Praise the lowlights
By Lonneke — September 23, 2015 07:04 pm
Travelling consciously, to us this means we look for different experiences than the ones offered by the tourist agencies. Take in account our low budget too, and the results are more genuine adventures, very valuable to us and fitting our desires; all our small highlights.
Of course our hike to Little Adam's Peak near Ella is a suitable example. I won't hide behind the fact that we have three children walking and clambering with us, because their fitness exceeds mine substantionally. But this was a fairly easy hike, with a hefty climb to the peak, the path meandering through the tea plantations. Except for the birds singing it was so silent and peaceful (especially in contrast to the never ending bellowing of the ocean in Arugambay), there weren't many other people and of course it was for free. Now I totally neglect the whole religious importance of 'real' Adam's Peak, but this very frequentely visited highlight is superbusy, much higher (the shortest route is 6442 stairs) and of course you have to pay an entrance fee, as it goes with spots that are labelled highlights.
For the children, Sri Lanka equals the strong, high waves that hurl you on the granular sand under the burning sun. Finding strangelooking fruit on the road and cutting it open with their knifes. Or making swords out of big palmtreeleaves - also with their precious knifes, obviously.
Seeing the small green bananas growing on the tree and hoping they will be ripe before we leave, so we can harvest them ourselves. They look in amazement at the palmtrees with their coconuts, the many iguanas and other unknown animals (including a bloodsucker on the leg of our middle son), even the countless squirrels were a big surprise to our youngest one, since he was under the impression that these only existed in fairytales (there are no squirrels on our island Texel, when we walk through the forrest, our running gag is to throw a pine cone against a tree and say: look there, a squirrel! This is how these little creatures became a similar phenomenon to dwarfs and elfs). They pity the wretched straydogs and the poor people and are delighted by all the fresh fruit juices.
