Just over a month to go before I start this trek across Sri Lanka, and still sooooo much planning left to do. For six months, I've been pouring over maps and topographicals, scouring the internet for information on the tiniest villages, calculating distances and elevations, and exhausting every contact in my arsenal to slowly piece together an off-the-beaten-path route that is actually doable.
To get my body ready for this little endeavor, I get up at 4:30 in the morning, 4 days a week, to walk the 25km needed to toughen my feet and strengthen my legs and back. I aim for the tiniest footpaths and back roads I can find, heading away from the coastal village I live in, deep into the back countryside, where it's all rice fields and tea, coconut and rubber plantations, and slow meandering rivers. Blisters and plantar fasciitis have been my only -- but constant -- companions. And yet, despite the obvious pain, and ridiculous start time (I am NOT a morning person), and exhaustion, I am inspired and exhilarated with each new route I discover.
It's amazing how much there is to see when you get off the main roads, get off the tarred roads, and walk into this stunning countryside. The green is shocking, lush, and omnipresent. Walking is slow enough, and silent enough, to sneak up on the wildlife. Every morning I'll spot mongoose, langur monkeys, peacocks, water monitors, blue kingfishers and green parrots, macaques and lizards, flying foxes and snakes, frogs, buffalo... Stay on the main roads and buses and trucks will belch soot into your face, and scabby-looking concrete block buildings and litter mar the view. Turn down the path that looks like it's definitely not the obvious route, and wow...
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