Sri Lanka Day 20 – Ella to Udawalawe

Up early and left at 6am for a quick hike up Little Adams Peak which was a twenty minute walk from the hotel followed by ten minutes up some steps and slopes to another great viewpoint.

It had attracted many sunrise visitors including Matt, who I hooked up with on his return. We had an interesting chat on the way back to the hotel about his job, interests and prospects. He represented the UK at disc throwing – a game using a frisbee but a bit like netball by the sounds of it.

Breakfast and we were on the road again, stopping first at a waterfall in Uva, where I was approached by a man selling bits of quartz. When I didn’t bite, he gave me a couple of pieces for “free”, then encouraging me to invest one pound fifty in coins to appease his daughters appetite for foreign coin collecting – clever!

We stopped in a clearing to see rubber tapping and feel a sheet of the latex they produced for about 60 pence a sheet.

Orginally they would have been good for turning into rubber bands but they never bounced back (sorry) from the artificial rubber production which undercut their market.

We then saw a local potter and his wife who had the tougher job of spinning the wheel made from
the old car wheel rim. He showed us how to do it, throwing bottomless pots off the hump and then paddling a base onto them afterwards, quite skillfully, but I did wonder why he didn’t just throw a pot with a base instead, maybe it was quicker his way as he makes about 100 cooking vessels a day. They sold for $6 each. He showed us the rudimentary kiln where he wood fires for several days, hundreds of pots at a time.

Gillian then had a go, and did very well, and then under a little peer pressure from the group, so did I, although I did think later it was a bit selfish of me and I should have let someone else have a go.

I forgot I was supposed to be making a vessel like his, and he was surprised when I made a pretty poor looking vase instead, struggling to cut it loose from the clay hump.

After washing the clay off our hands, we were back on the bus and we could hear that there was something increasingly wrong with the gearbox, which had been getting worse since the clunk it made the previous day.

We made it to another historic site where we saw yet another large buddha carved out of the rock before the gearbox eventually gave up altogether, not engaging in either forwards or reverse.

We were on a main road but a reasonable way from everything major, but to AV’s credit she had us picked up in two smaller mini buses roughly an hour after the breakdown.

I was asked to sit in the front passenger seat, perhaps because I was happy to wear my mask and indeed our erratic and water or arrack swigging driver insisted I did, despite the risks associated with his driving being far greater than those presented by Covid…

Arriving slightly shaken at our lunch stop, a beer and curry buffet settled the nerves before we jumped in jeeps and set off along the side of a reservoir to the entrance of the wildlife park.

Having not done the earlier elective elephant safari, we were counting on this one to see the pachyderms. And we weren’t disappointed- loads were on offer of various ages and sizes including the babies we all wanted to see most.

Monkeys and displaying peacocks entertained us between elephant sightings and the afternoon sped by.

We took the jeeps to the entrance of the baby elephant sanctuary- watching the feeding of the sixty plus elephants at 6pm having missed the lunchtime session due to the breakdown. It was highly enjoyable and fun to watch the elephants trying to work out how they could circle back again without being found out, in order to get a second trunkful or mouthful of funneled milk from
the attendants.

One baby one bypassed the whole queuing up process, shooting past at high speed for the kitchen door, although whether he was successful in his quest for milk at source we didn’t see.

The trumpeting over, we were taken by jeep to our hotel, the Athgira River Camp, where a swim in the pool was welcome after our bags were unloaded outside tent number 15.

Sri Lanka Day 19 – Nuwara Eliya to Ella

I had time to walk out between breakfast and before we left at 9.30 to explore the town a little and wandered down Lawson street, which turned into Lowson street at the other end. Bearing left I walked past the splendid old post office and took the sharp right up to the golf course, ducking under the barrier. 

Asking if I could sit and watch the golfers going out caused some consternation and I was put in front of the cashier who then waggled his head at me in that way that means “that’s fine” in singalese. 

I ordered a pot of tea and waited for some to tee off but there was only one group in evidence, one of whom came over to talk to me.  He was in his sixties and looked in good shape having retired from a job in tourism in his mid forties, and was now living in Kandy where the greens were better but the course wasn’t as picturesque as the one in front of us. He was also the ex rugby captain for Sri Lanka. I wasn’t too sure what to say about that as I hadn’t known there was a Sri Lankan rugby team so I nearly fumbled the high ball but got away with a feebly mumbled “well done”.

My tea arrived although I had to gulp and go, without seeing any action, observing on my way out the two older ladies brush sweeping the 18th green around the body of a snoozing dog.  

We stopped and explored a very english church, the organ of which was maintained by someone who came out every year, but had died two weeks ago, so hopefully a replacement could be found.

On now to the single tree lookout point at the edge of the spread out village, cricket ground and racecourse in the distance below. We walked past the monks with covered faces, the replica elephant and made our way gently uphill, eventually being called back before we reached the intended end point as we were a bit slow and needed to get going to catch the train on time.

We got to Nanu-oya with twenty minutes to spare although the train was ten minutes late – apparently that’s quite good for Sri Lanka. 

No point in rushing…

We had lovely seats in second class facing backwards with a wide open window next to us. 

The bonus additional view to the right of the train was the sighting of parts of our fellow passengers hanging out of the open doors in a somewhat adventurous way. 

The three hour journey was one of many highlights of the trip. 

The scenery was spectacular- pristine forest otherwise unreachable by any other transport and deep tree lined gorges,  tunnels and cuttings highlighted the amazing feat of engineering that resulted in this high altitude track – surely one of the most memorable train journeys we had taken. 

We gradually gained height through Odiya, Idalhashinna and Haputalle, stopping regularly to admire a driver selected viewpoint accompanied by an incomprehensible english commentary. 

We wound down from the highpoint, the plateau appearing to dissolve into the plain below, and we arrived in Ella only twenty minutes behind schedule. 

Some of the group including Heather were taken to the hotel, others like me were dropped off at the head of a short trail down to the nine arches bridge – possibly the most instagrammed scene in Sri Lanka. 

We walked across the bridge over the railway line, taking photos from various angles and enjoyed a juicy king coconut before heading back up the path to a good viewpoint for the train we could hear approaching in the distance. 

Afterwards we checked in to our Oak Ray Ella Gap hotel – not the one expected but in a very convenient location just off the main tourist strip. 

I swam and we then had a drink at the bar part of, but adjacent to the hotel before having dinner at the nearby Cafe Spice where we had a table right overlooking the road – ideal for tourist watching. We were cushioned from the loud and large Australian couple by the young Dutch couple who endured seeing every photograph the ex army major had taken in Sri Lanka so far – quite a few!

Jenny and Sue rescued the rolling eyed youngsters by sitting next to them and becoming the object if their attention. 

We chatted to the dutch, discovering that they were free wheeling their journey – no fixed plans but taking public buses and going where the mood took them. 

Quite brave and resourceful although the young girl looked like she might welcome a less budget oriented approach. 

Back to the hotel and a good nights sleep in air-conditioned comfort in a very large room.