Our return has been a very bitter sweet moment- Happy to be home in South Africa, sad to leave such an incredible experience and country behind.
Sri Lanka and Sri Lankans are so beautiful, raw and untouched by the mass tourist! Still coping with the hangover of a civil war and the Tsunami, every single local person we met smiled, laughed and waved with the most welcoming face!
The Lanka Challenge itself, the reason for us going to Sri Lanka, was an incredible experience- all 1,500km of it! We learnt to drive a Tuk Tuk in a country which we believe has the worst traffic and road conditions in the world- we will never again complain about traffic or bad road conditions in South Africa.
Team Desmond Tuk Tuk
There were many a “hair raising” moment, but by day 3, we were overtaking the very same trucks that on day 1 left us breathless and shaking by their driving skills. We learnt to drive amongst hundreds of crazy yellow construction trucks and public buses that believed both sides of the road is theirs regardless if you are oncoming and that if they hoot, it means we need to get out of their way, hundreds of speeding cars, thousands of other Tuk Tuks, cows, bicycles and plenty dogs.
Megs and Nicky with some local children
Every day the task was to get from A to B on a pre planned route, sometimes on tar and sometimes not…, with a daily challenge or two that really forced us, in a way, to immerse and learn the way of the Sri Lankan people. We also learnt by day 3 how important petrol was to complete the race, after pushing the Tuk Tuk on day 3 in 40 degrees weather, with locals laughing at us and recording us on their cell phones, we swore we would never run out of petrol again!
This is called running out of petrol and learning how to push !
We climbed temples, had lunch with locals in their homes- which is easier said than done, as there was no common language, just hand signals and smiles, we solved questions about beautiful Holley lands and temples, we went to tea plantations in search of local tea samples and met the tea farmers, we planted trees at a local school to offset our carbon omission and we learnt a song called “Sauvangangi” which was sung most days. One of our favourite days was a school day and we spent the morning with local rural children as their school band entertained us with songs that were learnt just a week prior to our visit with brand new instruments bought from funds raised by another team.
Megan in the fruit market Buduwagala Temple The Route Map
We searched for a man in a massive market, of which we only had a photo as a reference, and he tasked us with buying goods from the market and reselling then to locals at the bus station, which was more than humorous for the locals. We ate and tasted the most wonderful food and fruit and swam in the warmest sea. We also have made friends for life with people from 7 different nationalities, as all the other teams were great competitors and great fun!
Desmond & Nicky Arugambay Sunset Sri Lanka Highways
We are proud to announce that we came 3rd overall, first girls team, and we won this position by a small, very close 60 seconds! More importantly and the reason for this mail, is to inform everyone who has so generously pledged funds and donated money that we got the social award for raising the most money- almost R52,000.00!! Considering that all the other teams are from much stronger currencies, we are extremely proud and blessed to have been sponsored and supported this much by yourselves- it really has been an incredible experience to do the Lanka Challenge, but more so get the support we did, so we can make a substantial influence to our 3 local South African charities.
All monies raised will be split between our 3 nominated charities, each Charity being close to our hearts:
Clair: Peninsula School Feeding AssociationPSFA has provides meals everyday to hungry children in 739 primary, secondary and special-needs schools in the Western Cape www.psfa.org.za
Nicky: "iThembaLethu" means "hope" or "destiny" in Zulu. Durban orphanage that takes in orphaned and abandoned babies.
Megs : The Paige project-caring for under privileged children with cerebral palsy in South Africa- (www.thepaigeproject.co.za)
We want to Thank all of those who helped raise this money for these worthy causes. We can´t wait to join LARGE minority again on either the Cambo Challenge in Cambodia or More Local in Colombia...
