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Published: September 13th 2017
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View from our room
This is the train we arrived on going over a bridge near Ella rock. All day long this bridge has people walking on it who only leave when a train arrives. One of the attractions of Ella is Little Adams Peak. Adams Peak (the real one) is famous throughout Sri Lanka both as a holy site for pilgrims and also a hike for tourists to watch the sunrise. Well Little Adams Peak (LAP) is a lot shorter but great views from the top at sunrise.
So why am I telling you this, well, to prove he doesn't need me to get lost, Chris set off to walk it this morning. He did this believing I'd run it as I was planning to do, unaware I'd decided a sleep in was order of the day. Just before breakfast he arrived back, hot and tired. Seems he had missed the turn off and carried on along the main road towards Colombo. Luckily a caring tuk tuk driver stopped and corrected the navigational error and offered to take Chris back to the correct road/track. So after a long detour but undeterred, like a true trooper, Chris made his way to the top and was able to report back that the views were superb.
Thanks to that one tuk tuk driver we were all together for breakfast. Now one of the problems I've unearthed
here is the custom of asking what you want for breakfast late afternoon before you have had dinner. At that time of day Sri Lankan breakfast has some attraction. This option consists of hoppers (closest thing I can think of is if you made coasters out of ready noodles and you get about a dozen on a plate), vegetable curry, sambal (consisting grated coconut, chillies, onion, and garlic) and dahl curry. All sounds great at 4pm but after curry for dinner the night before it is a less than appealing option. Anyway I failed the common sense test and while the others all had eggs, toast, fruit etc I had curry!
Donna decided to have a partial lay day as part of the flu recovery programme so her and McVet stayed at guest house for the morning while Marie and I wandered into town.
Town quite nice, one of those ubiquitous Asian places popular with backpackers and independent travellers. A few bars trying to be western, local restaurants, the odd craft and tea shop and some local stalls etc. all well covered in a fine layer of dust and grime. Actually rather endearing and very relaxed. A good
My new profile picture?
Some of you will be aware I've had an old Nepalese guy as a profile picture for a while now, thinking a change might be good. place to get a seat and have a coffee/coke and watch the world go by.
Back to guest house and Chris and I decide to have a walk out to the Nines Arches Bridge which is out of town and on the railway line. Looked to be about 3km the far side of the town.
Off we go full of gusto and enthusiasm, we should have realised our navigational track record has not been good to date and this time was no different. With, what transpired to be ill conceived, confidence we followed various tracks and paths until it all ended in a lady's yard outside her little thatch hut. To our credit you could see the bridge from here but it was a long ways below us, so we were close. Seeing our confusion this lady jumped up and led us down various tracks until we got to lookout above the bridge and hence were back on the tourist trail. Unfortunately while we were stumbling around high above the bridge a train went across so we didn't get to experience that, although we did hear it!
At the bridge other tourists (the wimpy ones with guides
that is) proceeded to tell us, almost gleefully, how we had missed the train and the next one was one and a half hours away!
Cutting our losses we decided to tuk tuk back to town and celebrate our having not got permanently lost with a beer on the deck of a bar overlooking the main street.
Back at guest house, the man was keen to get breakfast orders in and for some unknown reason Sri Lankan curry seemed a good option to me (might have been the second beer speaking?!). Go figure, I think it was Einstein who said the definition of stupidity was doing the same thing again and again and expecting a different result. Describes my breakfast selection strategy perfectly!
Dinner in the town, Sri Lankan curry (again)!
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