Adam's Peak, Sri Lanka

Woke up at 1:30am, had a light snack and set off. Our guest house was only a few minutes away from the beginning of the track. The two dogs from the Green House began the walk with us, and we assumed they would come for a short walk before heading home. The first hour or so was fairly easy, and the weather was iffy, but holding off. We wasted 30 minutes by going the way, which could have been the right way also, except we decided it didn't join up, and went all the way back again.
Manda was attacked by the first leech, and without realising knocked it off her leg (the bastard had gone THROUGH my trousers!), so it left a lovely little hole in her leg which bled the entire journey. After a little freak-out, we continued on our way. The rain set in after a while, and leech checks continued every 15min or so (ended up with two leeches each). Our dogs were still enjoying leading us up the mountain, until one starting growling and there was a small scuffle in the dark just behind us. Luckily it turned out to be Katsu (a Japanese guy we had met earlier at the Green House) and his guide dog. Katsu had no torch, and only had a jacket because the Green House had provided one, so he was freaking out, and more than happy to join us. We carried on our way, the steps became steeper, and the rain heavier. We finally made it to the top, 5200 steps later, and joined a group that had come up in the evening, and a few more small groups of people who had arrived just before or after us. We were given a cup of hot sweet tea in a hut of a man who lives up there, and chatted to the others until the sun came up... supposedly! Unfortunately as the weather was still bad, we could see nothing of the promised views. We rang the bell for good luck, had a snack & fed our dogs (found out every person or group had 1 or 2 come with them), then headed down with Katsu. Going down was hard on the knees, but was a lot quicker. We arrived back at the Green House to be greeted with a delicious Sri Lankan breakfast.