It will be nice, they said. You will have an amazing view, they said.
The alarm clock is going off and it is quite early in the morning… 1 am. Outside it is pitch black and it is slightly raining. We slowly get ourselves prepared for a climb that we should never forget…
Today we shall conquer Mount Everest or Adams Peak as the locals in Sri Lanka call the 5th highest mountain of the island in order to see the sunrise at 6 am, sharp.
What was supposed to be one of the best things to do on the island turned out to be a true challenge.
We should not have neglected the signs when locals were celebrating their village festival and were not letting us sleep until 11 pm the night before. Having had a relaxed and long sleep, we are taking the host´s taxi which should get us within an hour to the foot of the mountain.
Along the way we see wild pigs and majestic deers seeking shelter in the dark. We shortly stop by to see those beautiful creatures and continue our journey again.
3 a.m.: Equipped with head lamps and rain coats, we start our climb in the rainy dark. We feel excited and the first couple of steps are not that bad… having said, after 2 hours and 5 km more, our legs do not want to listen to their masters anymore and we have to use the handlebars to get the last steps of hell done.
5 a.m.: Finally, we reach the top where already a few other mountaineers are waiting. Meanwhile, the rain is getting stronger and the wind is blowing around our ears while Emilie is turning purple. As truly experienced backpackers, we have forgotten dry and warm shirts at our guesthouse. Of course. We finally decide to remove our wet clothes and end up with our rain jackets on our naked cold sweaty skin. We are wondering how to survive the last hour before sunrise, but at the end, it is only a question of mindset, isn´t it?
Monks are kindly offering us tea and coffee for about 100.- Rupie. I am glad they did not attend my IMD´s professor value based pricing lecture. A hot drink was actually priceless at this time and I immediately noted down another idea for a start up business.
6 a.m.: The monks are opening the gate to the monastery while the sun is rising and the crowd is getting ready to see the most beautiful scenery on this planet. What we saw next was mind-blowing… we saw… NOTHING! Like playing in the lottery we had a small chance of seeing the sunrise and the landscape but were not lucky this day and fog was our enemy.
7 a.m: it is time to get back to our taxi driver who is waiting at the foot of the mountain. While looking forward to leave the peak and to have a great breakfast at the guesthouse, we have simply forgotten a tiny thing… the way back down… another 5200 stairs to go back.
On our way down we experience an unique and powerful nature with a mighty scenery of cloudy cliffs and waterfalls…
Finally, the climbing of the bloody Adams Peak was not only rewarding but our butts had the work out of their lives.
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