Week Without Walls- Day 1 Exploring Belihuloya

Journey to Belihuloya

A burst of energy rushed through my veins as I stepped onto one of the three white vans labeled “OSC Nuwara-Eliya 3” and as I buckled up and got ready to start off our first day of the Week Without Walls Trip to the central hills of Sri Lanka. Although it was really challenging to wake up really early in the morning, which I as a night owl is not a fan of, the idea about exploring the central highlands including the cloud city of Nuwara-Eliya, the amazing plains of Haputale and the moist yet adventurous landscape of Belihuloya truly drained away all forms of lethargy and tiredness as soon as we embarked on our almost four hour journey.

According to the itinerary, we were to stay at Belihuloya on the first day, which is a small village approximately 150 km away from Colmbo in the Ratnapura district of the Sabaragamuwa province of Sri Lanka. The DP1 students that were in my van including me, Josh, James, Liam and Lucca spent the first two hours talking and then all of us slept until we arrived at a small shop in Belihuloya where we had our fist lunch meal. The spicy aroma that invaded our nostrils just as we sat down beside the table, made all of us excited to feast on the delicious Sri Lankan food that was prepared for us. After eating the delicious yet savoury meal, which most of us had second and even third servings of, we all got prepared with our cameras and sunscreen to explore the small river ecosystem that was right next to the lunch shop. This was our first expedition. And oh boy, we were all excited.(at least a few of us were). We arrived at the side of the river after walking down a couple of flights of stairs, and through the small garden that was built right next to the lunch shop. The river ecosystem was absolutely mesmerizing. I am sure the pictures below would explain it all.

By the small stream picutre credits: author
Picture credits: author
Picutre credits author: James trying to exlpore the area
Picture credits author. The white water reminded me of our time at Kithulgala
Picture of the small barnacles in the water: credits author
The beautiful river ecosytem : picture credits author
The garden at the luch stop: picture credits author
On the way to the river: picutre credits author
The view from the luch shop.. we were excited to see the mountains that we would be visiting. Picutre credits: author
This was absolutely stunning. Picutre credits: author

 

After the small stay at the river side we got back onto our vans and prepared to go to our final destination for the day and that was Belihuloya, where we would be spending our first night out in the dense wilderness and jungles of Sri Lanka. We got onto our camp site by crossing through beautiful emerald terraced oaddy fields. Looking our for leaches and having each others back was just a simple example of our collaboration, that helped us to get onto our campsite without getting all bloody and nasty. Just as we got to Belihuloya I experienced a great change in temperature. It was not as low as it was in Nuwara-eliya or Haputale but it was much cooler and livable when compared to the boiling temperatures of Colmbo during the months of April. We were served some traditional Sri Lankan corriander tea, which I loved, but was not actually a favourite amongst the authors, and this truly helped me to revitalize and get back into my senses. During the night we wrote down our reflections, had an amazing BBQ meal and played ball passing. The enjoyment that we had was beyond explainable. Finally it was time for us to go to bed, or rather sleep inside a net. Sleeping while listening to the chirping of the birds, the noises of the frogs, the sound of the leaves rustilng in the wind was infact a truly new and unforgettable experience.

The amazing view of the paddy fields: picture credits Pep
The amazing view of the paddy fields. Picture credits:Pep

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