Pedals and Paths: WWW The Middle Way

I’ve always wanted to do the infamous cycling Week Without Walls (WWW) trip since I was younger, so for my last trip I decided to do it. This trip tested me physically, biking everyday was very tiring and I’ve never done anything like it before, but I’m very proud of myself with how I did. 

Day 1: Today we set off early from school and had about a 3 hour drive. Once at our destination we got out of our vans and biked into camp. The ride was gorgeous, we rode beside paddy fields and along a canal. A highlight that was really wholesome was when little kids would say hello to us as we rode by their homes.  This ride was around 32 km long, not difficult at all since the roads were all flat with an occasional muddy puddle here and there. Once at camp we washed up our bikes and then went down to the stream for a little swim which was very cold. 

Day 2: Today was supposed to be our longest bike ride. This ride was also very scenic like yesterday and I had a lot of fun appreciating the nature around us. Tonight was the night my group had to make dinner so we stopped by a local grocery store to pick up a few ingredients. We also stopped by a lake to eat a packed lunch which was very peaceful, although we had a few injuries which everyone was able to recover from quickly to get back on bikes to head home. This ride was around 45km. Once at camp we did a biking workshop, taking parts of a bike and putting it back together, which was really fun and interesting. After my group (Avin, Senaka and Yethmin) started to make dinner. Looking back we should have started a little earlier because the flame boiling water took at least an hour to just start to boil. But we worked well to cut tomatoes, onion and garlic to make a fresh tomato sauce as well as making the pasta, meatballs and garlic bread. 

Day 3: Today we set off to have lunch at a place where we could learn how to cook. The ride itself was pretty calm and easy, we rode by a lake overlooking sigiria which was breathtaking, we also had a few run ins with some cows along the way. The lunch itself was amazing, the fresh pol sambol, paperdams, rice and other curries were so delicious and definitely worth the wait. Later we met up with the other WWW Art group at their camp which was nice to see other friends even for a short time.  Yesterday was supposed to be the longest ride but with our side quest today (seeing the other group) it became the longest ride totalling to 46 km instead of the intended 33km. 

Day 4: Today was probably my favorite day. Our ride took us into Sigiriya and the town surrounding it. There was one stretch of road under these big trees which was gorgeous and I loved going down it.  We also rode around the sigiriya rock, thankfully it was a very clear day so we were able to see quite a lot. We then got to pidurangala rock which we climbed up with some traffic jams of people trying to get up and down at the same time. Once on the rock it was blazing hot but the sky was so clear. When we started to head out it started to pour down rain, I was a little nervous about slipping down but it worked out all right and we avoided a few possible monkey attacks. Our ride back to camp was very muddy from the amount of rain that had passed by, all of us raced down the 1km track since it was out last time which ended in a few falls (including me getting scraped up a little) with a lot of mud everywhere. This day was around 37 km total. 

Day 5:This was our last day, we got packed up at camp. And then setted out on our ride. Today we rode along a canal for the whole ride (around 37 km total). Sadly it wasn’t covered by a lot of shade so the sun was cooking us for a long time. All of us were very exhausted by the end of it so when we finally got onto the buses we all took a long sleep back to Colombo. 

 

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