Wednesday was another travel day for us, we headed out to the Rainforest Ecolodge, a lodging located in Eastern Sinharaja. To get to the parking lot we had to drive up motion sickness inducing mountains. I was so happy to finally see a toilet, I ran to the bathroom as fast as I could. After THAT, we all transferred from our buses to around 5-6 jeeps to go up the winding mountain roads to reach our accommodation. The ride up was quite scenic, the view was beautiful, our jeep however, was a mess, it made a lot of sounds which it wasn’t supposed to and at some points there were some issues with the engine.

Despite all this we made it to the top where the temperature was JUST right, very refreshing. After we had lunch we headed into the forest to revive fish massages from the endemic fresh water tetras. Here, we also learnt about the layers of the rainforest (emergent, canopy, sub-canopy, understory, and forest floor). After about 15 or so minutes of muddy hiking we arrived at a rocky, wet area to dip our feet in. It was my first time experiencing my dead skin eaten by fish, and a very unique experience it was. The tingling sensation felt funny, and more, the water was freezing, it was hard to leave my feet in for more than 20 seconds. 

I was not prepared whatsoever for rain, I had forgotten my raincoat and bag cover in my room, my bag was not waterproof. I didn’t care much for me getting wet but I was absolutely terrified for my camera, there was nothing really protecting it from the water going through my bag. As soon as we got back to the rooms I checked to see if it was working alright and I was relieved to see that it was. I would’ve been very upset if something had happened (note to self: always bring bag cover when going into a RAINforest in the EVENING). Afterwards, we all spent some time relaxing in the lobby where we had tea and finger food. We planned on going for a night walk that evening, before dinner.

I didn’t bring my DSLR for this, which retrospectively, I regret a lot. I had brought my GoPro, it was VERY difficult to take good enough photos because of the lens. Stefan and I tried our ABSOLUTE BEST to take some decent shots, collaboration was key here. We had even worked out the perfect distance to hold the flashlight from to photograph the creepy crawlies, despite all that we had done our coaction accounted for nothing.

Below is the collection of blurry, unfocused, overexposed photos from that night.

The next day we did the waterfall hike, we went slightly off path to go to this one cliff where we saw A LOT of pitcher plants, them and their nice phallic build. The walk was quite nice, I also managed to get some nice pictures of the scenery and frogs which had been spotted.

The most annoying thing about this hike was easily my left leech sock, no matter how tight I tied the knot it would somehow manage to undo itself. Luckily, I didn’t end up with a single leech on my body, likely thanks to the Dettol spray and my ✨anti-leech aura✨

The waterfall location was quite nice, I hadn’t been to a place quite like it before. The water once again was freezing. This one tetra latched onto the soul of my foot (very ticklish). The hike back to the lodge was all uphill given the hike there was all downhill, this was particularly tiring, I stayed in the front because Jaggath Sir (our guide) told us a lot about the plants and forest in general as we went back, I appreciated this. All in all, the hike was quite enjoyable and fun, I hope to do it again if I ever go back. 

Learning Outcomes: 

• LO1: Identify your own strengths and develop areas for personal growth.
• LO2: Demonstrate that challenges have been undertaken, developing new skills in the process.
  • Initially I was having some issues with the camera I brought, it’s not mine so I wasn’t sure of some of the settings, the exposure was VERY high and I only learnt how to control the settings during our Bundala safari, it was at this point the colours on the picture started to look a little better.
• LO5: Demonstrate the skills and recognize the benefits of working collaboratively.
  • Working collaboratively is what helped me take some of the night photos, like ones of the centipede and the ones of the trees. This made my photos turn out a lot better.