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22 April 2019
Adam's Peak Hike: When the moon is not a loyal companion…
Sri Pada, Sri Lanka
Find Out how our trip to Adam's Peak has been totally compromised by the full moon.
Are you planning a trip to
Adam's Peak? Worth the hike people say!!! Don't forget to read our experience to Sri Pada; It could be
interesting for all of you guys. What an insane ride we had! While scheduling
this journey in February we forgot a small but important detail which
compromised totally our trip: the influence of the full moon.
Let me tell you better: we
were coming from Haputale and we were up to the Hotel in Nallathanniya: Grand
Adams Peak, which was just 100 m from the Adam's Peak starting point. Our plan
was arriving to the hotel, having a good meal and starting the ascend around 2
am in order to reach the peak around 5 am to catch the early morning sunrise.
All these plans have been
sorely compromised due to the full moon. Yes, seems that Buddhists all
over the world have a high regard for full moon days and as Adam’s Peak is a
holy place, most of them climb the mountain on full moon days. Doing so, seems really
very important for the Sri Lankans. In fact just after the Maskeliya Junction
we had to slow down our vehicle because of the huge queue of pilgrims’
cars headed to Sri Pada. It was around six in the evening and it was
already getting dark. We waited in the hope that sooner or later the road could
get clear.
But for hours nothing happened,
we didn’t move from that certain point. Behind us there were so many cars queuing
and minutes after minutes, the line was getting longer and longer. The Sri
Lankan pilgrims, who probably used to this situation already, were
waiting without any exasperation: some of them came out of their vehicle
chatting with each others and some others playing and singing songs in the
middle of the main road. Vendors were going around selling food and tea; a man
came to us asking even for a foot massage and so on.
Because of all these we
realized that it was ordinary scenery for them, they were well equipped to take
advantage of the circumstances to do some business in order to earn
money. Nothing doing! The situation hadn’t changed one iota for more
than 4 hours.
With a heavy heart we had to turn round our car to find a hotel somewhere closer to Maskeliya. The day after we went around the tea plantations in Malelka and as you can see from my photos here, we could only see Adams's Peak from far. So you better check your calendar to figure out your climb on full moon (poya) days.
With a heavy heart we had to turn round our car to find a hotel somewhere closer to Maskeliya. The day after we went around the tea plantations in Malelka and as you can see from my photos here, we could only see Adams's Peak from far. So you better check your calendar to figure out your climb on full moon (poya) days.
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