Leaving a Lasting Legacy, Sri Lanka
We’re sad to be leaving Sri Lanka. In our short time here the island has provided us with an uncountable number of clean slides, boofs and flares in amazing settings. Not to mention a culture of hospitality and generosity.
Admittedly we’ve also come across our share of dammed rivers, a difficulty for kayakers that will only get worse.
Slides and falls are all through out Sri Lanka, this time on the Kokmole
Seans dreads really needed a trim by the end of the exped
We have tried to give back to the country as much as possible and leave something lasting behind in various forms… inluding a Niamh, who is currently working for Borderlands and will be for the next 2 months!
Returning hospitality the only way we can – with a postcard of Will & Kate
Though our kayaking sessions we’ve tried to inspire the locals to view kayaking as a hobby, not just a job. We really want to change the mentality of the staf to playing the river, not just surviving the rapids. We’ve also starred in an adventure travel documentary to be aired around Sri Lanka and South Asia in the hope it will provide more exposure to adventure tourism.
Kayak coaching in the monsoon rain
Successful kayaking is all proportional to the size of your bust...at least this is the suspect advice Niamh gave to the MTV presenter!
Then there’s the pictures and advice we have offered the Ministry of Tourism who are keen to promote adventure tourism in the Sitawaka valley (a valley with so much potential, but we were the first Western tourists to have found ourselves there).
The last of the 7 waterfalls in the Sitawaka valley
Our first meeting with the Tourism Board out on the road
We’ve also managed to help Borderlands out directly. Again, the kayaking and safety sessions, but also we’ve been able to offer a couple of recommendations of potential alternative rafting runs which will be required when the Kelani river (Borderlands current base) is dammed (building has not started yet).
Bridge jump at the start of the Sitawaka - potentially Borderlands new base (along with the Upper Kokmole)
Something else we’ve managed to do with Palms help is to kit out the raft guides and safety kayakers with some of the best gear around. With better gear hopefully they will be able to push themselves harder and progress beyond the Kelani.
Mahesh our driver (photographer, chef and all round legend) with his new shiny Palm Extreme BA
Boderlands is also trying to build an outdoor community of people with similar interests. With this in mind Wade (Director of Borderlands) set up an expedition wrap up event with some press, and many friendly faces of people we’ve met along the way in Sri Lanka and have helped us out in any way they can.
Will describes why we love the type of kayaking that we do to the audience
With half a day to make a video and slideshow (due to power cuts in Colombo), I reckon it was a massive success! The night out that followed was also pretty entertaining…
Will with the poster of his descent down the 7th Sitawaka waterfall
Check out our website for more information on our expedition: http://www.kayaksrilanka.co.uk/
There’s also the previous Palm Blogs for an overview of what we got up to:
http://79.170.40.166/palmequipmenteurope.com/blogs/ww/steep-creeking-with-leeches-sri-lanka/
http://79.170.40.166/palmequipmenteurope.com/blogs/ww/first-descents-and-last-descents-sri-lanka/
http://79.170.40.166/palmequipmenteurope.com/blogs/ww/the-country-that-keeps-giving-sri-lanka/
What a place! Be sure to get in touch if you want more information on the island – still so much more potential to be discovered.
Cheers, Dave Burne
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Sri Lanka is in the ocean of the Indian subcontinent. But it is an independent country with its own sovereignty. Tropical island is small, but has a diverse geography and climate. A person who can travel to Sri Lanka Driver to any area of ??hot or cold fast pace to move within only six hours by car.