Over the last week, the Down South group part of the WWW micro trips went south to the Back and Beyond Kahandamodara base, which was a logistical day where we were getting familiar with the rooms and our room arrangements. This was a fairly chill day as we got in the pool and then took a walk down to the beach that sits right next to an estuary. We were out there for a while and me being someone who can get quite impatient this was a nice challenge for me to chill and embrace the view as well as the moment.

The next day was probably one of the most exciting days for me. We got to visit an old temple in Sithulpawa on the edge of Yala where we got to look at presence of history on the walls where I learned that edges/ledges were made on cave walls to create this concave like effect so that rain would not drip down into houses that were built into caves. This was shown in the difference in color between the two parts of the rock, one which has had almost no water activity and the other which has moss and plants growing on it. This was interesting to see a bit of old architecture and link it to what I know in science.

This day had more adventures that were somewhat unplanned that became the main memories from that day. On the exit out of Sithulpawa, we got to see a lot of biodiversity, especially peacocks and surprisingly an elephant. However, here is where the memory comes from, the bus that I was in was still looking at the elephant and then attempting to get past the road. The bus in front had gone past keep in mind, but as we tried to progress past the elephant, they started to approach us and block the way that we were trying to get past. The elephant then came closer and attempt to hit the bus however we were able to get past with two of the tires of the road and the elephant less than 2 inches from collision with us. This was quite the experience that then turned into a joke later but taught me to not panic and also take a some risks for a bit of thrill. This day however was not complete as we drove down to Bundala where we got into safari jeeps and got to explore the wildlife park. This was pretty cool and nice to take moments to just sit in nature and hear the birds as well as the plants move with the wind. We were able to see a blue tailed bee eater as well as a chestnut tailed bee eater, which were some pretty cool birds to see for an amateur bird-watcher such as myself. We got to see a crocodile, eagle and a lot more peacocks and elephants in which we had another encounter with an elephant that started to chase us at the end. This again progressed as a joke, but I definitely don’t regret the ride, especially when we stopped and got to enjoy the view of the Ocean and nature in general.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Wednesday was a traveling day and not much happened that day except for going 20 minutes into the forest to a fish spa where these little fish would come and eat off dead skin from our feet.

The Final two days were quite chill and I got sidelined with a bit of an ankle sprain so I had to miss the waterfall however it was quite a collaborative day where we played this game one night werewolf which got us to explore various characters in a mafia like game.

This was for sure an interesting trip where I got to socialize outside of my immediate social group and the main lesson I explored was the being appreciative of nature and the beauty in stillness.