Hill Country and Waterbeds


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Asia » Sri Lanka » Central Province » Ella
December 23rd 2013
Published: December 24th 2013
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We walked out of the train and into a mist so fine it felt like we were walking around in a cloud. Our reason for coming north was to see the spectacular views and do some of the hikes the area is famous for. Our big goal is Adam's Peak but it's supposed to be quite a climb, and since we've been doing nothing but lounging on beaches for a few weeks, we thought it would be a good idea to warm up with some easier hikes.

The town of Ella itself isn't much to see. It is a popular starting off point for hikes so there are many tourists - once again mostly Germans and Russians - and the town clearly caters to foreign backpackers. It does, however, have great food. In the central highlands there are a lot more Tamils and since the majority of Sri Lankans in Canada are Tamil, we finally found the type of Sri Lankan food we were first introduced to in Vancouver restaurants. Both of us much prefer it to the food in the south and took the opportunity to enjoy the khothu rotis and dosas we love.

We started the walk to Little Adam's Peak on a misty morning and welcomed the cooler temperature - around 20 C - after baking on the coast. It is a very easy climb but we did take our time with it. Ella is at an altitude of around 1000 meters and we had come from sea level so we definitely felt the lack of oxygen as we walked. In town there are many stray dogs that will pick a group of hikers and follow them up to the peak. There they'll take a nap and wait or wander off to follow another group down. As we set off two pretty blonde pups fell into step behind us.

The views from Little Adam's Peak did not disappoint. The sun had broken through by the time we reached the top, revealing Ella Rock, a tall peak with a rock escarpment on one side and a long waterfall flowing down the other. The mountains are green and lush and they fall away all around you offering views through Ella Gap all the way to the coast.

On the way back we followed the tracks back to town. It was a pretty little walk over a stone bridge with plenty of lovely views. While resting on the bridge we met a local boy who offered to show us a shortcut back to town through the forest and we were introduced to the forest leeches. Plenty of Sri Lankans had tried to warn us about them using stilted English and hand gestures and a German girl we'd met on the train who had spent a week at a meditation centre shared her stories, but it really took experiencing them ourselves to get it.

These leeches live in the forest rather than in water and if you stop, even briefly, they will sense your heat and be on you so fast you can barely register it. While crossing a stream we stopped for a minute to look at a crab and our little guide was trying to indicate that we should keep moving but we didn't understand. He then pointed at my foot where a leech was rapidly climbing my boot toward my exposed shin. I'd like to say that I calmly reached down and flicked it off but what really followed was a manic flinging about of limbs combined with a keening high pitched plea for assistance that went something like "Get them off! Get them off! Get them OFF!" (I've been told I'm very articulate.)

Either Matt or our guide was finally able to get me to stop moving long enough so they could remove the leech at which point Matt thought it would be a good idea to show me how inoffensive the little creature was. He held his finger about 3 or 4 cm from it to illustrate how it moves like an inchworm and senses heat; in less than a second the thing had flown across the space and attached itself to his finger. It took quite a bit to dislodge it. As you can imagine, that went a long way toward reassuring me.

So after I sprinted - ahem, made my way - through the forest, we decided to stick to the train tracks and eschew the forest shortcuts for the rest of the day.

The next day we followed the tracks to Rawana Falls before hopping a train to our next destination. Originally the plan was to stay another day but we decided to cut our visit to Ella short, overwhelmed by the humidity. The cloud forest is so damp it is impossible to keep anything dry for long. Everything in our knapsacks was soaked within hours of our arrival and my laptop buzzed weirdly the whole time we were there. Even the beds are wet as the sheets, pillows and mattresses suck up the water in the air. After talking with some other tourists we learned this is the norm but it did not make for a very comfortable sleep.


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24th December 2013

Reliving Sri Lanka
Hi Guys, your blog is becoming my weekly highlight and I share with Caroline. We are reliving and enjoying some of the same views and experiences you are sharing. What a lovely blog. Enjoy Christmas and have a lot of fun. Have you tried Buffalo curd and honey?
27th December 2013

You were right
Hi Joe and Caroline, We're having a blast here and you certainly were right, the people are lovely. We LOVE buffalo curd and honey and have it most days for lunch with fruit. So delicious. We just extended our Visa yesterday for two more months and after a brief rest in the south, which is our home base for now, hope to visit many other places. Hope you two had a wonderful and restful holiday. xo Roberta & Matt

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