We first got the form to pick the trips we wanted to go back in November I believe, the first time I saw that cycling was an option without any hesitation I picked it, not only that I convinced some of my friends to do it as well. Nonetheless, my main thought process making this decision was that this would be my last WWW so why not have a memorable, activity-filled WWW? This was one of the main reasons for my decision, my second reason was cycling. I enjoy cycling, and when I heard I got to cycle with my friends for a week on roads and mud. I couldn’t say no, this was when I picked Cycling, the trip was around Dambulla we got to cycle around this place for a week and explore places around and cook and stay in tree houses, Like what is there to dislike.Jumping a few months we went on practice cycling sessions on the weekend which were great and so fun, but I still couldn’t get the excitement away for the actual cycling in Dambulla. Soon after the day came and we drove to Dambulla a four-hour drive from Colombo.

Off-road Cycling for the first time  :

On the first day we started from the side of the street and cycle inside the jungle. While we were still on the asphalt road we came across a funeral, this is where it all went wrong for

some of us. I was leading at this time, but since we were still amateur cyclist some of us were cycling too close to each other. So as I slowed down for the funeral there was a crash in the middle of the group. Three of the students were involved in this accident but nothing bad happened. As we continued on we got to the dirt path where all of us were shaken up. This was when the aftermath of the crash came. One of the cyclist who was involved in the crash were going on the dirt trial, when his tire came of causing him to fall again. When we got to the back of beyond we all were exhausted, tired, and regretting picking cycling. Once we had lunch we went for a little circle around the place we were staying at. Once we came back we had to wash our bikes then our selves, ( this was the best part of the day since there was hot water) afterwards we had a debriefing session, where we talked about the day and ate dinner and went to sleep.

Talking with death:

On the second day we had to wake up around 6 30 and get ready for breakfast. We made our own sandwiches and got ready for a long day of cycling. On this day I decided to cycle up steep hill to get out of camp it was very slippery, however I over came it. It was a long day of cycling, as we got out of the dirt road and got on asphalt cycling became so fun with downhills, this day was going pretty good. We turned into this road and everything changed we cycled up hill for a bit and turned into a path covered with trees from both side. As I went downhill very fast due to the steepness I didn’t realise but there was a speed breaker. This almost made me go flying but I quickly applied my breaks. As I parked up I saw one of my class mate flying down the hill. This was when this individual went flying right into the ditch, this scared all of us we were terrified that something happened to her. As the guides and the teachers were taking care of her we were all traumatised and scared for our classmate. The courages cyclist didn’t hold back and got right back on her cycle after we had lunch, which was the sandwich that we made. Afterwards we cycled back to camp where we had a bicycle repairer shop. Afterwards we had group 1 cook up a yummy feast for us.

Cooking With The Locals: 

We are on day three now, all of us tired and sore from all the cycling. We all woke up early as usual ate our breakfast and got on the road. This time it was trickier the roads were muddies and harder to cycle on. We got through it and got to the plantation where the locals cooked us a unforgettable meal, after eating all the unseasoned food at the camp this food felt like it came down from heaven. While the locals were cooking we got a lesson on how to scrape a coconut which was fun and then they proceeded to teach us how to make pol sambol a Sri Lankan Dish. After we decided to go surprise the art trip since they were on the way back to our camp, this was one of the best things that happened that day. Seeing my other friends after almost a week made me very happy and refreshed Afterwards we had to make a small detour due to cooking group 2 made bad planning and forgot to buy their vegetables, this made our shortest ride day to the one of the longest. In the night I decided to help out group 2 in the cooking which ended up being a good thing due to them not having a good plan again.

Slowest Cyclist Goes up a Rock:

As usual we woke up early in the morning got ready ate breakfast, and got on the road. First we decided to go shoping for my group as we were cooking tonight and we decided to make egg fried rice. So we went shopping bought the essential vegetables and other goods. Afterwards we went to the Pidurangala rock area where we had a challenge for the slowest cyclist where I manage to win with an astonishing time of 2 min 28 seconds, afterwards we went to where we drop off our cycles.  We went through the temple and started the climb. The climb was extra hard due the physical exhaustion we had gone throughout the past few days. We as a group managed to climb the rock where we did a reflection on top of the rock. Afterwards my friend and I decided to go down the rock sooner than the others because we didn’t want to get wet from the rain, so we missed out on the group picture. We declined the mountain and had lunch at this cafe where we had our own choice of food. I decided to have a fried rice, and then afterwards some of us went to barista and grabbed a coffee. This was also very needed because I needed to be caffeinated or else I don’t think I could have helped my group cook that night. After we got to the dirt muddy roadour teachers let us go as fast as we want in the mud and let’s just say it got messy. Then we went to the river for the final time, and then my group and I got ready to cook and cooked up a feast for the crew as this was our last night. Went to sleep after a tired night.

 

 

 

 

End Of A Unforgettable Week:

Last day, we woke up early ate, packed our bags did our final room checks, put our bags in the truck and departed from camp forever never to come back. After many memories it was finally coming to an end. We cycle through dirt roads the whole day. The day was very sunny and some of us were having headaches and bad dehydration, we kept on racking Kilometers. Me personally I would say this was the hardest day out of all of the others, only because my body was week and also I was sad to say bye to the place and the friends I made along the way, specially the guides, who I really bonded with. We had our final picture taken as a group on this last day. We got onto our vans and headed towards Colombo. Even though I was very excited go back home to my bed and my parents, there was something that just didn’t feel right, a missing piece in the puzzle. The connections and the friendships and all the memories that were built on this final week without walls is unforgettable. I felt more closer to my friends than ever. On the way back we had a small pitstop at P&S where we had lunch, shortly after we got in the van and started coming to Colombo. Overall I would say this was one of the best trips i’ve been on specially because I enjoy cycling and also because of all of the memories.