Week Without Walls: Highlands

Day 1

On the 19th of January all the students that were participating Highlands including myself departed from OSC in 6 in the morning. We went at the same time as the Anuradhapura group and soon met them on our first destination which was the Yapahuwa Rock. We had with the Anuradhapura and then went to the Yapahuwa rock. While at the bottom we took some shots of the stairs in different angles, here are a few of those shots.

 

 

We then went to the top of the rock where were able to take photos of the scenery around the rock. We used methods such as the rule of thirds to make the subject and the background not be blurred. Here was a photo of me implementing that method, I made the rock as my subject.

We then took a few more pictures of the entrance to the Yapahuwa rock. After that our group and the Anuradhapura group went on our separated ways, we headed to the place we were going to stay which was Back and Beyond, and had our lunch. We then had a debrief where Mr. Lockwood talked about where were going next. It turned out that we were going to Pidurangala to look at the sunset. I remember going to this on my last Week Without Walls. To get up to the rock we had to hike, this part was easy, but the last stretch was the hardest, because there were not steps, we had to get up by climbing onto some rocks and make risky jumps to get to the top. But once we got up there there the view was amazing, since the rock was very wide there were many different places to take photos. I took photos of the Sigiriya Rock that was nearby, then I used my wide angle lense to take photos of the surrounding area. Then the sun started to set so that was the time to take pictures of the sunset. Here are the photos of those moments.

After we got the sunset it was getting dark so we hiked our way down and walked our way back to our place and had dinner. We then got ready to look for a primate called the Grey Slender Lores. We were told to use red lights, so that we the reflection from their eyes. While we were out we did see a reflection from one Slender Lores but we weren’t able to get a photo of it because it was covered by some branches. After that we lost track of it, and continued to look for another one after an hour of looking we weren’t able to find another slender lores. After that we went back and went to sleep.

Day 2

In the morning we decided to take a few photos of the animals that were around resort. We took a few pictures of some jungle fowls and we were looking for a Bulbul, we used Rizqi’s whistle technique because it closely resembled the bul bul chirp. We spent a good 2 hours trying to get a photo of the bird but we were unable to, which was pretty disappointing. We had a delicious breakfast, then we packed our bags and left to go to our next stay which was Sir John’s Bungalow at Matale where we will spend 2 nights. Before we go there we stopped near a river and took pictures of some freshwater crabs. After that we went to the Riverston Park to search for some Endemic frogs. These frogs are found under rocks. We found a bunch but accidentally dropped a rock on one a female endemic frog she didn’t die but she did not try to escape, so we took the time to take some photos of her. We then walked to the top of Mini World End drop and took some pictures of the edge and some people volunteered to sit on the edge and take photos. We then walked back and went to the place we were staying, had some lunch and had some free time to do unpack. We then had some time to reflect on what we did. At night we went to check for endemic organism around the area, I was able to take photos of a leaf-nosed lizard and some frogs.

After that we went to a stream and found a family of freshwater crabs, some of us took a few pictures of them, after that we went back to the Bungalow, had dinner and a delicious dessert.

Day 3

During this day we didn’t do that many things since it was raining, in the morning we had some breakfast, and had some time to do whatever we want for an hour. We were told that if the weather didn’t improve we would have to stay for a few hours. So we had a few more hours of free time, it didn’t improve, so after lunch we were told to do some journaling, then we had another hour of free time, until we were told that we will be going back to Riverston Park, and in the night we got ready to go out, and went back to the Riverston park in hopes of finding riverston snake. We did and found a snake that wasn’t poisonous, so we were able to take many photos of it.  Here’s a photo of it:

After we go what we came for we went back with satisfaction, and had another delicious dinner. Which concluded the third day.

Day 4

On the morning we all packed our bags, had breakfast and left Sir John’s Bungalow to go to Nuwareliya, it was 5 hour long drive, I managed to sleep through most of the way. We were staying Jetwing, after we unpacked our bags we left to go to Victoria park, to get pictures of some endemic birds, we weren’t able to but I got a few pictures of some plants. Here is one of them.

After an hour or two we left and had a few hours to ourselves. We were then told that we will be going out to take photos of some frogs. We got some photos and went to Jetwing’s forest reserves. After that we left and had some dinner.

Day 5

In the morning we left to go to Pidurutalagala, due to the bombings we had to get some clearance. After 2 hours of waiting we were able to get to the top, once I got out I notice that the air was thin since I felt some resistance when breathing. We were only allowed to stay there for a few minutes due to safety reasons, so we went back had a meal that was our breakfast and lunch, and packed our bags and left to go back to OSC. Overall this was also trip where I was able to improve on my photo taking skills. I found this trip to be very important because it was my last WWW trip.