Hike and Sunstroke

The plan for the morning was straightforward: hike to Little Adam’s Peak, take some photographs, be back before the midday heat. I had coffee and toast at the hotel, spent an hour at the computer, and left at 11 AM, already too late. The first indication that the trailhead would not be what I expected came about 30 minutes into the walk.

The entrance to the trail to the top had been developed into a commercial activity zone. Ziplines ran across the hillside above me. There was a climbing wall, a rope swing, a bungee setup, and something that appeared to be a paragliding launch point. Loud music came from speakers mounted in the trees. Vendors lined both sides of the path offering everything from juice to elephant rides. This was not a quiet walk up a hill.

In spite of all of this I paid $7 for the Skywalk, which turned out to be a series of rope netting platforms suspended across a section of the hillside. It bounced quite a bit. The views from it were good: Ella Gap in one direction, the patchwork of tea hills in the other. Worth the $7, if you do not mind the bounciness and the feeling that you are essentially paying to stand on a large trampoline attached to a mountainside.

The path above the commercial zone returned to something resembling a proper trail. The summit of Little Adam’s Peak sits at around 1,141 meters and gives a 360-degree view: the Ella Gap cutting through the hills to the south, Ella Rock rising directly opposite, the town of Ella visible below, the tea country stretching away in every direction. On a clear day you can see for a long way. It was not entirely clear, but clear enough. And there was no commercial activity on the top, except for a lone coconut vendor.

On the way back down I photographed a woman along the trail who stopped and looked directly at the camera with a composure that suggested she was entirely used to this, and entirely unimpressed. I asked if I could take her picture and she obliged.

Lunch was seafood noodles at a place near the main street. I was back at the hotel by 4 PM.

I was a bit tired so I laid down for a nap. When I woke up an hour later I had the shivers. Not a cold, not the kind of shivering that comes from being in air conditioning too long. Something else. I took my temperature. 40.1 degrees Celsius.

I took two paracetamol and lay down again. Two hours later it was 39 degrees. Another paracetamol. By the next morning it was 36.9 and the shivers were gone.

The diagnosis was straightforward enough once I thought about it. I had applied sunscreen to my face and neck before the hike, and nowhere else. The hike was at 1,000 meters elevation, seven degrees from the equator, with no cloud cover for most of the morning. The arms and legs had taken several hours of direct sun with no protection at all. The body had objected in the most direct way available to it. The sun at 1,000 meters in Sri Lanka is unforgiving.

Consider this a practical note for anyone planning the same hike: apply plenty of sunscreen everywhere, and start earlier in the day than 11 AM. The view was worth it. The evening with a fever I could be without.

Ella, Sri Lanka: what to know before you go

  • Ella is the most commercial town on the Sri Lanka backpacker circuit. Prices for accommodation and food run significantly higher than elsewhere on the island, sometimes double. Budget accordingly and don’t assume the first price quoted is fixed.
  • Stay outside the town center. The main street is noisy well into the evening. A few hundred meters out is enough. Pick a hotel with a valley view: it is worth the extra money.
  • Avoid hiking in the middle of the day. At 1,000 meters the temperature still peaks sharply between 11 AM and 3 PM, and the sun at this altitude is stronger than it feels. Start hikes before 8 AM or after 4 PM.
  • Getting out is easy. Shared taxis and minivans run to the main onward destinations from Ella. Book through your guesthouse or ask on the main street.

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