Science Trip and DP1 Orientation in Kitulgala – Part 1

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Borderlands Cabins Overlooking the River

View overlooking the river from our Cabin at Borderlands – Picture by Author

After a long delay, we finally had our DP1 orientation Trip at Borderlands – Kithulgala, an Adventure sports centre, located on the Kelani Ganga River. It was awesome.
Looking at the list of items we needed to bring on the trip, I was kind of excited. You could tell that you were going to have a thrilling time if you needed to take water shoes to the mountains. I was excited about this mix of adventure camp and science trip.
It was a long trip to get to Borderlands, filled with packing, carpooling, and bus riding for 4 hours in the twisting and turning mountains, but, we finally arrived at the river. It was COLD, really cold. They gave us some helmets and life jackets and walked us through the safety precautions. As we would slowly move into the river, to practice floating, you could see everyone’s faces of discomfort, as each additional inch of water meant an additional inch of skin that was frozen by the water.
They asked someone to volunteer so they could demonstrate what t do if you fell out of the raft, but everyone stayed silent. It was natural, who would want to leave the comfort of the warm shore, to fall face-first into the freezing water. It was another guide that ended up demonstrating, but that moment got me thinking, “I should participate in whatever I can volunteer for since I didn’t come here to be comfortable but to experience things, and if things don’t go well, it will make a cool memory”

Going down the last rapid, Lucca (front-left) fell in the water – Photo by Wade

It wasn’t time to volunteer though, it was time to get rafting. We rushed down the river rapids with speed and motion, each wave rocked our raft from every direction, It felt like going over 20 speedbumps in a row. On our last rapid, Lucca fell out of the raft, I reached for him as he was falling but it was too late, he was in the water. We pulled him out of the water and checked if he was ok. He was laughing, he even jokingly said that he was pushed into the water by Iason (on his right). Though I saw from behind him that no such thing happened.
We then proceeded to go canyoning. After trekking up the canyon next to the river, we arrived at the top and decided to have a break for lunch. Arvin had the genius idea of using his life vest as a floating table on the water. It was finally time to descend the canyon, and this time, they asked us if anyone wanted to volunteer, so I raised my hand, this time, I was going to take action, without knowing what I had to do.

Just after lunch – Photo by Huirong

We were going to jump into a hole to go down the canyon, and it was my job to explain how you were supposed to jump. I was a bit worried about the responsibility of doing this. They explained, If you jumped or slipped into the shallow part of the water, you could break your leg, but I felt like I was up to the task. By the end, I had gotten so used to the instructions it came like clockwork: Put my arm out for support, Tell them they can’t jump from this part of the rock as its slippery, hold your life jacket with both arms, jump as far as you can to fall in the deep side.
Afterwards, we got to a point where we could jump from 3 meters to practice, and then 5 meters to continue the canyoning. I had already done the 3-meter jump 2 years ago, and I remembered it to be ok. as I was looking down I thought, “well, this should be the worst part, after you jump it’ll be ok”, wasn’t. I would even say jumping was the easy part, it was the falling that made you feel like your soul was leaving your body. I did the 3 meters one a second time before proceeding to the 5-meter jump.
Wow, now that was something. I had to count to 3 in my head before jumping off. The adrenaline I felt was something else, my heart pounding in my chest when I entered the water, it is safe to say it was a great experience. We finished the canyoning and drifted back to camp on the river.

Chilling at the camp – Photo by Mr Duncan

Back at the camp, we talk to each other about this experience, over a bowl of burning hot soup, it was nice to be exhausted. We were all together at the main area of the camp, having dinner and relaxing, but this wasn’t just a DP1 orientation trip, we still had the science part of the trip. As Biology students, we had to set up pitfall traps while the other students were discussing their trip for the next day. With our broken spade, an orange slice and 2 cups, we got to work, digging 2 holes, one near the river, and one farther away from it. The idea was to analyse the difference in biodiversity between the two sites.
We discussed the following day’s rubber plantation trip and headed to our cabins. To our surprise, we had a joint one, where we could hang out with our friends staying next to us. We went to bed fast though, it was late, and we had a big day ahead of us.
Learning objectives:
  • Identify own strengths and develop areas for growth
    • I demonstrated growth, and I know what I need to do in order to improve myself. I realised, that anyone is capable of performing the necessary tasks, such as demonstrating how to fall in the water or leading a group. we all have the physical capacity and knowledge to do so, it’s just a question of mentality.
    • I adopted the idea of living for the future in a way. If I didn’t want to do something at the moment, I thought about how I would feel in a day, or even a few hours afterwards.
    • This helped me think more clearly and allowed me to undertake new experiences, make fonder memories, and live more fully during the trip.
  • Demonstrate that challenges have been undertaken, developing new skills in the process.
    • I challenged myself to volunteer to do things, even If I didn’t necessarily want to. I usually procrastinate and try to do as little as possible, but doing this allowed me to enjoy the day to its full potential.
    • I also grew as a leader. By taking on the responsibility of directing people, and describing the actions they needed to do, I got more comfortable in my communication and in my responsibilities.
    • I’m glad I decided to volunteer.

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