Week Without Walls is a learning experience set up by our school that aims to help us understand the culture and environment in Sri Lanka, contribute in service learning and strengthen our understanding of the curriculum through outdoor education. The 10th and 11th graders are combined before being split up again on one of four trips. This year I was put on the Highlands trip, a hiking-oriented trip that that highlights the natural wealth of the Central highlands. This Week Without Walls connects science through the study of ecology in montane ecosystems, arts through photo documentation and the activity portion of CAS through hiking.
DAY 1
In the morning our Highlands travel group gathered together at school and said our last goodbyes to our friends on the other “Week Without Walls” groups before departing at 6:00AM on the bumpy roads to the Yapahuwa rock fortress. After stopping for breakfast, we continued on for another two hours until we reached the drylands in the center of Sri Lanka. We walked past a temple before Mr. Lockwood pointed out the rock we were hiking… which had a practically vertical incline on the side of the rock. After snapping a couple photos of monkeys, we began the ascent on the staircase ruins.
Here we passed the ruins from the entrance of the rock fortress which had intricate stone carvings. Then we continued along a steep partially new, partially old path up to the summit. Once we reached the top the view towards the countryside surrounding the rock was spectacular, as the cloud cover allowed the sun to seep in and illuminate the golden plantations. Here we took the opportunity to practice our landscape photography skills and rest before climbing back down.
We then practiced different compositions of the entrance ruins where I learnt how to adjust manual settings (exposure, shutter speed, etc.) on my camera to control the outcome of the photo.
At 4:00PM we arrived at ‘Back of Beyond: Pidurangala’ and ate lunch before dropping our bags off at the treehouse and preparing for our second hike. Our aim was to reach the top of the Pidurangala rock to catch sunset so we all set off quite quickly. Generally, there were few photo opportunities on the way up other than the reclining Buddha. At the end we scaled the rocks to get to the top where there were stunning 360o views. We stayed there for a long-time taking photos of the view, Sigiriya and each other until we ended up climbing down the rock in the dark. After our Kotthu dinner at Back of Beyond we began our nocturnal night life walk looking for any Slender Grey Loris’ and although we didn’t see any we did see the amazing stars and constellations in the sky.
DAY 2
Due to our late night we had a late start with breakfast at 7:30am. As our hotel was in a forest we looked for interesting animals to practice our photography. I was able to photograph the jungle fowl and multiple kangaroo lizards. Then we departed for our next destination, Sir John’s bungalow in the Knuckles mountain range. On the way we took multiple stops to capture different landscapes, here I learnt to change shutter speed on my camera to take a still image of moving water.
Close to the bungalow, we went on a hike on the search for the Nannophyrus Marmorata underneath rocks. This species of frog is point endemic to this mountain in the Knuckles, and therefore, cannot be found anywhere else in the world. Once we reached the summit there was a vertical drop straight down, but also a wonderful view of the mountains on a sunny day.
Once we got to Sir John’s bungalow we had lunch and relaxed until we went on a nocturnal night life walk where we found frogs, lizards and insects and practiced close-up compositions. Before this, we talked to two naturalists who knew the Knuckles mountain range extensively. They explained to us the unique environment of the Knuckles and the importance of protecting the ecosystems there.
DAY 3
We woke up at 6:30am to a leaky roof on an extremely rainy day. When eating our Sri Lankan breakfast, we were shown the bent-toe lizard by some staff at the hotel. As it was raining very heavily we weren’t sure if we could finish the full hike we were planning, despite this we still set out in hope to complete the original hike. For a moment the rain had ceased but by the time we started our hike it was back in full swing. The hike was a series of sharp inclines and too few short-lived declines. As we got further up the mountain, the rain also started to pick up along with the number of leeches. once we reached a viewpoint approximately 3/4 of the way up the mountain we were exhausted, soaking wet and covered in leeches. Additionally, this was the point where we realised we lost Mr. Lockwood and Ms. Desline. We back tracked and split up to find them and realised they had taken a wrong turn quite a ways down. Due to this and the heavy rain we decided to go back the way that we came and end the hike there.
Then we went on another nocturnal night life walk where we had hiked the day before looking for Nannophyrus Marmorata frogs. At night we were significantly more successful and found many frogs to practice our close-up compositions. Then we climbed back down the mountain and walked down the road in search of snakes, after walking for quite a while we eventually found one and took photos.
DAY 4
The day started out with breakfast at Sir John’s bungalow before we quickly set out for the long drive to Nuwara Eliya. We took multiple stops to stretch our legs and take photos before reaching Jetwing St. Andrews hotel. Then we went to Victoria Park where we looked at a poster of all the birds there before setting out to try and find them, specifically the Pied Thrush and the Kashmir Flycatcher.
Unfortunately we found neither but we did get good photos of other things. After dinner at the hotel, we went on a frog walk in the area close to our hotel with a naturalist to explain the different species.
DAY 5
We woke up early to go visit the tallest mountain in Sri Lanka, Pidurutalagala, before breakfast. The mountain is being used by the military so we had to wait for up to an hour before we were let inside the gates to drive up to the summit. In this time we practiced our portraits on our friends with help from Calvin. Then we drove all the way up through the clouds to reach the highest point in Sri Lanka. After this we ate breakfast, packed our bags and took the long road back to Colombo.
LEARNING OBJECTIVES
- I developed my photography skills through learning how to manipulate the manual settings to create unique and dynamic photos (shutter speed, ISO, aperture, etc.)
- I learnt about the unique ecology of the Knuckles mountain range and the importance of its preservation
- The naturalists shed light on different species and I got a better understanding of the flora and fauna found in Sri Lanka