Exploring The Knuckles Mountain Range

My second week was special as on Tuesday we got up extra early and drove to the Knuckles Mountain Range, which we were all looking forward to. On the way up we stopped to take some photos and have a sneaky toilet break. When we were getting back into the car we noticed we had leeches on our shoes, which made Cheng absolutely freak out.  She took off her shoes and started crying and yelling in Chinese that she wanted to go home. Yufei had to pick her up and throw her in the car, and then we found a leech on her leg which we pulled off. Apparently where she comes from they are told that leeches suck your blood and then bury into your body…not sure if that is fact or not but I can understand why she was so afraid. So I checked all over and found nothing on me. About ten minutes later I felt something sting my bum, and to my displeasure when I slipped my hand down I found a leech. I pulled my pants down and made Yufei pull it off while the others awkwardly looked away. At that point I didn’t care about people seeing my bum, I just didn’t want any leeches in my downtown. Yufei found the whole affair quite hilarious, especially the fact she had seen my bottom! Haha.

The view on the way up

Me and Yufei

From left: Sampath, Olivia, Brenna, Nick, Yufei. In front: some sexy beast

We continued the drive up the mountain range and then got out of the car to walk the rest of the way. Cheng refused to get out of the car so we left her behind and ventured up the mountain. It was a really nice walk up there, and the views were breathtaking. It seriously felt like we were on top of the world, level or above the clouds at some points.
On the drive back down the mountain range we came across this beautiful hanging nest of large honey bees, so I was very stoked to get this photo of it!

Large honey bee hive

We stopped off at a river to have some tea and wade, which is fried daal with spices – absolutely delicious when cooked fresh. The couple who were making it were so sweet, cooking everything in their pots over fire.

The pots the wade and tea were being cooked in

The creek on the way down from the Knuckles

The rest of the week went along like most other days in the fieldhouse. On the Friday I was super happy to go to the national park again where we saw over 60 elephants – majority of them from a distance. Still, it was really nice to see the huge herds.
That night all the volunteers and staff had some cheeky beers and arrack which turned into a really fun night of singing, dancing, poi and playing the bongo drum. It’s safe to say a couple of the volunteers, and Supun and Sarat wouldn’t have been feeling so sharp on Saturday morning. The weekend was pretty relaxed, and I was happy to spend it at the fieldhouse as it was my last weekend there.

On the Saturday night Gilda, one of the sponsors of the beehive project, and Randy her photographer friend arrived at the fieldhouse. They were there to do a short documentary on Kylie’s project, and they spoilt us with wonderful photos and videos from their travels around the world. This is the link to the amazing video Randy showed us, and he told me I could share it around – it’s definitely worth a watch, so sit back, grab a cup of tea and enjoy my friends. https://vimeo.com/120023755