Smile in the sky

Aditha DISSANAYAKE

Ever seen a smiley face in the sky? A smiley face painted with the colours of the rainbow? Or to get down to basics, ever heard of a circumzenithal arc?

What a mouthful. Save your energy if you thought you should look it up in the dictionary (or type the word on Google.) I already did. Here is one description. The circumzenithal arc is the most beautiful of all the halos. The first sighting is always a surprise, an ethereal rainbow fled from its watery origins and wrapped improbably about the zenith. It is often described as an 'upside down rainbow'. Someone also charmingly likened it to 'a grin in the sky'.

But on a cold, misty April morning Uditha Wijesena and his team of technocrats, as they wished to describe themselves, were far from either a dictionary or the internet. Yet, when they saw the unusual rainbow they were eager to capture it in their cameras, especially because they had failed to capture the sun when it worshipped Adam's Peak earlier in the day.

"April 19, 2011 was an endurance test day for us," says Uditha, the spokesperson of the team of six, (Dhanushka, Kanishka, Sudaraka, Iran, Wasantha and Shantha), all working at a construction site in Ratnapura. "We decided to climb Adam's Peak via Erathna off Kuruwita and arrived at seetha gangula at 3.30 pm."

Crossing the ford (a swallow place in a river that allows one to walk across to the other side) here was an adventure in itself. With raindrops as big as marbles soaking them to the bones, with the mist settling on the water like mountains of cotton wool, they had risked their lives by crossing the ford thinking this is wiser than finding themselves stranded on a swollen river.

"By 9 pm we arrived at Andiyamala-tenna the last resting point before the final climb," says Uditha. The conical granite Mahagiridamba, still had ancient iron chains that had assisted people to climb the naked rock in ancient times. "Now the going is much easier with built-in concrete steps and galvanized iron hand rails."

Though their plan, like those of an uncountable number of others on the same path, was to have a catnap to ease the weary limbs and to make the final ascend of about 1.5 km at 3 am on April 20, to witness the sun worshiping the mount (Ira sevaya) all hopes were shattered when clouds began to shroud the eastern sky.

"This six hour wait till 3 am was more an agony than a rest with the cold wind biting into our soaked clothing as if searching for warmth," recalls Uditha. "By 4.40 am we were at the top with a crowd of over one hundred already there, eagerly waiting for the sunrise. By 5.30 the eastern sky lit up, but alas by 5.50 am the public address system announced that the sun has already risen." The much awaited sight was not to be. Disappointed, they had begun to descend from the summit gazing at the numerous endemic birds breakfasting on the scraps of nuts dropped on the way by the pilgrims, consoling themselves that this was ample compensation for the sun's absence. "The most elusive, Sri Lanka Bush-warbler of Horton plains was in plentiful. So too the Yellow Eared Bulbul who is the scavenger here on Adam's Peak assisted by the Eurasian Black bird in the absence of the crow," Uditha explains.

But the most rewarding sight was yet to come. At 7 in the morning, at the foot of Mahagiridamba they had seen the strange rainbow, upturned in the center of a clear sky.

"We made the return journey via the old and traditional Ratnapura-Palabaddola route," continues Uditha. "This route covers the famous locations of various deeds performed by the ancient pilgrims and travellers now included in the song and verse of Siri Pada. Some of them are Seetha gangula, Dharmaraja Gala, Gettampana, Heramitipana and Lihini Hela."

The fourth Development and Construction Regiment of the Sri Lanka Army has undertaken the gigantic task of rehabilitating this ancient route by building over 17,000 steps and pathways for the ease of the pilgrims.

All construction material is carried by foot covering a distance of 7 miles. It is praiseworthy that the shops and eating houses on the way to Adam's Peak are now prohibited from using fuel wood for cooking and heating. "Everyone is supposed to use petroleum gas or electricity," noted Uditha.

No fires are allowed for warmth and usage of plastics for packing is minimal while garbage is sorted at the eating houses. The occasional toffee wrapper dropped by a careless pilgrim is collected by various environmental societies.

"I met a person who was proud to say that he had been up to the summit eight times this season. On my inquiry if he runs an eating house, his reply was - he is a member of environmental society collecting polythene thrown on the way by the pilgrims."

It was on the following day, back at their base in Ratnapura, when checking on the internet about "upside down rainbows" that they had realized what they saw was an unbelievably rear sight.

It was as if seeing the cameras in their hands, the sky said "cheese".