Adam's Peak, Sri Lanka

After a week on the coast we headed for them there hills, the largest and most prominent of which is called Adam's Peak.
Now Adam's Peak is famed for a walk, or more correctly a pilgrimage. You walk to the summit for sunrise, it's Sri Lanka's answer to.......... us heathen Brits most have something similar, but lord knows what - there's a footprint on the top and depending on your religious inclination, it's either Buddha's or Adam's.

The synopsis is, you get up at 2am, walk up a 2,400 metre mountain, ring a bell or two, say at prayer at a temple and gawp in wonder as the sun does it's thing. The good news is there's a head start, the village is at 1,300m and there are 5,000 steps, so no scrambling over rocks. The bad news? None of the guest houses have hot water, so cold showers at 2am are the order of the day and well, have you ever walked down 5,000 steps at 7 in the morning?

Our stock of provisions was good, we had cashew nut chocolate, polos and Hawaiian biscuits (with coconut). We also had the kit, we've lugged it round for the last three months and finally we could wear our jumpers, jackets and walking boots,

Obviously, we sprang up that hill like mountain goats and were happily ensconced with 300 Sri Lankans, 15 or so gringos and some monks for 5.30am. To give credit where it's due (by-the-by you earn good karma credit for doing the walk) it was the best sunrise we've seen. When the old ball of burning Hydrogen finally crested the horizon, it may have been the drums, it may have been the prayers and gasps, it may have been the fact you couldn't feel your hands, but somehow the slog up the mountain felt easy and that moment was good.

The last thing to add is once down, we had a herbal bath heated over a fire, which we can recommend; and that two days later we're still looking at steps with apprehension and our calf muscles still hurt.