An Adventure to the Knuckles

It had been a normal sunny afternoon when the dread would hit me. I had just been relaxing in my room listening to music when my dad would come in with a “surprise”. School was going to start up in the next couple of weeks, and my dad felt it would be best if we used some of this time to go on an adventure to the Knuckles mountain range. But this was not going to be like our regular adventures. This would be a 3-day camping trip deep into Knuckles rainforest. This was an unexpected surprise for me, as I had hoped to just relax before school started. This would sadly not come true, as the trip was mandatory to do. So I spent the next day packing my clothes and praying that there was not going to be any leeches to bite me.

At 5:00 the next day I knew my reckoning had come. Already I could feel the dread creep down me as I noticed in the corner of my room the lights turning on. With bags packed and hearts heavy I sleepily stumbled through my room and into the car.  My dad had invited a couple of friends over for the trip as well, so I would not be doing this alone. The car ride to get towards the knuckles mountain range took us about 5 hours to travel, with that time I spent most of it listening to various podcast and music to help get my mind off of things. Our trip took us through the countryside of Sri Lanka passing through small towns and upwards towards the central highlands. Sri Lankas main mountain ranges are located in the central part of the country, this is where the name central highlands come from. However, what makes the knuckles so special is that it is on the northern outskirts of the central highlands and is home the dozens of uniquely endemic species only found on that mountain range.

Our first stop would be at Sir John’s Bungalow, a small little cottage just at the edge of the Knuckles rainforest and where we would use as our base camp for the upcoming days. That first night we prepared our hiking equipment and got ready for the next few days of continuous walking.

The next day started with an early breakfast at 6 am. It was a Sri Lankan breakfast with all the best stuff like dhal, xxx. After a good breakfast we began to set out on our 3-day trip to see some amazing water falls. Our guide xxx, came with us to help prevent us from getting lost deep within the jungle and as well as to help assist us if necessary. The first 2 hours of hiking had felt like a breeze for us. With high morale, we were confident with the trip. Little did we know things were about to go quite downhill (literally). As we progressed to the half way mark, we came to a section were we were forced to proceed downhill on a very slippery surface. Over the course of this one day, I successfully managed to fall over 10 times. This would be only the start of this journeys chaos. As we traversed up and down mountains, we began to feel the strain of our legs giving in. Luckily we were besides a stream at that moment and was able to rest and have lunch there. Our journey continued as we traversed thicker into the jungle, dodging the leeches and other bugs trying to get a piece of us. As I kept walking, the road kept getting longer. Minutes turned to hours and I could feel my legs soon giving out. but then I heard it. The sounds of water continuously crashing, it was subtle but it was there. So with a sudden boost of energy, we all pushed ourselves one final time, and there it was. Our camp site which was located just beside a beautiful waterfall, with pillars of rock surrounding us from all sides. The remaining day we spent setting up our tents on a rock bed and preparing dinner. Our legs at that point were so sore that we could not go too far from the camp without our legs giving in. So with the remaining day, we spent the time going for a swim into the almost bottomless pool. The feeling of getting hit by the freezing water helped wake us up as well as reduce the muscle pain.

The second day arrived and our backs were aching. turns out sleeping on rocks is not comfortable and everyone agreed. With legs and back aching we reluctantly ate our breakfast and prepared for the day ahead. This would be a shorter day trip towards the top of a couple of waterfalls. Although this trip was not as intense as the first day, there was a lot of sights and amazing views from the top of the area. Overall the experience was much calmer and had less strain on our legs.

With the final day came both celebration and fear. I was happy because I was finally able to leave, but I was fearful because I would have to climb the super steep steps which I constantly fell down. However, this would turn out to be only a small part of the trip, for a majority of it, the hike was downhill and that meant that I was able to relax my legs a bit more. As we began to get closer and closer to our destination, clouds up ahead were looming over us. This was when all of a sudden the rain let loose on us. This was even more incentive to rush back as we tried our best to cover ourselves and make it towards our car. By the time we had finally arrived, we were all soaking wet and sweaty from exhaustion. We had finally made it back and we celebrated with some warm showers and removing any leaches that may have joined us for the ride. Overall the experience has been very difficult but some of the adventures and things done there have been so unique and special that I could not forget about it.