The DP1 Orientation trip was a trip to borderlands,Kitulgala,As I am a new student,this gave me an opportunity to make new friends.When I first heard about this trip I was really excited,hearing all the great activities we would be doing such as rafting,cliff jumping,abseiling,This trip would also focus on introducing us to TOK as well.
Day 1:
The bus ride was 3 hours long,and we arrived at a dam site near our canyoning location, we were greeted by hot tea along with some cake,then we wore our safety equipment and went on a 25 minute trek to the canyoning spot,the guides instructed us how to jump and traverse through the canyon.The first jump was the most difficult as we had to avoid a big rock while coming up from the water,luckily no one was injured,after that we kept on sliding down and jumping off the cliffs,which was the most exhilarating part.We had lunch next to the dam and went on a 30 minute steep hike where we practiced some rafting skills,this was the best part of the day.My group was Me,Junsu,Rizqi,Guilia,Iris and Mrs.Jackson,we named our group anti titanic however as we were going through the rapids,we got stuck and almost sank.That part was really funny and scary at the same time.Then we drafted through the river to our accommodation at borderlands where we had dinner and went to sleep for an early next day.
Day 2:
Day 2 consisted of us getting up early having breakfast and morning exercises,we then went on a bus ride through the zig zag rounds to a plantation for where we went a long 30 min hike to the Belilena Cave,it was very annoying as I had to be aware at all time of leeches,and I couldn’t enjoy the views and nature itself.We then split up into 2 groups,one stayed at the Belilena cave while the other hike up to another cave behind the waterfall,it was a very cool experience seeing the writing on the rocks,and the view,we were then told a story called “Allegory of the Cave,at the end of that experience we went down to the other cave and did a mapping activity where we had to reconcile the journey to the cave.Everyone had different interpretations of the journey which was interesting to see.Finally we headed onto a very very long hike to the abseiling point,what made it worse was the fact that it was raining and very slippery when climbing up through the mountain.At the end of the hike we reached our abseiling point,I felt kind of nervous at first but seeing others doing it helped calming me down.Going down the waterfall was an amazing experience however it was slippery and I saw my partner next to me fall down many times.We climbed back up and had lunch and descended down the mountain back to our camp.Overall Day 2 was a day full of excitement and hiking.
Day 3:It was our last day at borderlands,our plan was to interview a woman who was a tailor,we asked questions asking about the ongoing Dam construction and how it affected her and the people who lived over there,it was a nice experience getting to know the thoughts of the people about the dam project,we also got to know about their daily life.We then headed to see the dams and getting to know more about them.At last we headed back to camp,packed our bags and headed back to Colombo.
In Conclusion this was an amazing trip where I got the opportunity to make new friends and get to know all my classmates,I got to experience new activities such as Abseiling and Canyoning which I had never done in my life,and get to know more about TOK as well as nature.