Stairway to Heaven

Adam's Peak is a site of pilgrimage in the search for spiritual enlightenment; the general idea is to see the sunrise which means setting off before 3am for a 2 and a half climb up an uncountable number of steps. The drive to the town the night before set the scene with lightening illuminating the sky and the peak engulfed in mist. I was expecting a walk up a moderate incline but what I got was a slog up a million stairs; does it count as meditating if you turn off your brain to endure the exhaustion of climbing when you should be sleeping? We arrived at the top at 5 O'clock and huddled in the cold and dark waiting for the sun to come up. As it started to get light we jockeyed for a good position to check the sunrise. As the sun edged its way up from behind the mountains the clouds turned to Turkish Delight.
Let there be light!
I didn't find enlightenment but it was definitely a Zen moment, which made all the physical exertion worthwhile.
Sunrise is a pretty magical time of the day and to witness it at a temple on the top of a mountain is a little bit special.

The shadow of Adam's Peak appears as a pyramid on the surrounding mountains.
Then there was the journey back down to contend with. As we walked down we stopped briefly to catch our breath and my legs started shaking uncontrollably; we decided it was probably best not to stop after that and just kept going. By the end we were running and jumping steps in an effort to get down as quickly as possible.
Back to Tolkien's middle earth and the shire.
All photo credits for the last 5 posts go to Eugenia from snowy Moscow (my camera was bust); thanks a million for the photos, the company and the impetous to make the trip.