5500 Steps To The Top Of Sri Lanka: Adam's Peak

The most exciting part of my 10 days-long Sri Lanka trip was the fifth day.

I spent the first five days of my trip along the west coast, taking it easy, relaxing and surfing by the beach. Now, a very long and exhausting journey was ahead of me, because it was time to head inland. The day had a long and tight itinerary. We (me and my travel buddy) first arrived at Nuwara Eliya, making brief pauses the tea fields and the famous English tea factory Pedro Estate. We then took another journey to a town called Nallathaniya. After checking-in to a hotel we took a few hours of nap and woke up at night with one ultimate goal: watching the sunrise at Adam's Peak at 2243 meters high.

A brief introduction to Adam's Peak: It's basically a mountain that could not be shared among religions. Long story short; an important person left his/her footprint at the top. However, every religion argues that the footprints belonged to someone else. According to Buddhist belief: it is the first Buddha, according to the Hindu belief: the first Shiva, and according to Islam and Christian belief: Adam. Anyway, historians argue, travellers climb.

So, how difficult is the hike?

The mountain is 2243 meters high. 

You don't really need the advanced mountaineering equipment to climb. All you need to do is go up the stairs. Yes, you heard me. You just climb those stone steps. Well, 5500 of them to be precise. Sounds doable, hey?

What's up there?

Tourists from many parts of the world climb Adam's Peak to watch the sunrise. The sun rising from behind the hills covered with forests is really worth-seeing from above the clouds. What's even more interesting is a mind-blowing phenomena. Following the sunrise, a triangular shadow is formed on the opposite mountains, almost an equilateral triangle. The sunlight hits the mountain and the temple at the peak from such an angle that the resulting shadow will be a perfect triangle.

Besides tourists, a lot of local people also climb because of the temple at the peak. 

What time of the year is more feasible?

The period November-March is when the region receives the least amount of rain throughout the year. During the rest of the year, there is heavy rain in the area because of the monsoon season. So, the climb won't be feasible since the trail will be muddy and slippery. Also during the rainy season, the lighting on the climbing route is off. Concluding; the best time of the year to climb is January and February. 

How to get there?

I don't mean to discourage you Steemians, but public transportation is incredibly difficult in Sri Lanka. The situation gets much worse as you go inlands, because you have to make at least one transfer by bus between any given two towns. Not only that, but the buses are so slow that it will take three times as long to reach your destination. The crowd and the shakiness of the bus are the cherry on the top. 

Huge warning: You would be stupid to not have snacks with you on such a long journey. I am that stupid person The already-long journey seemed infinitely long due to the impact of starving. I came to the conclusion about myself that I would be the first one to be eliminated if I were to join the reality show Survivor. 

There are certain routes to climb Adam's Peak, but the most commonly used route starts in Nallathaniya. 

Where to stay?

Usually, the hotels in Sri Lanka were incredibly cheap. However, the motto "Where there is a nature wonder, the tourists must be charged by every breath they take" is quite prevalent in this part of the island. So, the hotel prices in this region increase dramatically.

We stayed at the Watshala Inn. Breakfast and dinner were all self-service so we always ended up getting more than we needed on our plates. Tea brewing throughout the day was a huge plus for a tea-lover like me. The hotel had gorgeous views of Adam's Peak. A room for two people including breakfast was $ 36, but I remember having to pay a lot of extra for the water, tea, and so on. 

And the climb starts...

I was recording my voice at certain intervals along the way (you know, so my grandchildren can listen one day) , and I want to write down what I extracted from those recordings. 

00:00 – We have just left the hotel, off we go! We started a little earlier because we thought we were "just a tad bit" unfit. There are a lot of buffets and souvenir shops on both sides along the way. 

01:00- We started climbing up the stairs. It looks normal for now, not yet deadly tiring. The problem is, the hill looks really REALLY high above and it looks like we will never be able to reach it anyhow. While we are debating over whether it is reachable, groups of local people are coming down, greeting us. For some reason, they all look extremely stoned.

01:30- This voice-recording included some info about Nuwara Eliya so that I wouldn't forget about it. People were giving me the weirdest looks while I was recording my voice. 

02:00- The shopkeepers are trying to persistently invite us for a break when walk by the buffets. 

02:30- The stairs are a little steeper now, we are going with a slower pace. 

03:18- Half an hour ago, we took a tea break ate the snacks we purchased at the hotel. The tea they offered was so flavory that we almost forgot about our exhaustion. We then hit the road again. Now, the steps are really high and steep but the peak itself still seems far away. 

03:45- An "awww <3" moment: Two tall foreign girls were helping out two elderly Sri Lankan ladies. 

03:51- We just saw a beggar with missing legs. How the hell did he get himself halfway through?! 

04:00- My friend has started to show signs of exhaustion and heavy breathing. We are walking very slowly at this point. Finally, the summit seems a bit closer. Seeing other people just as exhausted motivates us in a strange way. 

04:30- We're at the last bit of the trail, it's very very steep and steps are knee-high, even higher. Everybody around us is groaning with pain. Since the inclination won't get any better until the top, I have to take a break in every ten steps or so. My friend is really exhausted now, so I am also a bit concerned about her. I can't help but think about how we are going to go down with this exhaustion.

05:00- We're FINALLY at the top. Officers tell us to take off our shoes, but interestingly there are tourists walking around with shoes on. We somehow manage to make our way in with the shoes, trying not to set foot in the temple. The crowd is insane. The hardest part is to find a spot where we can watch the sunrise. Everyone has the same goal, so there is an incredible amount of scuffle going on. One would even think that there was a Black Friday promotion on top of the mountain! 

Anyway, the sun starts to rise sometime between 5: 30-6: 00.

07:00- We're on our way down, our legs are terribly stiff. They are trembling so badly that it's noticeable from outside. It is beyond my control to stop it. Anyway, the hill was magnificent as expected but it was so crowded. The crowd and the hurry to take pictures of the sunrise took away the magic of enjoying and appreciating the mome... Ooops, my friend is crying now, gotta go. 

Even though we almost died from exhaustion, it's surprising that we still can smile. Our legs stayed stiff for the next couple of days, making it a huge struggle to walk. Nevertheless, the happiness of being able to accomplish this sort of "challenge" was priceless. 

Would you be able to climb all those 5500 steps? Drop me a comment below if you liked the content ;)

The article was paraphrased from the post on my personal blog