Week Without Walls trip

January 29th – Week Without Walls, where do I even start? I would say that my experience in the highlands and mountain ranges of Sri Lanka, with some of my close friends is one that I won’t forget. To provide some context, WWW is a 5-day trip that OSC students take to different places in Sri Lanka.  On my trip, we were chaperoned by Mr.Russo & Mr.Wallace aka Bahama/mountain goat hahaha. 

We set off on our expedition early Monday morning. The bus ride was honestly really chill, it was just the boys who consisted of myself, Akhil, Olau, Dimitri & Cohen, and Mr.Russo. I decided to sit at the front of the van with the driver, this was unexpectedly a great opportunity for me to practice my Sinhalese speaking. As a Sri Lankan boy, the national language Sinhala is essential, however growing up speaking English as my mother tongue and living in an English-speaking household, I haven’t had many chances to express my Sinhala, which has resulted in it not being so great. Anyway the opportunity was pretty cool, I was able to connect with the van driver and also help him translate the directions from English to Sinhala.

The first stop that our journey took us to was the waterfalls near central Sri Lanka. I made a very good decision to bring my Canon DSLR camera along with me. I love photography, especially landscape and travel photography. However, my favorite type of photography is sports photography. I love taking pictures of surfing and waves, and as a passionate surfer myself I adore it when people take pictures of me surfing because they are just so cool!

The waterfalls made for some awesome pictures of myself and my friends, I was also able to capture the breathtaking scenery that surrounded us. The first day was by far the easiest because we didn’t physically exert ourselves so much. That brings me to day two, which was by far the hardest day. This was the hiking day where we had to complete stages 12 and 13 of the Pekko trails. Don’t get me wrong, the hike was beautiful, at one point we were walking on the edge of a cliff while being surrounded by clouds, this was one of the coolest moments that I have experienced for sure!

However, with this being said, the trials did come with their money challenges. For one the leeches. There were so many. Fortunately for me, I have become a seasoned and experienced traveler. Especially in terms of hiking, so this was normal for me and not much of an issue. Another thing was, since we were so high up in terms of altitude, the weather was freezing, and to make matters even worse it started to rain. This was a very significant challenge for me because I was cold, and the hike was so long, nearly 14km. Due to these factors, it almost felt like it would never end.  With this being said, I do personally believe that challenges and difficulties are an essential part of life because once you overcome them you can enjoy the moment so much more knowing you pushed past the hardship. 

Day 3, was pretty much the same as day 2, we did a very similar hike. It lasted about 12 km but was arguably even harder, simply due to the terrain and the amount of climbing that we had to do. My highlight from this day was the train ride. It was a cool experience for sure.

Finally day four, the highlight of the entire trip, and one for the record books! This was the best day by far, we started by driving up to the Highlands National Park, to go and see the world’s end. Yes, Worlds End! The name is very dramatic but trust me it perfectly describes what you see up there. The hike up to the peak of the world’s end wasn’t too bad, only around 5 km, and once you get up there the view is simply spectacular. To conclude a beautiful day, our teachers decided to take us to the Grand Hotel in Nuwara Eliya. This was the best possible way to end our trip! The hotel was so nice, and I made so many memories with my friends. I remember the boys went down to the Piano lounge to play some songs, and we ended up attracting a large and enthusiastic crowd. The hotel provided us with some amazing food, and there was a heated pool too, which felt so refreshing to dive into.

Over this trip, I ended up becoming a lot closer to some of my friends and made some incredible memories. We also faced a lot of challenges and hardship but as a team, we pushed through them and prevailed. The Highlands Week without walls in dp1 is a trip that I have remembered for a long time, and I recommend it for next year’s group, it should be on your bucket list!