When far away from the Colombo heat, one must take advantage of the cooler mornings and lesser humidity by taking long treks through the vast landscapes Sri Lanka offers. I descended upon this activity when it presented itself because in Colombo there aren’t many open areas to run without traffic at either side. During the winter holidays I spent a week travelling through Sigiriya and Kandy.
When one thinks of Sigiriya they think of Lion’s rock. An ancient fortress where once Sri Lankan kings ruled over their empire. They adorned the rock with paintings of women taking part in a religious parade holding flowers that blossom to the heavens. My family and I climbed this 350 metre tall gentle giant of nature on an overcast day. We were lucky for the clouds because as the sun climbs to its mid-day peak there would be no trees to shelter us from the impending burns on our backs. As we summited the climb, the rains welcomed us with the cool breeze and a quick shower before allowing the sun to shine, just in time for the perfect snapshot of some jurrasic park-esque mountains in the distance as per my mom. Although we walked over 3.23km and took over 5000 steps, it felt like a moderate exercise.
After a quick break for coffee in the town much to my parents delight, we set off for our accommodations to rest our sore feet. This we of course decided to complete on foot through the rain. However it must have held us in favour as it soon stopped the moment we hit open ground. On the way we came across an old pagoda and to make my strava map at least a little bit interesting I walked around it. A mere 2.59km and over 3000 steps later, we arrived.
The next day we wanted to view Lion’s rock from the scenic Pidurangala. Sadly the weather had something else in mind as the fog clouded our view of the rock. I still think it was fun to hike up in a cloud because the only droplets rolling down my back were from the rain. We had to remain cautious and didn’t climb further up the rock to avoid slipping over the edge so instead enjoyed some rest and cuddles with the resident dogs. After returning to the car park we had hit 1.36km and a little over 2000 steps making this the shortest hike of the holiday. Despite this fact I found it to be one of the more challenging hikes because it required a lot of attention to where you were placing your feet and how I balanced the umbrella which cut of some of my vision to the surrounding areas.
A few days later and we were embarking on our scenic stroll through the Kandy Botanical Gardens, filled with flowers and trees from all over the world; housing orchids, cannonball trees and many other interesting species of plants. This was my second favourite of the walks we did as I could take my time to take in the beauty of this sanctuary, taking photographs of the trees bending to the will of the wind, the monkeys walking by on their daily commute, and my family enjoying their time. My mom triumphed at the exit by exactly guessing the step count: 4608 ending the day with 3.04km of activity.
When my dad asked me at 9am in the morning if I wanted to do a walk around Kandy lake before our 4 hour car ride back to Colombo I jumped on the opportunity. A few minutes later we were enjoying the scenery, the temple opening up on the other side of the lake, saw the biggest water monitor I’ve seen in my 4 years here, saw others basking in the sun, captured a kingfisher catching its morning feast and even had an ice cream. I enjoyed this quality time with my dad as I took at 3.23km and 4000 step walk with him. He gave me tips for my photography trials and I bettered my skills.
Wrapping up this holiday I am happy of all the times I stepped out of my comfort zone and pushed myself to exercise more. I love hikes over any type of activity because you can take your time, admire the view, dawdle around yet still push yourself and your stamina. Whilst I remain in Sri Lanka I hope to take advantage of the lush green nature around me and interact with it more on a daily basis.