The long-term lockdown was almost trapping us inside our houses, limiting the travelling courses. However, as things are getting back to normal, me and my family planned to go on a family trip to Kandalama. Last Friday morning we departed from Colombo and only arrived at the hotel at 3 pm. It took about 5 hours with the inclusion of in-between snack stops. The weather was pretty good.

The day we checked-in, there was a special occasion organized by the Kandalama hotel, which we as children could participate in mixing Christmas cake. That was really fun to engage in with a variety of other random children. This made me an opportunity to participate in the area of Creativity related to CAS. We were given all the necessary ingredients, and were instructed to mix all  of them thoroughly. The hotel staff as well as all the guests were following the Covid protocols, so we had less to worry.

There were interesting and beautiful sceneries, so me and my father were immersed in capturing every possible picture of the sky or the mountains or the Sigiriya Rock which was also visible to our hotel.

The second most exciting thing I did in the Kandalama hotel was swimming. Both the days after breakfast and lunch, me and my siblings swam in a competition. As swimming is a good sport for the whole body and was encouraging me on the Activity side, I did not hesitate. I spent like 30-50 minutes everytime. Recently, I also got to know how swimming takes away the impact stress off our bodies.  In fact, there were like four to five pools in the hotel, which in return we were glad of because it ensured our safety from the Covid pandemic. It was always either our family only or another family in the other corner of the swimming pool.

While we were in the hotel, we were able to view many types of other organisms. The most abundantly seen animals were the monkeys. Nevertheless, they did no harm to any of the humans or their property. All the guests were forbidden to feed any of the animals. We also saw an eagle far away in the sky. We also spotted two different chameleons in two different occasions. As for the highlight, on our last day, we saw a frog sleeping. Initially, me and one of my brothers approached it and thought it was dead. But, eventually, it started moving and made us realize it was just napping.

 

After all, that was an amazing journey to Kandalama and I felt excited to be back on travelling with my family. I am hopefully looking forward for many other trips island-wide.

 

LEARING OUTCOMES :

LO3 : Demonstrate how to initiate and plan a CAS experience

LO4 : Show commitment to and perseverance in CAS experiences

LO5 : Demonstrate the skills and recognize the benefits of working collaboratively