Making it to the top - Adam‘s peak

The Next day I felt so much better, we had a very nice breakfast on our balcony and went with a private driver all the way to the starting point of the Adam‘s Peak. So it was a whole day of traveling. When we arrived in the evening we only had an early dinner and went to bed around 9:30 pm since we had to get up again at 1:30 am to start hiking.
And we sure started the hike just before 2 am. There weren‘t alot of foreigners on the hike, we most saw Sri Lankan people that were probably were up at 12:00 am and now slowely made their way down again.

In the middle of Sri Lanka stands this holy mountain the Adam’s Peak. On this mountain all religions seem to come together: according to Christians and Muslims this is the place where Adam took his first step on earth, the Buddhists believe Buddha’s first footstep was set here and for the Hindus, it was Shiva who stepped via this peak on earth. All in all a very holy place and therefore a huge pilgrimage site. Apparently sometimes the line to reach the peak can be so long that people have to wait 4 hours until they reach the top (especially this happens on holidays and on the weekend)
We made it to the top in just under 3 hours which is really good, when you think about 5500 stairs leading up to the peak. On top of the peak everyone has to take their shoes off to enter the temple where you can see the footprint in gold. Photos were not allowed since it is a holy place. However we were now able to ring a big bell once because we made it one time to the top! Apparently some people made it to the top 16 times and can ring the bell that often wow!
What I found very astonishing was that you could find all different people on the track, grandmothers, fathers with their children, babies, moms, sisters, monks, people walking with sneakers, mostly flip flops or just bare foot. Some even carrying lots of offerings for the gods up. I think for the people here in Sri Lanka the peak is not the goal its all about the way to get there - making multiple stops in between, sometimes even sleeping, spending time with the Family and just enjoying the walk.
But I bet everyone is relieved when they reach the top! So happy I was able to experience this with my sister and brother :)
Since we made it to the top so early at around 4:45 am we had to wait almost 1,5 hours for the sunrise.
So we changed our clothes (they were really wet from the hike getting up to the peak) and then had some bananas and just rested.
At around 6:00 am we then got experience the sunrise which was really nice. A Little crowdy but still beautiful. Overall it was a great experience and made me feel stronger again (even though i can still tell i‘m a little sick).
At around 6:30 we made our way back and were back at the hostel at around 9:30 in just under 3 hours.
After this long and tiring hike we had pancakes for breakfast which i really enjoyed, our driver picked us up and we started our long way all the way north to Sirigiya which will be our last stop for 4 nights before Lorenzo flies back to Germany and Farrah and I go kitesurfing on the west coast :) really excited for the last days!Read more