Hike on Adam's Peak

I decided that I had to focus more on my process. I focussed on my breathing and found that piece of myself that enjoys this. A crazy adventure in a faraway land is what you wanted, you are living it, so don’t waste it worrying but enjoy! Out of your head thinking about all kinds of scenarios, into the current moment and experience. Hiking a staircase in the dark is something different than hiking in nature during the day. There are no views to enjoy and the continuous stepping gets rather monotone. After about an hour I finally saw some people coming down the stairs. It was a family with small kids and I felt a little encouraged. After an hour and 20 minutes, I see a resting stop where people are sleeping in tents. It gives me a sense of communion on this trail, I am not doing this alone and my motivation grows.

At the end of my first week in Sri Lanka, I went to Ratnapura to prepare for the hike up Adam’s Peak. Adam’s Peak is a sacred mountain in Sri Lanka known for the Sri Prada or Sacred footprint. Sri Prada is a 1,8-meter imprint in the mountain left by Buddha (if you are a Buddhist), Shiva (if you are a Tamil Hindu), or Adam (if you are a Christian or Muslim). Today it is both a pilgrimage, mostly for Buddhists, and a tourist attraction for the beautiful sunrise you can see over the mountains in the vicinity. The mountain is about 2243 meters high. I was looking forward to seeing the pilgrimage and the sunset combined with a nice hike and thus I went on my way. Before I had been warned by others that it would be a very tourist trip, but I wanted to go anyway (even though I don’t like those).

You can hike up Adam’s Peak along 2 sides. The Hatton side is a relatively short hike taken by most tourists and most Buddhist pilgrims. The Ratnapura side is a longer, more strenuous hike that to my estimate only about 10% take. The total hike up from this side is about 9 km and has 1700 elevation meters. The hike consists not of a soft underground to walk on, but a staircase of 12.000 steps. I had a practice run a few days before with a hike to the Kathirgamam Kathiraimalai Murugan temple which was about an hour and I cannot say I like “stairs hiking”. The best time to start hiking from this side is around 23.00 so you are sure you make it to the top by the 06.00 sunrise.

My contact for my hotel brought me to the Sri Palabaddala where the hike begins, out of the tuk-tuk and on the trail I was. And then for an hour, when I expected 100rds of tourists and pilgrims, I was hiking alone. It was messing with my mind I can say. Had it been in the Netherlands in a nice forest during the day I would have loved the solitude, but here in a more uncertain situation and location, it was not. I was alone on a staircase (which was nicely lighted) next to a jungle forest and my motivation was not great for the first hour. And then the mind starts its guessing game: Why am I walking here alone? Where is everybody else? Am I walking the right path? What kind of animals are in this jungle (A picture with just Sinhala words under it of snakes also didn’t help)? Is nobody walking here because of these animals?

After about 2 hours I see a family descending. It is a big group of 13 members. 1 baby, 3 elderly persons, father and mother, and kids ranging from 5 to 13. All have gone up this hike! They help each other and support each other. One of the elderly women cannot even bend one of her knees but still, she continues, 12.00 steps without the use of 1 of your knees.

Still mesmerized by this I finally see a group of people going up. I walk up to them and fortunately one of them speaks English. The guy explained to me that they have been hiking for a longer time and will continue for 2 days total. They climb, take a long rest, climb, take a long rest. Later in the night, I will meet a family that set a goal of 3 days to do it (including the grandparents and young kids).

From this moment I am overtaking more and more people. I learned that not a lot of people are hiking this side of the mountain in 1 night. Most of them started in the morning and will take 24 hours to do it. The overtaking of others also helps with my motivation, I am not so unfit. I meet a lot of young students who speak a little English. They walk the trail together and watch out for each other. Some are Buddhists but most are here for the experience together.

I start walking down and enjoy the view. The scenery is amazing and it feels like being on top of the world. It is not the highest place I have been but certainly one of the most beautiful. It takes me 3 hours to come down completely, also because I keep talking to the people going down who have just woken up. Sri Lankan people are very friendly and most people who speak English are curious about where you come from and want to welcome you to their country. At the bottom, I speak to a man with his family who is just starting and is planning a 3-day ascent. I see regular bags that are carried in hand, an elderly woman with a cane, and a young kid who is still jumping around. I wish them a fantastic adventure and am still impressed with what these people are planning and going to do.

At 04.30 I reached the top and to be honest, it was a bit of a letdown. Like I already said, about 90% of the people who reach the top come from the other side. At the top, it is a big tourist attraction and in huge contrast with what I and others just experienced. I sit down for a while and look at the people coming up from both sides. From the Hutton side, most of the tourists come up and are just ready for the sunlight. From the Sri Palabaddala side, I see more exhaustion and a sense of accomplishment for reaching the top. Of course, people from the Hutton side also did a great feature in making it, especially the elder people and children, and for some, the journey was just as hard.

So what sense can I make out of this experience for myself? When I look at the uncomfortableness in the beginning and what solved it, it makes me think of the 3 basic psychological needs every person has: Autonomy, Relatedness, and Competence. When my first moment of uncomfortableness hit me I needed to reassure myself that I was doing this out of my own will and that I wanted to be here. In other words, I strengthened my feeling of autonomy. This is why many people who start military training will not complete it, because at a certain point, they start questioning their autonomy and whether this is their choice. After I continued I started meeting other people and got a sense of communion which is relatedness. Feeling together with these people at Adam’s peak made me part of something that raised my motivation. Finally, when I noticed that I was quite well conditioned compared to the rest it also helped me again, which of course is competence. I think this side of me had taken quite a hit after being exhausted after the 1-hour hike I did a few days before. Now it is a little bit more complicated than this, and when I arrive in Singapore next week, I will work on an article on the Self-Determination Theory (where this comes from) and share it also using this example.

For a final word, I would just like to say again how impressed I was with the groups going up Adam’s Peak. They were not great hikers, stopped a lot, and were not trained at all. But they had a purpose and a community (family or friends) to share it with. I loved how fathers spoke about dreaming of doing this with their families and wanting to impress not just their Buddhist beliefs in their children but also this sense of family and communion. They say Europeans are better hikers, but to be honest I have never seen a complete European family make a hike like this for a family event either. Of course, there are also good Sri Lankan hikers and probably European families who undertake similar events, but speaking as a European I looked at something I can learn from and have great respect for.

P.S. some of you were expecting an article on the start and reasons of my travel and I will get to this, but for now just enjoy this one :)

After 3 hours at around 02:00, I can see the lights at the top and I can hear monastic music. It stops feeling like a hike and more like a pilgrimage and I am enjoying the feeling of doing it together with these people.

At 03:30 I almost reach the top, but decide to take a quick nap in a small resting place beneath. Some guys who are there give me food and we share a short meal. A nice experience together.

And now the touristy side begins. People start pushing and shoving each other out of the way to see a glimpse of the sunlight. It is so busy that some people never have a chance to see it. After about 20 minutes of this without seeing a definitive sunrise I decide I have enough. I had my moment from this trip and I will probably see enough nice scenes from the trip down.