A story of a kayaking Trip

Nissanka, my friend from childhood arrived in the the Island for Christmas. So I together with my father thought it would be nice to spend a couple of days with Nissanka and Arinda. And thus a story of a kayaking trip begins.

Miracle valley was our destination, even though I’ve seen a couple of pictures which were not so impressive I’ve heard of so many happy groups who totally enjoyed their stay over at miracle valley. Ari sadly could not make it with us due to his busy schedule, So we set off from nissa’s house at around ten in the morning, after driving for some time we were picked up by Priyanka from the top of the road, Priyanka was such a nice host, the hospitality shown by him was the “icing of the cake” of our whole trip.

So we walked along a footpath which ran in parallel with a stream, I at once knew this would be such a nice experience, the clean white water finding itself around the rocky stream the green canopy above you and the smell of forest set the tone of our whole trip. We soon arrived at miracle valley I was really excited nissa was too, Priyanka has built the place in such a way that it blends into the environment. The veranda all around the house made the stay such a relaxing stay over, even though it was action packed. Priyanka soon showed us around even the kitchen this made me feel at home.

Kayaking in Randenigala Sri lanka

After a few minutes of relaxing over a nice cup of coffee, we decided to go kayaking, so we started to stack up the kayaks on top of priyanka’s hand held tractors, it was a tough piece of metal and looked a hard one to master it’s manures, but priyanka did it fineJ, as we walked in hand with the tractor to the waters priyanaka explained to us all the technical details of the tractor which only nissa and my father understood hehe.

Soon afterwards we were ready to paddle our way on the reservoir, with a few instructions we were off to the very beginning of randenigala reservoir, paddling along the lake was breath taking experience the colour of the water was like the green feathers on the peacocks which were along the banks walking around, I was so happy to look around and not see one single roof of a house, after a bit of paddling we pulled up the kayaks into the banks and walked on foot jumping from one rock to the other  just like free runners(form of urban acrobatics), the rocks were all carved by the mighty force of water into different uniquely shaped rocks even though it was all similar, after a bit of jumping around rocks we walked our way back to the kayaks. Where we set out to the cliff priyanka promised me that I could jump off into the water, I was highly excited but nervous at the same time. And Nissanka opted not to jump off as he has developed a back ack after attempting such a jump, with this at the back of the head I just couldn’t afford a bad jump, this made me worry but not enough to keep me from jumping, so I went like a brave soldier but decided to jump off a tiny cliff first just to get a feeling, after a couple of jumps on the tiny cliff I climbed my self up on to the tall cliff. My heart was pumping in more blood, this was definitely a “first” for me, as I looked below to the waters it looked as if it was miles below, with a big breath and a small prayer I lept out and into the water I hit, it took a age for me to hit the water but after I came up I was screaming in joy, WOW that was so awesome.

lol this is not the cliff i jumped from ok? :P

Just one jump didn’t fill my thirst so I had couple of more jumps before calling It a day, and after all that we paddled our way back, I was cold and needed to have a shower so I thought a hot shower would be perfect but then the little stream made both nissanka and I to have a outdoor bath instead, Trust me the water felt so clean and fresh, with that we cleaned ourselves and went for dinner, It was thosey and it was really yummy, I ate quite a lot as I was really hungry, both tiered we called it a day and went to sleep,

Nissanka apparently woke even before the rooster and yea he took the place of the rooster by waking me up early the next morning, we had rotte for breakfast, the food tasted really good as all the meals did. Ahead of us lied another day of kayaking this time a lot of kayaking, so we packed in bits of food and off we set out in our kayaks, The lush greenery around me made me feel so blessed to having able to come on this trip, Nissa from the back of the kayak too enjoyed the view all around he too was taken in awe of the scenic beauty just like the rest of us, we kayaked our way forward as we went pass wildlife, My thathi and Priyanka even managed to spot a deer family we were a little late for that, but we could see schools of tiny fish swimming below the green waters. We soon entered into a magical land it was such a “storybook” moment, I have never experienced nature in this form before. This magical land had a river running into the reservoir and both Nissanka and I went into the white water on our kayaks just for the fun of it, and indeed it was fun and I’m longing for that day when I get to ride on white water. So there again we pulled in our kayaks on to the banks and set off on foot, bare foot rather along the river, I was reminded of the day when myself thathi and ammi walked along the mahawalie when the river was a bit dry this was back in the day, so with that memory in the back of my head we kept on walking both in water and out on the banks, the river was full of white water i almost wanted jump off into the water with my life jacket on so that it would wobble me down stream.

We took rest on top of flat rock where we had our snacks and we were off to our kayaks once again, we decided to pull in once more but this time it was to fish, Priyanka hooked the first fish and this proved to be good fishing ground, and soon the fishing lines started to hook fish one after the other, both nissanka and I managed to hook a few fish as well, The feeling of hooking a fish is sensational there again I was reminded of my first ever fishing trip with thathi along the banks of mahawali, I will never forget that! So with fish packed up on the kayak we head off to Miracle vally, the story of a kayaking trip ended here, It ended here but will always have a place in my mind where it will tie in hand with nissanka,

Miracle Valley with Thathi, Nissanka And Bambi (me) lol
December 2011