On a hiking trail with Laceup
Laceup Sri Lanka’s Facebook page is something out of the ordinary. A fan page of an adventurous group of youngsters who share a common passion – that is hiking-whose desire is to build a community of hikers and “connect” with one another.
The idea of forming an FB page and expanding their network of hikers stemmed from the random hikes that three school mates, Pasan Perera (22), Sahan Wickremaarachchi (22) and Theshan Ronello (22) undertook during their school days. They were later joined by Dr. Amila Fernando (28) who was introduced to the group through a mutual friend.
With the formation of the Laceup Sri Lanka FB page (facebook.com/LaceUpSL) two years back, their network of hikers expanded.
They undertook more hikes to places like Knuckles, Kirigalpotta, Thotupola Kanda, Namunukula, Horton Plains, and the photo albums shared on the facebook fan page attracted more members to the group.
Within a matter of months, the group turned into a community of about 25 individuals between the age group of 20-30 from diverse backgrounds such as doctors, engineers, writers, project managers etc who got together at least once a month to undertake a hiking tour.
“Initially, it was just the three of us who did the hiking. We would set up a date and select a destination once in awhile for hiking and camping. After the formation of the group, we would select a destination, and inform the others.
We would pick the date depending on their availability,” says Pasan adding that these are mostly two night camping outings.
The idea behind creating an online presence was two fold, according to Sahan.
“We thought FB was the fastest and the best way to connect with people who are into hiking and share our experience. There may be people out there who are passionate about hiking but who do not have the opportunity to go out.
Sometimes parents may not like the idea of sending their children out alone. Secondly, the FB page will serve as a platform on which we could build up our future plans to go beyond borders,” explains Sahan adding that they have plans to explore destinations such as India and Mount Everest.
Speaking of the benefits, Amila says their hobby group is a wonderful platform to interact with people from various backgrounds.
“It promotes team work as each member in the group is given a task during the camp outing – to collect firewood, to cook etc which they have to carry out with the assistance of others.
We overcome challenges together – sometimes the hike can be really challenging without a clear trail. Then you need to clear up the path as you walk by,” says Amila.
Spending quality time outdoors, interacting with nature while enjoying the scenic beauty of the hidden terrain is a truly fascinating experience, according to these youngsters.
As Pasan puts it, their leisure time spent under five billion stars is worth far more than a holiday spent at a five star hotel. As much as they benefit from nature, these young guys are well aware of their responsibility to protect the environment.
Hence they combine their hiking journeys with an activity to safeguard the environment and clean up campaigns together with awareness raising projects.
“We always make sure we clean our camp sites and the surroundings before we come back. At Namunukula, we saw how people had left behind water bottles, plastic cups and rubber sleepers at the peak of the mountain.
So we had a clean up session there. We also have plans to re-visit Knuckles and the Badulla area to have some display boards carrying environmental protection slogans installed at the sites, since we see how badly these areas have been polluted by visitors,” they said.
