us to collect data to use in our IA written reports. In all the previous years the past classes went to Sinharaja Rainforest, but this year we switched it up and went to Amba Estate.

I had never been to Amba before so I was very excited to see what it was like since I had only heard good things about the area. The weeks leading up to this trip we had been creating a survey that we would use when gathering our data from people we interviewed. The questions consisted of different variables each person in the class was looking at in their IA. For me, I was looking at the relationship between education levels and if it affects the affluence of people in the area. Not only that Amba was near the Pekoe trail, which is a hiking trail that sits in the hills of Sri Lanka with different stages along the way. 

Our first day we left and it took about 5 hours to drive to Amba. Once we got there we took a little tour around until after dinner where we tested out our survey on two people working at our hotel, it went very well so we went to bed expecting good things for the next day. 

We started very early for a sunrise hike up to Eagle Rock, and it was breathtaking. Here are just a few photos: 

After breakfast we set out! Our plan for this day was to drive up to a point then join Pekoe Trail #14. Once we got there we did a few surveys, maybe too many since it took us a long time to realize just how far we were from the trail.

We had a van pass us offering to take us up but sadly we did not and regretted it very soon after. Our group had to go up (basically) vertically on a set of stairs and then bushwack into a valley to get up to the start of our trail. Once we started we walked through a village where we did some interviews, but then the trail took us on a very weird path through tall grass to then be opened with a steep zig zag down a mountain. It was horrible. I had just re twisted my ankle (which was an old injury from SAISA basketball) and my hiking boots were way too small so my toes were just being smashed against the front and lastly I had blisters forming on my feet. It was so painful for me and I sadly held the group back with time with the time it took for me to finally get down. Anyways we then had lunch and thankfully no more walking, the bus met us at our lunch spot where they took us to a school to interview a few teachers. After that we went back to Amba for a great dinner and early sleep. Which wrapped up our day one!

Day two we decided to stay close to Amba due to injuries in the group and to save time. The morning we split into two groups, one went down the road to interview and the other went to the village right next door to Amba to collect data. After that, we went on a ‘jungle walk’ which was a glorified name for bushwhacking with leeches feeding on us. It led us down to a small town which was near a cave called Nil Diya Pokuna and at the last minute we decided to go in! I was peer pressured into doing it but I can’t express how grateful I am for that. Usually, caves are quite scary to me but I decided to be a risk taker this time. It took about 25 minutes to get to the bottom of the cave where we were met with crystal clear blue water where we were able to swim in! It was very cold but so refreshing. Overall this cave experience was amazing, here are a few photos:

Day three we planned to walk on Pekoe Trail #16 which follows a rail road to Ella. This walk was gorgeous and was not that demanding compared to the first day after all my injuries although the sun was HOT and I was sweating. Thankfully we got to Ella in time for lunch where we ate a delicious meal at Chill Cafe, and then started on our long bus ride back to Colombo.

Overall this was an amazing experience and trip for me, I had a lot of fun appreciating nature by hiking as well as collecting data it was quite interesting and I learned a lot about it.