Four days of paddling through pristine wilderness with a
team of great adventurists from British Council Sri Lanka is definitely a tale
to recap on. The team of 7 from British Council together with the team from
Borderlands Sri Lanka ventured on a multi-day river expedition along the
‘Mighty Mahaweli River’ starting from Mahiyanganaya and finishing all the
way at Manampitiya. So here goes the story!
The first day started with the British Council Team arriving
at the starting point on the Nipon Bridge just downstream of Mahiyanganaya – an
opportunity to get familiarized with the equipment and the Borderlands team
over lunch. After a brief training on paddling a sit on top kayak and some
safety guidelines the team was ready to make the trip down the river on the
following day.
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| Riverside snack time |
The first night was once again more learning for the team as
they had to set up camp, cook dinner, build a fire and so forth before settling
down for the night after a BBQ dinner.
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| Evening Camp Fire and BBQ |
With the rather unusual feeling of waking up in a tent and the chirping of birds instead of an alarm clock, day two started with the usual cup of Sri Lankan tea.
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Idyllic Beach Campsite
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Morning Tea
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| Fresh fruits ! |
After a hearty breakfast the paddling began. Passing by a few bystanders (crocodiles to be precise!!!) the paddlers reached the first rapid of the journey. With the high water levels this was quite a task for the mostly inexperienced team.
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| Impressive Paddling on the First Rapid |
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| Team work ! |
The bank by the “Kiri Ammage Ella” was chosen for setting up
camp for the night. However surprising it may sound the scrumptious rice and
curry cooked for dinner was simply fabulous!!!
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| Feel free |
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| Pretty impressive river safari |
Day three started with a routine morning at camp and the paddlers were out on the water once again. Passing long sections of swift water where our good friend Eranda decided to go for a swim (for a second time!) despite the lingering crocodiles, the fleet moved on. The fast moving fleet however had to stop for a moment to let one of the locals (and the local happened to be an elephant!!!!!) cross the river. The newly christened “Elephant Skull Beach”, after the skeleton of a long deceased pachyderm were found, was the camp site for the third night.
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| Have wood , make fire ! |
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| Beautiful Mahaweli sunset ! |
After yet another BIG breakfast the team commenced the last leg of the expedition aiming to reach Manampitiya which was our take out destination by mid-day. Weaving through the lines of the sand miners and their boats in the latter part the fleet of 4 kayaks, 1 canoe and a raft reached our destination which was marked by the Manampitiya Bridge.
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| Kitchen Duty |
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| BIG breakfast ! |
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| Perfect conditions on the Mahaweli |
So thus ended a journey that will never be forgotten by
anyone who came along. It was definitely a new experience for the team from
British Council giving them the opportunity to get to know each other and also
to discover new things about themselves personally in an environment that is
utterly different from their office in heart of Colombo.
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| The entire crew - well minus Wade! |
And for us at Borderlands it was another great experience
and a pleasure to join British Council on this expedition and we must say we
had a blast in the wilderness!
An amazing trip, wonderful memories, and definitely stories that would last a lifetime.. Thank you Borderlands!
ReplyDeleteHaven't had this kind of a unique experience before. Simply amazing!!
ReplyDeleteIf someone asked me to express how I felt about it all... well, I wouldn't know what to say, because... at times it was so tranquilizing (starry starry nights, out of the world tributaries, contrastingly quiet surroundings, morning/evening long dips in the river, warmth of the campfire and so on..). And in the next moment you are facing a challenge and fighting a little battle inside; At times you are laughing your guts out (well, most of the time, I would say) and as the dusk falls it all becomes serious business - collecting enough (or more than enough :-)) firewood to keep a fire going till dawn - probably not to keep the tusker away, but to assure ourselves that everything is gonna be fine :-)...At times we are gearing up ourselves to live on bare necessities of life (although someone had remembered to even bring her eyeliner ;-)) and voilà! who would have imagined that we would get our own t-----. At times it's all so exciting (taking the first rapid in a canoe, speeding ahead just like a wild unicorn, rowing under or above ropes) and at times you simply want to drift away... There are days you are treated with ecstatic meals (like tuna noona with pasta + + :-)) and sometimes you would rush it through with cream crackers with the most unusual yet yummy filling ;-)
All in all, it was a one of a kind experience... A time to remember… Too bad it all had to end in 4 days.
Thank you Wade and team. You guys rock!
Hey Bhadra - thanks for this - I think the trip was a real highlight for some of our staff too! If you feel particularly adventurous please come visit us at our camp at Kithulgala (the good food will continue!) and also if you want to share your experience on the Mahaweli Trip on our Tripadvisor page the link is:
ReplyDeletehttp://www.tripadvisor.com/Hotel_Review-g608523-d2358747-Reviews-Borderlands-Kitulgala_Sabaragamuwa_Province.html
thanks and so pleased you all had such a good trip!
Gwen